Sewing American Girl Doll Clothes Is My New Mid-Life Crisis Hobby

One Facebook Story of my little niece holding her brand-new American Girl doll later, and my summer fate is sealed!

The art of sewing doll clothes is fairly new to me, but I always like to learn new things. And once upon a time I would also have told you that the sewing of tiny garments full of fussy, precise details did not appeal to me, but tbh I think that I, myself, am growing fussier as I age, because I kind of don't mind it now. So many precise 1/4" seams! So much tidy edge stitching! Such fussy cutting of novelty prints! I used to hurry through all my sewing to get to the finish as quickly as possible, more than ready to move on to the next exciting thing, but lately I've been pretty into the process, taking my time and focusing on the details and whiling away whole evenings puttering through a project while listening to endless audiobooks.

I just finished Endgame, which was a biography of Bobby Fisher, and now I'm ready for The Long Game, the last book in my hockey smut series!

There are several books of patterns for 18" dolls that I want to sew my way through, and first up is Doll Couture, a book that I actually own but never found the time to dive into when my own little American Girl doll enthusiasts were the right ages to have appreciated my work. Good thing I've got a new audience now!

This simple dress, a sleeveless bodice with a gathered skirt, is my first project:

Highly recommend owning an entire roll of tracing paper--it's so handy!

The instructions in this book are shockingly difficult to parse--they literally didn't tell me that the dress is supposed to come together like this--

--so at every stage I kept trying to sew the skirt into a circle, or stitch the bodice back closed, and once I thought I'd finally figured out what the step I was looking at said to do and ended up sewing the bodice shut at the bottom(?!?), but eventually my very own little Goodwill American Girl doll modeled a well-fitting dress for me:

I literally found her at Goodwill for eight dollars! I LOVE her! I think she's going to be my own personal version of the porch goose, and she's going to have SO many handmade outfits for all seasons and holidays. I need to fix her hair, though, so please send me all your best tips for untangling American Girl doll hair.

And then I sewed another!

I do really like all the tidy details involved, all the edge stitching and stitching down my seams and how nice everything looks when freshly ironed.

Oops, gotta trim that thread!

I experimented with a puffier skirt for the Halloween dress, and I find it much improved.

I really like how well-proportioned small-scale novelty prints look in an 18" doll's garment, and my plan is to use up as many of my novelty prints as possible sewing my niece a wardrobe of doll clothes for her birthday.

I've also been working hard to upgrade my photo set-up:

That's two softboxes plus a giant flexible vinyl panel from Menards that I clamp to my tabletop and sort of slither up the wall to make a seamless backdrop. Vinyl is such a bummer, but I love how it looks.

Now that I've finally cracked what the instructions wanted me to do, this dress is the simplest thing in the world to sew, and it turns out so cute every time. I even upgraded some bits, like fully lining the skirt and finishing the side seams, so mental note to make physical notes so I don't forget!

I considered appliqueing one of the gingerbreads from the skirt fabric onto the bodice, but I thought that it might look too baby-ish to the sophisticated eyes of its future six-year-old recipient. I kind of wish I'd done it anyway, though, because surely one can't have too many gingerbreads on one's outfit!

I had to make myself stop at two dresses for my niece's doll, though, because I have a lot of different patterns that I want to try. But it's surely not too late to sew just a couple of dresses for my own girls' childhood American Girl dolls, so carefully put away in the top of my closet (until I got them out to serve as extra fashion models for these photo shoots, ahem...). 

And of course my own little American Girl doll will need some outfits to wear when she's not helping me out with her fit checks of the garments I'm sewing!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, encounters with Chainsaw Helicopters, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

How to Embroider A Pair of Converse For David Bowie's Biggest Fan

I originally published this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

Yep, you can embroider your favorite pair of Converse to create totally custom shoes!

Y’all, this might be the coolest project I’ve ever taken on. This birthday present for my kid who’s David Bowie’s biggest fan and only ever wears black-on-black Converse on her feet may have destroyed all sensation in my right index fingertip (mental note: thimbles put the “fun” in functional fingers!), but it was worth it for how great these shoes turned out.

The process is long and tedious–and awful on your fingers if you don’t wear a thimble!–but it’s also very easy, absolutely suitable for a beginner sewist. Here’s how you can make your own custom pair of Converse!

