The American Girl Dolls Have Brand-New Halloween Fits

Because if you're not sewing detailed Halloween costumes for American Girl dolls, are you even a perimenopausal empty nester?

Actually... can I still say that I'm an empty nester when I have my college graduate living at home? Does it even count as living at home when she spends all her time either outside the house making pizzas for below a living wage or in her room applying to every job available for early career scientists?

And while I'm on the subject, what's with every job available for early career scientists actually requiring 1-3 years of professional experience? I get that three years is still "early" in one's career, but there really ought to be something in the world that a brand-new college graduate can do other than Americorps, which, I might add, also does not pay a living wage!

So, maybe I'm light on the empty nest these days, but I am VERY heavy on the perimenopause, as my active and palpable continuous rage informs me, and for some reason there is nothing that calms my perimenopausal rage like sewing doll clothes, so leave me alone and let me have my peace.

This American Girl doll skeleton costume is a basic long-sleeved T-shirt and full-length leggings, but before I finished each garment I appliqued onto it the skeleton bones that Mr. Craft Knife designed for me. The bones are cut with my Cricut from white jersey knit (upcycled from an old T-shirt) fused with Heat n' Bond, and I ironed the bones to the garments and then messily top-stitched them down with a free-motion quilting foot:

I took a couple of tries at this costume, and my second version was nice enough that I felt okay sending it to my niece, but I think what I really need to do is give up on my dream of fabric applique and buy some heat-transfer vinyl for the bones. 

I LOVE fabric applique, but the heat-transfer vinyl that I used for this Jack-o-lantern T-shirt made the finished garment look soooo nice and tidy! 

Mr. Craft Knife also drew this cutesy Jack-o-lantern face--he made a spooky one, too, but I only had enough orange T-shirt on hand to sew one doll shirt, and the cutesy face won! 

This is my first time trying heat-transfer vinyl and I nailed it on the first try, which means that the next five times I use it something will go terribly wrong for reasons that I will not be able to determine. 

The Sweet Valentine Dress from Doll Fashion Studio is tied with the skeleton costume as my favorite of these Halloween outfits:

I bought this cartoon Haunted Mansion fabric as a remnant once upon a time (I miss you, Joann!!!) with no plans other than to enjoy how cute it is, and happily, it also turned out to be just enough fabric for this dress for my niece, who LOVES herself some Disneyland!

I love how simple and classic this dress design is, though, so... yeah, I already have two more dresses cut out and waiting on my sewing room table. 

And of course, it's not a complete set of Halloween outfits without a witch costume!

The cape is the fleece cape from Bombshell Bling. Sewing the stretchy velvet to woven quilting cotton wasn't the most fun, but I got it figured out and I'm pretty happy with it. The hat is a paid pattern from Pixie Faire, but I hesitate to recommend it because I had to alter it quite a lot to get the cone and brim to match. The geometry just wasn't geometry-ing!

While I was finishing up these outfits, I also whipped up a big doll mask order from my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop, and so I decided to multi-task refreshing some of those stale listing photos while I photographed these outfits. 

And that's why some of my doll mask photos are now a little bit Halloweeny!

Oops, I missed a couple of threads! Oh, well--that's how my customer knows it's truly handmade, I guess.

Fun fact: etsy recently updated some of its policies to ban AI slop, but it's doing it by WAY overshooting what's actually necessary, to the extent that shops will now be required to include one completely unedited photo in every listing.

Like... what?

If I had to include one completely unedited photo in this blog post, here's what that would look like, lol!

At least in my case, the editing is what makes the photo accurately represent my product!

Ugh, whatever. It's not like life isn't already just an endless succession of nonsensical hoops to jump through, anyway.

Oof, that sounded mean and depressed--must be time to soothe my perimenopausal rage by sewing those doll dresses I cut out earlier. Orrrrrr I could go to the gym and yell at the college boy trying to hog the leg press. Doesn't even matter which one, because there's always someone!

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This 18-Inch Doll Swimsuit Was Really Annoying To Sew, But It Turned Out Cute So I Guess That's Fine

Recognize that fabric? It makes me so happy to use it again--I miss that little mermaid kid!

This swimsuit got on my nerves SO BADLY while I was sewing it!

