Dolly Dress a Day

Hooray!

I've done it!  ...I've finally finished making and even wrapped all my daughters Birthday presents ready for the weekend!  This is the second of two gifts I've been working on for my soon to be two year old daughter. (Wow, where have the last two years gone?!)

 

Meet Matilda;

 

 

How do you do?  Oops where are my clothes?!

 

The doll is based on a pattern from a book called, Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love, by Hillary Lang.  (I have just discovered she also has an awesome blog: http://www.weewonderfuls.com/ check it out!) 

 

I kept the doll pattern the same as in the book, using cotton instead of felt for the body, simply because the only felt I had that was large enough was totally the wrong colour (bright pink felt makes for one sunburnt looking doll!)  Also keeping the legs skin coloured rather than patterned as in the book...  This was because I wanted to change the dress pattern for the doll.  The original doll had a fixed dress and I wanted to make the dress removable and make several dresses, to help expand on play themes.

 

So far I have managed to make Matilda three outfits...

 

 

A floaty, casual day dress. 

(Check out the actual fully functioning patch pocket with cupcake detail- so cute!  The little cupcake, which I bought here, was the insipration for the whole doll really.)

 

 

A smart evening dress.

 

 

And a boom boom pow, beach dress!  (Couldn't resist adding the pom pom trim!)

 

 

The dress in the book was made from two pieces of fabric the same size, sewn together, then the neckline gathered once on the doll and then the bottom was sewn up either side of the legs.  I simply made the back panel slightly wider (allowing for two extra seams) and split it into two pieces, with a small piece of velcro for fastening.  I then did a simple running stitch along the neckline, pulled threads to gather material to desired length, tied off ends and hand stitched neat trims along the top edge.

 

If I were to make another dress, I would probably make the arm holes slightly larger, as I think my daughter will need help to thread the arms through the sleeves.  I got quite whizzy by the time I was on the third dress, but left it there as I am feeling quite poorly now after having had a cold, followed by too much sunshine at the weekend and terrible heat exhastion and now a terrible chesty cough.  I could really do with a rest... does this mean I can start a new project this evening?!

 

...I have also finished my latest crochet blanket, but need to give my bedroom a good tidy before taking photos of the finished item for my blog.  This has left me at a complete loss of what to do with any spare time I would have previously spent crocheting.  I have no "go-to" project, that I can pick up and put down when I have a spare 15 minutes. 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and fit in a little making with all the sunshine. Happy summer everyone!