American Girl Doll T-Shirts Are The Most Satisfying Sewing Project

Which I guess is why I've sewn so many!

I started with the basic T-shirt pattern from All Dolled Up, by Joan Hinds, which is an absolute classic, a super versatile pattern with both short- and long-sleeved versions. It's perfectly fitted to the waist of the modern American Girl doll, so much so that you need to be very precise about where you place the back fasteners--

--and you'd likely need to alter that part of the pattern if you were sewing for a wider doll. 

But for American Girl dolls, it's perfect!

As written, the pattern works great both for jersey knit (check out what a cute T-shirt this very, very, very last scrap sock monkey fabric turned into!)--

-and for fussy cutting elements from existing T-shirts. This perfectly proportioned Hawaii graphic T-shirt--

--came from a shirt that once upon a time belonged to a small daughter!

I also liked transforming a once VERY well-loved horse print daughter's shirt--

--into one that looks just like it, but smaller:

A few of these shirts in, though, I figured out that if I altered the pattern a little bit, I could actually cut the pieces to utilize the existing hems of old T-shirts, AND I could also seam rip off and use their neck ribbing, which I think makes the shirts look very realistic, as well as being more eco-friendly:

I also realized that I only have to zigzag seams along the neck and waist, so the top-stitching looks much neater!

The vintage shirt that I cut this T-shirt from was very pilled, so I didn't give this piece to my niece. I love it, though--it reminds me of my 70s childhood!

The exact color match of the neck ribbing to the rest of the T-shirt is the main detail in making the doll T-shirt look realistic, and that's completely solved when you upcycle an old T-shirt:

I found an episode of Sewing With Nancy featuring Joan Hinds herself (!!!!!!), showing Nancy making one of these doll T-shirts with a serger:

It's interesting to me to contrast the first T-shirt I made, on the left, to one of the more recent ones:

I was also trying to upcycle an old jersey knit pillowcase, including its existing seam, for that shirt on the left, and that didn't do it any favors.

There really is real benefit it making 100 of the same thing--every 20th iteration, you figure out how to make it a little better or you get an idea of how to do it a little differently! 

I cannot emphasize strongly enough how SATISFYING these little T-shirts are to make. From fussy cutting tiny pieces to precisely top-stitching tiny seams, I swear that I spent half my summer humming happily to myself, listening to the latest Mumford & Sons album over and over and over again, and sewing doll T-shirts.

We didn't do a big summer trip this year, so I had to do something to keep myself entertained, I guess! 

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