I Found These Super Cute American Girl Doll Storage Containers, and I Am Definitely About To Have a Mid-Life Crisis

Because the best way to spend a rainy, gloomy afternoon is sitting on the floor all by myself playing with organizing the kids' old toys!

A few weeks ago, I had a little time to kill after dropping my kid off at college and before starting on the 4-hour hike home, so I decided to stop in Columbus, Ohio, and do some shopping in the Big City.

I mean, not like Nordstrom/Macy's/Sephora shopping. I mean World Market/Container Store/LEGO Store shopping!

In the Container Store I found these super cute American Girl doll-sized latching plastic containers, and they are the perfect size to store all the little sets of American Girl doll accessories. Look at all those tiny baking and picnic supplies, all organized in their adorable wee bins!

I didn't buy enough to hold all of the millions of miscellaneous accessories that my younger kid, especially, has for her American Girl doll, but here are similar mini containers on Amazon that you can buy in bulk, so I might stock up.

Of course, I'm the only one who's touched the kids' American Girl dolls in years, and then it's only been to lovingly wash all their little clothes and wipe the dust off their little faces and brush out their hair and gently nestle them into the bigger storage bins that I selected and bought for them. That was... rough, honestly. Transforming the kids' old playroom into the teenager's bedroom required that I once and for all put away a lot of their childish things, and doing that whole remodel right after sending my older kid away to college was probably not the best timing for me, emotionally.

Like, yay for the kids being ready and happy for all the growing up that they're doing, but I was pretty happy reading books and baking cakes and stomping in the creek with my four- and six-year-olds, thank you very much. I'm not entirely sure what I'm meant to do after this younger kid leaves for college really soon. Get a full-time job, sure. Do some DIY projects around the house. Learn to crochet. But, like... what am I MEANT to do? 

With these kids, I always knew exactly what I was meant to be doing. Raise them. Make play dough for them. Take them on adventures. Cook themed family dinners. Buy them matching pink Converse and purple Dr. Martens and spiky orange backpacks. Take them on picnics. Get them a cat. Get them a dog. Send them to summer camp. Coo over their art projects. Raising these kids has literally been my life's purpose for nearly twenty years. 

Those backpacks, though!!!

And now what? I just... semi-retire? I send them care packages and text messages and letters, take them on summer vacations and fuss over them during winter breaks? And what about the other 23.5 hours in the day? I'm simply... doing whatever? What else is even meaningful TO do?!?

Y'all, I'm pretty sure I am ramping up for the BIGGEST MID-LIFE CRISIS THAT EVER CRISISED. Like the most slowest-motion car wreck ever, I can see it coming, but I do not have a clue how to stop it. So, start popping the popcorn, I guess, because I feel like things may get wild around here in a few months...

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

My Latest over at Pumpkin+Bear: The Cutest Custom-Color Doll Masks

Even after I stopped selling real-person fabric masks in my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop (I switched the kids and I over to these, and Matt prefers this style in whatever brand is cheapest), I keep making and selling doll masks, because:

1. People still want to buy them from me, and I do enjoy exchanging my goods and services for currency.
2. Even though I think a lot of people have also switched to high-quality manufactured masks, if you want a mask for your doll, you're still going to need someone to make it for you by hand. 
3. They're ADORABLE.

Number 3, of course, is the most important reason. 

Here's a cute matching set that I made a few weeks ago:

And here's my latest order of custom-color doll masks! My favorite part of making these masks is seeing what color combinations people choose. This particular customer, for instance, chose these fabrics--

--along with these ties:

And when I sewed them together in the requested combinations, I got these adorable doll masks!

That watermelon mask is the cutest mask that currently exists in the world. 

And here's how I package my masks to go out and about into that world!

If you are a sewer, yourself, I do have the entire doll mask tutorial for free on my blog. It's the responsibility of all of us to keep our dolls healthy!