But in retrospect, and after looking back at the pattern and the photos of the sample suit, I think my whole entire issue was that my zig-zag stitches were too wide/too long. Fold-over elastic is normally dead easy to sew, but the stitch width and length that works perfectly for the 18-inch doll leggings that I made a billion of this summer did NOT work with the slippery four-way stretch that I used for this swimsuit. I kept thinking I'd finished sewing it, and then noticing a tiny spot where the stitching hadn't caught the fabric, so I'd rip it out and redo that part, then I'd think I was finished, and then I'd notice another tiny spot that hadn't caught.

Grr!

The stitching on the sample photo, though, looks a lot shorter and narrower, presumably to keep better hold of that slippery spandex? It's a variable to experiment with, anyway.

And presuming the whole thing doesn't end up falling apart, it DOES look pretty cute on the doll!

The little kid was helping me take photos of all the doll garments I was planning to send off to my niece, and she discovered that this swimsuit also makes a cute bodysuit to go under other clothes:

That idea might actually be enough to get me to make another one someday!

If I really wanted to make another proper doll swimsuit, I think I'd spring for the paid pattern from this same company. I would personally way rather wear a surf shirt and boy shirts for swimming, so why wouldn't a doll?

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I Could Not Figure Out How To Sew This Dress

For the first time, a pattern plus instructions has me completely stumped!

And what makes it worse--this is my old pal Joan Hinds, whose praises I have been singing to the Moon and back thanks to all my sewing from All Dolled Up. But I just cannot wrap my head around her Turtleneck T-Shirt Dress from Doll Fashion Studio. It's supposed to be a dress that looks like a turtleneck and skirt combo. Cute, right?

I got the turtleneck part just fine, and I also think it's very cute, although it definitely does best with the drapiest fabric you've got (this fabric is a weird kind of mustard-colored polyester knit that I let the little kid pick out when she was going through a very specific phase of wanting to make her own very specific clothing items--that phase did not last quite long enough for her to make the shirt she'd planned for this fabric, and I don't tend to sew with a lot of polyester knits, ahem, so I've resigned myself to simply chipping away at it for eternity):

I got the skirt part just fine, too, and I'm particularly pleased about the bottom, which is unfinished since the selvedge on this fabric is really nice!

I'm even pleased at how well I matched the thread color! Turns out that tan thread is nearly invisible on mustard knit, yay.

But okay, here's the step that threw me. You've got your shirt made and your skirt made, and here's what comes next:

Gather the top edge of the skirt slightly and, with right sides together, stitch to the lower edge of the top. Fold the top edge 1/2" (13mm) over the seam line and stitch the fold to the seam allowance. The stitching will be approximately 1/2" (13mm) above the fold.

There's an accompanying hand-drawn illustration of what I guess is the process of stitching the fold to the seam allowance.

So what I think I'm meant to do is sew the skirt and bodice together, then kind of pleat it to make a pretend shirt hem, then stitch that pretend hem in place? So that means the seam line where I sewed the top and bottom together will be at that fold? Or hidden inside it somehow?

Anyway, I did what I thought I was supposed to, and I guess it kind of worked, but it looked super bulky and not like a turtleneck with a skirt.

So I picked it all out, hemmed the bottom of the turtleneck, added a casing and elastic to the skirt, and made a turtleneck with a skirt!

That's way better, anyway, because now my niece's doll has a turtleneck that can be paired with any other bottom-

--and a skirt that can be paired with any other top! 

So, ultimately this outfit was salvageable, but not a winner. I'm keeping the pattern pieces, though, because you don't come across a doll turtleneck sewing pattern very often!

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I Might Have the Obsession With American Girl Dolls Version of Perimenopause. Anyway, Here's My Review of All Dolled Up!

All Dolled Up: Sewing Clothes and Accessories for Girls and Their 18-Inch Dolls by Joan Hinds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Welcome to my summer obsession! Also, does anyone else want to die from the cuteness of those dinosaur pajamas, or am I just really that deep into perimenopause?

Because I personally think they're so freaking cute that I can't stand it. If I saw an actual toddler out and about in those jammies, I guarantee I'd kidnap it. Turn your head for one minute, parents of cute toddlers, and the next thing you know your kid and I are going to be sprawled out on my living room floor, surrounded by the plastic dinosaur toys I kept from my own kids' childhoods, happily making them roar and chomp at each other while listening to old Nancy Cassidy CDs.

Don't worry, though--I'll bring your kid back when it starts to actually want something or get hungry or whatever. Because my favorite thing about perimenopause is no longer cooking meals!

You're obviously meant to use this book to sew matching outfits for kids and their 18-inch dolls (I hate the gender essentialism in these books, but it's too prevalent to get worked up about lest I simply always be worked up, sigh), but what I really wanted was a selection of classic pattern pieces that I could make my own. Some of the pieces here are a little dated and some are so specific that I didn't think they'd customize well, but otherwise, that's mostly what I got!

The pattern pieces are well laid-out on large-format pattern paper in the back of the book. I've read multiple reviews now of people complaining that patterns laid out in that way are impossible to copy and I'm always like... ??? You literally just have to trace them? 

So many pattern pieces, traced onto tracing paper because that is literally not a big deal?

I think the step-by-step instructions are very well-written and thorough, with illustrations for many steps. I would have liked options laid out for more advanced finishing techniques for seams, especially, but since I was intentionally making my favorite patterns multiple times in different colors and fabrics, I think I figured out nice ways to finish most of the seams.

Check out that nicely finished shoulder seam. No raw edges for my dolls!

My favorite patterns in this book are the Monkey Pajamas (but not with the Monkey applique because that part is kind of corny)--

--the ruffled capris (I also lengthened this pattern so that I could make a full-length pair of ruffled pants)--

--and the T-shirts, which worked fine as-is but which I also ended up modifying to make them a little roomier and to utilize the finished hems of upcycled thrifted shirts:

These T-shirts are exactly what I was thinking of when I was wanting a classic, easily modified pattern that I could customize however I wanted. They're simple, they work with all knit fabrics from jersey knit to ribbed knit to four-way stretch to stretch velvet, and I've currently got Mr. Craft Knife working on making me .svg files of cute little appliques that I can add to them. 

Because if you thought that a doll-sized set of flannel dino jammies was cute, think about how cute a little dino T-shirt will be!

P.S. View all my reviews.

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I Sewed Many and Varied Little American Girl Doll Leggings

Okay, I said that the American Girl doll T-shirts were my favorite thing to sew--and they are!--but these leggings are just almost my favorite thing to sew.

They're MUCH simpler than the T-shirts, for one thing. And they're just as cute, and just as amenable to every kind of knit fabric, from performance stretch to old T-shirts, so the possibilities are endless. 

I actually didn't like this pattern, the Snow Day Pants from Doll Fashion Studio, by Joan Hinds, when I first made it, and the first pair of leggings that I sewed following the instructions as-written are now the American Girl doll equivalent of painting clothes, ahem. Like, the instructions tell you to zig-zag stitch the elastic straight to the raw edge of the waist? WHY, THOUGH, when there are so many options just as easy and way cuter?

I modified the pattern quite a lot, including lengthening it so I could also make a full-length version, and remembering that I have a random but huge stash of fold-over elastic in the closet that looks a LOT nicer sewn to raw edges, and now, I LOVE this pattern!

I love the fold-over-elastic at the waist and the ankles for the knit and rib knit fabrics:

And since I'd already made about a million American Girl doll T-shirts by the time I took a break for leggings, I also love using an old T-shirt for leggings, including its existing hem:

Even cuter when I realized that I had room on most old shirts to make both a doll T-shirt AND doll leggings! They're so perfectly matchy!

If you put them both on the doll, they're basically those jersey knit pajama sets that I used to put on my daughters, and that I would in all honestly 1000% wear myself if they just made them in my size. 

I'm already working on an American Girl doll skeleton costume using a black T-shirt and leggings set. Stay tuned!

Alternatively, you can mix and match for comfy play clothes in any color range:

Anyway, I made a bunch of these leggings for my niece's doll, too, just because I think it's nice to have plenty of neutral-ish options for dressing her doll. The simpler the components, the bigger the scope for imagination!

As an example, lol, see the outfits that my kids came up with when I asked them to dress our dolls in some of these new clothes before I sent them off to my niece:

full-length leggings, long-sleeved T-shirt, and puffed-sleeve blouse

long-sleeved T-shirt, short-sleeved T-shirt, and 3/4-length leggings

full-length leggings made from four-way stretch, and a doll tunic a kid made once upon a time from one of their old newborn onesies

sleeveless dress, short AND long-sleeved T-shirts, and 3/4-length leggings

You can see I got a little lost in the weeds sewing doll T-shirts and leggings all summer, right? I kept thinking of new fabrics to test and pattern variations to try, and while I was doing that the summer whisked itself away and now I have to sew a bunch of witch hats as fast as I can.

OMG, y'all. SHOULD I SEW AMERICAN GIRL DOLL WITCH HATS?!?

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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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