Materials

To embroider Converse, you will need the following supplies:

• canvas shoes. The canvas material is the important part here, so any canvas shoe will do. I embroidered on a pair of monochrome black Converse high-tops, but I’m also kind of eyeing the grey ones for myself.
• self-adhesive water-soluble embroidery paper. This is often referred to as “stick n’ stitch” paper, because you can stick it down to a surface just like a sticker, and then embroider directly on top of it. When you’re finished, the paper rinses away with water. You can usually print on this paper with an inkjet printer, as well, which is so great for transferring more detailed designs. If you don’t have an inkjet printer but want to make a more elaborate design, you can use regular printer paper instead, but you will have to pick all the bits of paper out of your stitching afterwards, which is a pain.
• embroidery floss and needle. Two strands of embroidery floss is perfect here. Use the sharpest hand-sewing needle you can get, and don’t forget a thimble!

Step 1: Place the template onto the shoe.

This step would have been easier for me if I owned an inkjet printer. For the lightning bolt design, I cut the overall design out of the adhesive paper, then drew on the color blocking details in pen. I tried a few methods for getting the “Rebel Rebel” cross-stitch design onto the Converse, including trying to draw a grid onto the adhesive paper (so time-consuming!) and trying to use the perforations in the adhesive paper as my stitching template (my poor myopic eyes!), but ultimately I just stuck the printer paper with the design printed onto it directly onto the Converse. It doesn’t have to be perfect as long as it gets done!

Step 2: Embroider Converse according to the pattern.

I used a running stitch, backstitch, cross stitch, and satin stitch for this project, with the backstitch being the most useful for the lightning bolt, and the cross stitch the only stitch I used for the “Rebel Rebel.” For the lightning bolt, I outlined each part in the color I wanted it to be using a backstitch. I used a satin stitch to fill the narrow blue and black color blocks, and more back stitching to fill the red lightning bolt.

I would not recommend a satin stitch for the lightning bolt, because the thread has to cover too much area. It’ll sag over time and be very vulnerable to breakage.

Below, you can see how I cross-stitched the “Rebel Rebel” design directly onto the printer paper pattern. I didn’t end up needing the adhesive paper that I’d already placed there, but it doesn’t add bulk to stitch through and it rinses away easily, so I left it:

Step 3: Remove the pattern paper.

To remove the water-soluble adhesive paper, just rinse the canvas under the faucet for a few minutes and it will come away. To remove the printer paper template, first tear away as much as you can, then soak the canvas until the paper is thoroughly waterlogged. That makes it easier to pick away the remaining paper bits under your stitching using tweezers. It will be a LOT easier to do if your pattern isn’t entirely cross-stitch, ugh!

Optionally, you can cover the back of your embroidery with fusible interfacing designed for exactly that, but I decided to leave the back of my stitching as-is. I didn’t put any knots into the floss, instead hiding the ends well inside the layers of canvas and padding, so it shouldn’t be uncomfortable, and I don’t *think* friction will be an issue, either. But the kid comes home from college for the summer in just a couple of weeks, so if it looks like the embroidery floss is becoming worn on the inside, I can always place interfacing down before it becomes a problem. If it happens, I’ll let you know!

David Bowie’s biggest fan LOVES her new kicks, so much so that the beloved bookshelf quilt is now in second place in the category of Favorite Gifts Made By Mom. Meanwhile, I’m thinking that I might like to embroider a Starry Night scene, or a trilobyte, or maybe Stonehenge on my very own pair of Converse!

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!

How to Sew a Key Fob

I originally published this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

A key fob is a quick and easy stashbusting project that will come in super handy!

If you know someone who’s required to keep an ID and/or a key accessible at all times–a college student, say–then you know that it can actually be quite annoying. Nobody really wants to hang a lanyard around their neck every day of their lives, nor do they want to always be digging through their bag every time they have to swipe into a building or unlock their dorm room door or use their meal plan.

A key fob is a great solution for anyone who needs just a couple of things handy. It fits happily on one’s wrist when needed for ready access, and makes your stuff a LOT easier to find in a backpack or tote bag. And although you do have to purchase the hardware, the rest of it is simple to sew from scraps, making the key fob a great solution for the enthusiastically scrapbusting crafter, too!

Here’s how to make your own quick and easy and super handy key fob!