I've gotten out of the habit of sewing matching items for my own kids' American Girl dolls, since I'm the only one who plays with them these days (ahem), but I'm pretty sure that I DO need to make another couple of watermelon doll masks.

And obviously, if I'm going to make watermelon doll masks, I clearly have to make both dolls entire watermelon outfits to match!

How to Sew a Nine-Patch Quilt for an American Girl Doll

I originally published this tutorial on Crafting a Green World.

A nine-patch quilt is the easiest type of quilt to sew, although I might be biased since as a child I first learned how to sew by back-stitching, under my grandmother's supervision, nine-patch quilt blocks of my very own.

A nine-patch quilt block is made from nine pieces in two different fabrics. The pieces are all square and are sewn together in alternating fabrics in three rows of three. This pattern works well with both a dedicated color scheme and layout or a seemingly random mishmash of color and contrast, which is another reason why it's such a favorite with sewers of all ages and levels--and their recipients!

Just as the nine-patch quilt is the easiest type of quilt to sew, I find a doll quilt to be the easiest size of quilt to make. There's nothing like a tiny quilt to give one instant gratification! An American Girl doll quilt, in particular, is a great size to start with--at just 12" x 18", you can make the whole thing in a single afternoon.

Here's what you'll need!

Supplies

• Fabric and cutting supplies
• Sewing machine and matching thread
• Double-fold bias tape
• 12" x 18" fleece piece

Directions

1. Measure and cut the fabric pieces

The most important thing that you can do to make a beautiful quilt is to cut the pieces completely accurately. Each piece in this quilt is a perfect square, 2.5" x 2.5". Each nine-patch quilt block uses two different fabrics and a total of nine pieces--four of one fabric and five of the other. You will need six total nine-patch quilt blocks for this quilt.

The nine-patch quilt lends itself to an easy hack if you'd like to make two at a time--for two children, say, or two dolls. All you have to do is cut nine of each fabric piece, and then you'll easily have two complementary, but NOT identical, nine-patch quilt blocks in the making:

2. Piece each nine-patch quilt block

Have your iron at hand, because you always want to iron every seam flat. To sew a complete nine-patch quilt block, first sew the three separate rows of three pieces--

--ironing each seam flat as you go, and then sew the three rows together to complete the block:

Repeat for each additional nine-patch quilt block until you have six completed blocks.

3. Piece the quilt

Arrange and rearrange all of the nine-patch quilt blocks until you're happy with the look of the quilt as a whole.

Use exactly the same method to piece the full quilt as you did to piece the individual blocks. First piece the quilt blocks together into rows, then piece the rows together until the quilt is complete.

4. Back the quilt with fleece

Because this is a doll quilt you get to skip some of the more fiddly steps involved in making a full-sized quilt. You don't have to sandwich batting between the front and back of your quilt, unless you really, really, really want to, and you won't actually have to quilt or tie this quilt--unless you really, really, really want to!

A neat trick to give a doll quilt a thicker, fluffier feel without bothering with batting is to back it with fleece, instead. If you simply must have three layers to your quilt, you can always use a double layer of fleece, but I promise that the quilt top plus one layer of fleece gives this doll quilt an authentic heft and feel.

5. Bind the quilt

Binding a full-sized quilt can also be time-consuming, so you're lucking out again with this doll-sized quilt. I use a lot of different methods to bind quilts (one of my all-time favorites is back-to-front blanket binding), but my go-to method for a quick-and-easy doll quilt is to use double-fold bias tape. Bias tape can be store-bought (although you should look for bias tape made from natural fabrics, not polyester--blech!) or handmade nearly as easily, and 10mm double-fold bias tape is absolutely perfect for this project.

Your completed nine-patch quilt is the perfect size and scale for an American Girl doll to snuggle up under. Size up the quilt blocks to 4.5" to make a matching quilt for that doll's favorite person, or size the blocks down to 1.5" to make a Barbie doll-sized quilt.

