Dolly Gets Dressed: A Handmade Doll Obsession!

My sister and her kids came up for a visit last week and my niece Mei had a project in mind for me. She has wanted to make a handmade doll with embroidered features from the book Made By Me for quite some time. I have to admit that, at first, I wasn’t very excited about the project. But once Mei had embroidered all of the facial details and added blue streaks to the hair, I had to admit that Dolly was pretty darned cute. You can flip her from Daytime to Nighttime Dolly with eyes arched up for day and arched down for night. Very sweet!

So, then I started making clothes for her. As a mom of boys and a late-blooming sewer, I’d never sewn doll clothes before. And, well, making clothes for Dolly sparked some latent girly girl in me. I could not stop making clothes and accessories for her. I even briefly considered getting pregnant and having one last go at having a girl, just so I could justify making hundreds of little doll clothes.

See them all after the jump.

I started simply, with a night gown. At first, I made the arm holes too far forward on the dress. Oops! Instead of chucking the fabric and starting over, I sewed the armholes closed and then added a couple more tucks to the front to make it look deliberate. Then I added proper arm holes. It ended up being even cuter than it would have been if I hadn’t messed up. I also added a matching yellow ribbon to her bear’s neck. She’s also sporting a wooden button headband.

Then, her day outfit. Which got a little crazy with the accessories. Mei chose the fabric combo for this one, and I love it! The kids is a natural pattern mixer. I had the faux leather, which was perfect for little elastic booties. And then I had to make her a matching purse and a bead necklace. I think my favorite feature is the tiny pocket on her shirt, though.

Next up was another day outfit. My other niece spend a good part of the visit making a butterfly tunic for herself out of the same teal material, so we decided to make one for Dolly, too. It’s basically a circle of fabric with a hole cut out of the center and secured with velcro at the sides. I love the skirt material, which you’ll see on a real person-sized skirt in an upcoming post! Another necklace, this time a choker with one of my paper flowers from my cascading paper flower necklace.

And what do you suppose Dolly does for fun and exercise? Well, since my sister’s kids are all avid swimmers, I thought it was only fitting that Dolly should have a swim outfit. The flippers are made from felt, and the fabric is a scrap of silky ITY knit left over from the Jorna dress I made for last year’s SONP.

And, finally, I thought she ought to have something sparkly to wear for a night on the town. Up to this point I had only made skirts, but I came across this gold material in my stash, and I felt like it was begging to be made into tight gold pants. The look is completed with a sparkly silver halter top. I made this one just before my family left, so I didn’t manage to make shoes for this outfit before they had to leave. Maybe next visit, I’ll make some strappy shoes to go along with this one.

As I was making outfit after outfit for Dolly, my sister said, “If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing!” I think that’s my new motto.