Materials

To sew a key fob, you will need:

• 4″x12″ piece of fabric. I like quilting cotton or similar for this. But if you used something heavy like denim, you might be able to get away with omitting the interfacing!
• 4″x12″ piece of interfacing. I really like Pellon 809 Decor-Bond for this project, although you could go a step up or down in weight and your key fob would still turn out nice. Because this is a stashbusting project, though, don’t despair if you don’t have any suitable interfacing! Dig through your fabric stash and look for anything on the stiffer side, like pre-washed Eco-fi felt or PUL, or even double up on thin interfacing.
• super glue. Use E6000, Gorilla Glue, or something similar. For some reason I have the WORST time keeping super glue nice in between uses, so I always try to buy the smallest package possible.
• 1″ key fob hardware. If you don’t want to spring for the special pliers, don’t think that you can just use your regular pliers–the grooves on conventional hardware pliers will scratch the snot out of your key fob hardware. Ask me how I know, ahem! If you do want to use regular pliers, pad both sides of the key fob hardware super well by putting a popsicle stick or scrap of denim fabric between the pliers and the hardware.

Step 1: Cut your fabric and interfacing to size.

As you can see in the image above, these key fobs are so quick and easy to sew that you might as well make multiples!

As for scraps, for this project I’m using a scrap that once belonged to a button-down shirt, a scrap that once belonged to a tablecloth, and a bit of stash.

Cut the fabric and the interfacing to 4″x12″.

Step 2: Iron the interfacing to the back of the fabric.

Hmm, I don’t know if my cuts are looking perfectly precise there. That plaid, especially, was a little more loosely-woven than I really wanted, but it was exactly the right colorway. Oh, well–the folding will fix it!

Step 3: Fold the fabric into quarters, lengthwise.

The easiest way to do this is to first fold the fabric in half, lengthwise, and iron well to crease it. Then fold each side in to meet the middle crease, and again iron to crease it.

The key fob is going to feel very thick at this point, and won’t want to hold all those creases, so clip it well.

Step 4: Edge-stitch around all sides.

Can y’all see the mistake that I made on all three of these key fobs?

ARGH!

I edge-stitched around all the raw edges of my key fob, but for some reason–forgetfulness? Distracted by an exciting part in my Fourth Wing audiobook?–I neglected to stitch down that fourth side, the folded side.

I’m so irritated at myself, but these key fobs are finished and gone to their college student recipients by now, and the good news is that there’s no way on earth that any of those teenagers are going to notice the absence of that one stitch line that they didn’t even know was supposed to be there. I fear that over time that fold will lose its crispness, though, especially at the middle where it will rub against the wearer’s wrist.

Ugh, this mistake will haunt me until the day I die.

Don’t be like me–edge-stitch ALL THE WAY AROUND your key fob! Depending on your machine, you may have to increase your needle size or stitch length to handle the bulk, but it should nevertheless be sewable for any home machine.

Step 5: Attach the key fob hardware.

The very first time I made key fobs, I excitedly put them in one of my kid's college care packages to give away to her friends, and over the proceeding semester, I was MORTIFIED to hear from them that one by one, their key fobs had fallen apart! College students are hard on their stuff, and the prongs simply could not hold the weight long-term.

Another failure to take to my grave!

I’ve seen a suggestion to use a seam ripper to poke little holes in the fabric that let the prongs dig in deeper, but just between us, I’ve had no more problems with my key fobs detaching after I started gluing the dang things.

So, fold the key fob fabric in half so that the short edges are together. I stitch them together because now I am the most paranoid key fob crafter, but tbh you probably don’t need to.

Run a thin line of super glue along the short edge. YOUR key fobs won’t be going anywhere!

Follow the directions on the key fob hardware to attach it. Usually, this will require you to set the fabric edges together inside the hardware, then use pliers (don’t forget to pad them if they’ve got grooves!) to clamp the hardware around the edges. Pay attention that the prongs are piercing the fabric, not just folding against it–I’ve found that tugging on the fabric as I clamp it helps with this–and that the hardware is lined up well with the fabric. With 1″ hardware and fabric folded down to 1″ wide, it should be a perfect fit!

Set the key fobs aside for the super glue to cure, then they’re ready to use.

Y’all, tell me honestly: in the above image, the missing edge-stitching is all you can see, isn’t it?!?

ARGH!!!

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!

Here's How To Embellish a Hoodie with Fabric Applique

I originally published this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

Fabric applique is a popular way to embellish sweatshirts and hoodies. Here’s how to do it!

One of my favorite things about sending a kid off to college is adopting their roommates into my circle of people whom I sew for. I love to sew, but I do not personally need an infinite, always-replenishing supply of sewn goods, so it’s a win-win!

Or, in the case of my kid and her two roommates, each of whom I embellished a hoodie with their school’s name in their class colors, a win-win-win-win!

Embellishing a hoodie or sweatshirt with fabric applique can be a fussy project, requiring careful cutting and precise stitching, but otherwise it’s beginner-friendly. If you can sew a straight stitch and a zigzag and you’re feeling especially patient, you can do this!

Here’s how:

Materials

To embellish a hoodie with a fabric applique, you will need:

• sweatshirt or hoodie. Use one you already own, or do what I did and scour your favorite thrift shop over the course of a few weeks until the perfect hoodie reveals itself to you.
• fabric scraps. This is a terrific scrapbusting project, so don’t be afraid to use even your smallest bits.
• lightweight double-sided fusible interfacing. Pellon and Heat n Bond both make essentially identical versions of this.
• design tools. For designing and sizing the letters, you could use stencils or go digital with something like Canva, Photoshop, or Cricut Design Space.
• cutting tools. You’ll need scissors to cut by hand or you can use a cutting tool like Cricut or Sizzix.

Step 1: Design the applique.

I knew what design I wanted for these hoodies, but I wasn’t sure about sizing, so I went old-school and cut out paper templates of the largest features of my design, then placed and arranged them and adjusted them on the hoodies until I found a size and placement that I liked. For this project, the fabric squares that the individual letters will be appliqued to will each be 3″.

After you’ve got your sizing, you can figure out and create templates for your specific fabric applique design. I created mine in Cricut Design Space, picking the font I wanted and then fiddling with each individual letter until it was the exact size I wanted it to be. But you could also do this by hand using paper templates, or by working with a stencil set. There are so many design options!

Step 2: Cut the fabric applique pieces.

I put my Cricut to work for me again on this step, although you could also cut your fabric applique pieces by hand or use a die-cutter.

Whatever method you use, cut one of each fabric applique piece that you’ll need, and cut one of each piece out of lightweight double-sided fusible interfacing, as well. If you cut interfacing with the Cricut, you’ll want to tape it to the mat at the corners, because it doesn’t like to stick to the mat.

If you’re doing something with a lot of prints and fabric combinations, like my applique letters on an applique background, mock up your appliques after you’ve cut them out but before you iron and sew them, just to make sure that everything is the way you like it. I feel like I should have separated the letters by color better on my own project, but I ultimately decided that I didn’t care enough to cut out new letters, lol. But at least by doing a mock-up I had the option!

Step 3: Fuse and stitch any applique pieces together.

My particular project requires that I applique letters to square backgrounds, then applique those squares to the hoodies.

The first step, then, is to get those letters onto their backgrounds! If you, as well, have applique pieces that overlap, do as much of that as possible before you applique them onto your hoodie.

For my project, I ironed each letter to its square, with the interfacing piece I’d cut to match sandwiched in the middle, then I edge-stitched around all raw edges. A zigzag is by far the best stitch to use when attaching fabric applique pieces, but zigzag gets tricky as the applique pieces get smaller, so ultimately I decided to go with just a straight stitch for this project. It will absolutely result in the odd loose thread from those raw edges, but I think that’s an acceptable look for this particular project.

Step 4: Fuse and stitch the applique to the hoodie.

Take all the time you need to place the appliques onto the hoodie exactly where you want them. For me, this meant placing my appliques, then literally leaving it all sitting there until my partner, who’s a graphic designer, could get home from work and double-check them. When it was his turn, he even got out the tape measure to make sure everything was centered and perfect!

When you’re confident that your appliques are perfectly situated, iron them to the hoodie. I was happily ironing away, listening to a podcast, when I suddenly stopped in confusion, stymied about why on earth my appliques weren’t fusing to the hoodie. Was the thrifted hoodie made of some weird fabric that wouldn’t let the fusible interfacing adhere? Yeah, no… I’d actually just forgotten to put the fusible interfacing pieces between the applique and the hoodie.

So don’t forget to do that!

When everything is perfect, stitch these larger appliques to the hoodie exactly the way you stitched any smaller pieces. These 3″ squares would have done great with a zigzag stitch, but I decided it would match better if I used the same straight stitch I’d used on the smaller pieces. I also purposely used thread that wouldn’t blend in with most of the pieces, to highlight the patchwork look.