P.S. Want to know more about our adventures in learning, and the resources that we use to accomplish them? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!

How to Sew an American Girl Doll Face Mask with Ties

My kids don't even play with their American Girl dolls anymore, and I don't even care--I'm still sewing them matching outfits and adding cute DIY accessories to my dollmaking Pinboard.

It's not a non-possibility that when both kids move out one day I'll turn their bedroom into an American Girl doll world and set up a bunch of little handmade scenes that the dolls can prance through wearing their handmade clothing and accessories.

Just... come find me there sometimes and bring me snacks, okay?

Anyway, for obvious reasons I deeply needed to make the kids' American Girl dolls face masks that match the kids' own face masks that I made them. It took some fiddling to get those tiny pleats just right, but I'm super happy with the pattern now, so much so that I've also been selling American Girl doll masks in custom colors in my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop, and I'm going to show YOU how to make them, too!

Here's what you need to make your own fabric face mask for an American Girl doll:

• fabric. Unlike with my human face masks, it does not matter what kind of fabric you use for these face masks, because your doll doesn't care whether or not the fabric touching its doll skin is 100% natural. The important things are that the fabric is thin enough to pleat and can be ironed on hot. I HIGHLY recommend using up your fabric scraps for this project!
• bias tape. I use a poly-cotton blend 1/4" bias tape for my human masks, and the great thing about it is that it also works perfectly for these doll masks. I wouldn't go any wider than this on the bias tape, because you want it to look proportional to the doll. 
• matching needle and thread. I like a universal needle for sewing the mask fabric, and a jeans needle for sewing the bias tape.
• iron
• measuring and cutting supplies

1. Cut the fabric and bias tape to size. Cut two pieces of your fabric to 3.5"x3". Cut two pieces of bias tape 21" long. I really like this photo that shows all the cut fabric sizes for adult, big kid, little kid, and doll masks. The doll mask fabric is the tiny one at the bottom!

2. Sew the fabric. Put the two pieces of fabric right sides together, then sew down both 3.5" lengths with a 1/4" seam:

Turn it right side out and iron the seams to press them flat:

3. Pleat the mask. Because your piece is now approximately 2.5"x3.5", the pleats are a little fiddly to make. First, measure and mark a chalk line approximately 1/4" from the bottom of the fabric. Crease the fabric again a little more than 1/2" above that mark and fold the crease down to that mark. You'll make two more pleats above the first one, each a little more than 1/2" from the top of one pleat to the fold of the next. For your last pleat, take care to make sure that the fabric above the fold visually matches the width of the fabric below the bottom pleat, even if it means that the top pleat is a little uneven. 

Baste the pleats in place.

4. Attach the ties. Fold each piece of bias tape in half and iron the fold to crease it, marking the center. 

Center the bias tape on the middle pleat of the mask, then pin it well, encasing the raw edges of the side seams in the bias tape:

Sew down the entire length of the bias tape, sewing it shut and sewing it to the fabric mask.

Here's what the masks looks like when worn by my kiddos' American Girl dolls:

They're not too hard to tie onto the dolls--

--and I think the proportions look just right!

Want to make a human-sized face mask to match the doll masks? Here's how to make a fabric face mask for an adult, and here's how to make a fabric face mask in two children's sizes.

Or I can make them for you! Here's my listing for fabric face masks in the colors that YOU choose, in adult size or two children's sizes. And here's my listing for doll face masks in the colors that you choose!

Whether you're a human or an American Girl doll, please stay safe!

New for Summer on Pumpkin+Bear: Doll Candles, and Face Masks for Everyone (Including Dolls!)

The only thing that hurts my pandemic-sore heart more than seeing a child's doll in a face mask is seeing that child, herself, in one:

But if they've got to wear them, they're going to be as sturdy and well-sewn as I can make them, and as close to as exactly what the children want as I can manage.

