American Girl Dress Tutorial

If you happen to be the happy owner of an American Girl doll you will agree with me that they are huge money traps.  Oh, do they know how to appeal to young girls (and mothers living vicariously through their daughters!).   However, you can spend mere dollars on cute little dresses, and save your cash for clothing purchases that actual humans will wear. ;o) I'm going to attempt a tutorial of how you can make a dress without having to purchase a pattern.

What you need:

--1/4 yard of fabric (you can use a fat quarter, but you'll have to shave a few inches off the width of the dress skirt--I've done it both ways, and it doesn't make a whole lot of difference)

--coordinating thread

--any extra trimmings/ribbons you might want to add

--velcro/snaps/your choice of fastener--but you can skip this altogether

--sewing machine, fabric scissors, pins, needle for hand-gathering, ruler

Cutting:

Spread out your 1/4 yard of fabric and measure an 8 inch by 24 inch rectangle--this will be the skirt.

Cut that out.

With the remaining fabric cut--

Those cuts will give you all the pieces you need!

Next you will cut spots on the bodice pieces where the arms will go--find a small circular item in your home.  For me I found something pefect in the play-dough container. ;o)

Cut out a little quarter circle so that your pieces look like this--

(I like to lay out my pieces--bodice and the facing--with wrong sides facing each other to make sure I cut on the correct corner of the back bodice/lining pieces)

Pin the side seams and stitch a 1/4 inch seam:

Next make the straps:

Now we can assemble the bodice:

 

Now you are going to turn what you have done right side out.  I have no picture to demonstrate the next part--if you have a doll on hand it might help you to visualize how to attach the straps to the back.  For me, I worked with what I had stitched, right side out, but then pinned the back straps to the unsewn parts INSIDE out.  In the picture you can kind of see how the strap is coming out the bottom.  Once you have this set up correctly, sew it in place.

The hardest part is now done! ;o)

On to the skirt!

If you're interested in using some sort of trimming (lace, etc) on the hem, now would be a good time to add it!

To make it look a little neater, after stitching my bodice and skirt together I used a zig zag stitch to make that gathered seam look a bit more finished.

At this point you can add whatever fastener you prefer--velcro would probably be the easiest.  However, by using a nice thick grosgraine ribbon as a sash, I skipped using a fastener all together--we just tie the dress on with the ribbon and it fits great!

And voila!  Here's Felicity in her pretty spring frock that ever so nicely brings out her green eyes. ;o)

If you've ever made any sort of girl shirt or dress before I *think* my instructions should be fairly easy to follow.  If you've never sewn before, some of the things I've said might make no sense . . . I've never attempted a tutorial before, and I must say I have a lot of respect for bloggers who do it regularly (and manage to make perfect sense!).  Whatever the case, happy sewing!