The finished hoodies turned out just the way I wanted! I love the patchwork look, and my child’s class color represented in a variety of prints. The kid and her buddies had matching, personalized merch to keep them warm on campus this autumn, and in the Spring semester, a younger student joined the friend group, so I got to make another appliqued hoodie in red!

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!

How To Make a Giant Graphic Pillowcase With An Envelope Back

 

I originally published this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

Let's say you need a pillowcase. You need it to be organic, because a loved one is going to be mushing her face into it for eight hours every night.

You need it to be soft, because you want your loved one to be comfy so that she gets that whole eight hours.

Oh, and you need it to be awesome, because your loved one is pretty stinkin' awesome.

Using the organic natural flannel given to me by Organic Cotton Plus, I sewed a custom-sized pillowcase with an envelope back for my stinkin' awesome kid. This type of pillowcase works with a pillow of any size, and I'm going to walk you through how to make it.

Once I finished sewing the pillow, my family came together to create the graphic for it. Painting a custom graphic onto blank fabric is pretty easy, and the kids can help! Here's how to do the whole project, step by step:

1. Measure your pillow, and do the math. Your pillowcase will have a French seam on two sides, and an envelope closure with an overlap of 6" in the middle.

First, measure the width of your pillow, and add 1.5" to this measurement for the French seams (each of my French seams is .75"; if your French seams are different, do the math accordingly), and 2" for ease (this is my daughter's pillow, so the pillowcase is a little roomy to make it easier for her to change her linens independently; if you prefer a snugger-fitting pillowcase, allow for less ease).

Now, measure the length of your pillow. Double this measurement, then add 2" for ease, then add 6" for the envelope overlap. If you use 60" natural organic flannel or 110" natural organic flannel, do not include any extra hem allowance to this measurement. You will use the selvage for the inner edge of the envelope, and homemade flannel bias (I'll tell you about this in a minute) for the outer edge of the envelope.

Cut your organic flannel to this measurement.

2. Make and sew the flannel bias trim. Make homemade bias tape that is 4" wide using your favorite flannel print, and use it to trim the cut short side of the organic flannel.

3. Assemble your pillowcase and pin. The beauty of French seams is that you can put together your pillowcase the right way out, so that you can get it just right.

Center your fabric on your cutting table with the right side down, then fold the selvage edge down and over so that it comes 3" past the center. Fold the bias edge down and over so that it also comes 3" past the center going the other way.

Does it look right? Sure, it does! Pin both sides well.

4. Sew both sides using French seams. To make a French seam, I first sew my seam, right sides, out, with a 1/4" seam. I then trim that seam to 1/8", turn it inside out, and iron it (some people iron the seam to one side before turning--I iron after). I sew the seam again, now that the wrong sides are out, with a 1/2" seam, enclosing the raw edge of the first seam.

To do this with the pillow, sew the first seam on both sides, then trim both sides, then turn inside out, iron both sides, and sew the second seam on both sides.

5. Embellish the pillowcase. To freehand a drawing on the natural flannel, first use pencil, which will show up against the cream-colored fabric. I had my partner use this method to draw our kiddo's name and a dragon on the finished pillowcase.

Next, I put cardboard inside the pillowcase to keep any paint from bleeding through and traced the pencil using Jacquard Neopaque fabric paint and a small paintbrush, and I let it dry.

When the paint was dry, I gave my kids Tee Juice markers and let them treat the drawing like a giant coloring page. The Tee Juice markers won't make the fabric stiff like kid-applied Jacquard Neopaque fabric paint will, so it's a better choice for a pillowcase.

After letting the paint dry, I ironed it to heat set it according to the package directions.

My kiddo LOVES her dragon pillow. The flannel is soft and comfy, it's organic so it's safe for little faces (if you're concerned about the fabric paint, just have your kiddo turn her pillow to the blank side for sleeping), and it makes an EXCELLENT canvas for painting beloved imaginary creatures.

Next up? Well, a dragon pillow obviously needs a castle pillow to attack, right? And a knight pillow to save the castle! And a unicorn pillow for the knight to ride!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, encounters with Chainsaw Helicopters, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Organic Cotton Plus gave me the organic natural flannel for this project, because I can't write about flannel if I haven't let my kids mush their faces into it and tell me if it's comfy!