I don't know if I've ever spent that much time getting a pattern absolutely, exactly right. It's an improvement even over the elastic face masks that I was also super happy with, until the elastic started bothering my ears and I decided that the side seams needed more of a finished look.

As usual, bias tape to the rescue! These face masks with bias tape ties aren't quite as grab-and-go as the elastic ones, but even so, tying the ties only takes a few seconds, and these masks are much more forgiving in fit. Syd, for instance, had to have my original elastic band mask adjusted to fit her, but she can easily wear these bias tape face masks in both the Big Kid size, which is that hot pink mask she's modeling in these photos, and the Adult size, which is what I actually sewed for her.

Black on black, of course.

And here's her doll's mask to match, now listed in my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop, where you can choose to have me make your doll a face mask in your favorite colors, too!

Will is, in fact, modeling her own mask, sewn in the exact colors she requested, and here's HER doll's matching mask:

Sisters!

It can be tricky to make proportions look correct in doll sizes, so I'm pleased that the bias tape that I'm using looks good with both human and doll masks--

--and since I'm working only in solid colors, not patterns, I don't have to worry about prints looking oversized on the dolls.

Here's my assistant and costume designer at work:

And then I snookered Matt into modeling my Adult mask, grey on navy, and additionally snookered him into letting Syd gel his hair for the photos:

I sew the human face masks, also available in custom colors in my Pumpkin+Bear shop, in three sizes, to better fit all the humans I can think of. I've got Adult masks--

--Big Kid masks that I think should work for most kids ages 7-12 (and older, as you can see!)--

--and Little Kid masks that I think should fit most kids who are old enough to wear a mask through at least age seven:

My etsy listings include all of my exact measurements, though, and so whenever possible, I recommend that you measure your human first.

I'm sewing all of my masks, human and doll, as custom orders, which means that when you order you can pick the exact color of bias tape (a poly/cotton blend)--

--and exact color of mask fabric (100% cotton):

The bias tape and fabric match closely, so you can go completely monochrome if you want, but the mask is double-sided (and reversible!), and there are two sets of bias tape ties, so if you want a different color for everything, that's a totally reasonable jam and I'll make it for you.

My other new listing is completely unrelated to the pandemic--whee! I was looking through some photos of busy summers back in the Before-Times, and I found a whole photo shoot that I did with Syd while Will was at Space Camp one summer. We had a birthday party for her dolls, wherein she baked and frosted a doll-sized cake, and I made a rainbow of doll-sized candles for it:

It was magical:

Is it possible that I did not understand at the time what a precious and small fairy child I had? I can't have possibly treasured enough my time with this magical little creature. I mean, you guys. She made a TINY BIRTHDAY CAKE. FOR HER DOLLS. AND THEN SERVED IT TO THEM ON DOLL-SIZED DISHES.

I can't even.

A friend and I have this shared fantasy, in which time travel is invented, and we each go back to find ourselves on some hard day we were just about to have with two very young children. You know, one of those days that just dragged on, where the kids kept wanting books read to them and getting all their clothes dirty and you'd trek outside with them to the sandbox and then back in for a snack, get out the play dough and then read fourteen books, tromp them all to the park and then back home for some coloring, and you'd look at the clock to see if it was maybe almost time for your co-parent to get home and see that it was something like 10:00 am and sigh and make another snack.

So, we're each going to show up at our old houses on one of these mornings, and our old selves will of course recognize us, because we're US, just old, and we'll tell our young selves to take the day off, have a nap, order a pizza and eat it while reading a book, etc. And they'll go off to do that, having no problem leaving their kids with us--because, you know, it's US--and we will spend that long, tedious day absolutely treasuring the chance to be with those precious and small fairy children again. We'll read them picture books! And change their tiny little clothes! Dig with them in the sandbox! Make them a plate of cheese cubes and strawberries! It's a win-win situation, ideally to be repeated weekly.

Until time travel is invented, I guess old photographs will have to do. 

Oh, and there are rainbow doll candles now in my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop.