Starting with doll clothes...

Hi everyone! This is my venture into the world of blogging. Please see my About Me page for info on why I am here to share with you!

My first attempt at really knuckling down and getting good at this was making a robe. Using my theory that sewing doll clothes would allow me to get better at techniques, I purchased my first pattern. It looked simple and was a good mix of pajamas, lounging around clothes, and a little dress.

Check it out: Simplicity 5276

My son had been invited to a birthday party at Build-a-Bear and came home with a great little bear he named Roger. I figured even though a Build-a-Bear and an American Girl doll are 2 completely different sizes, a nice robe would "fit" a doll and be a little big on Roger. So I started to make this robe. Whooo-eee it was a little above my skill level. Remember, a skirt in middle school, a few pairs of pajama pants and a top was all I had ever created.

I chose some light blue fleece with blue flames on it for my robe. The good thing about using fleece for the robe is that my edges looked great :) The downside is that I'm not skilled enough to alter or change anything yet, so all of the parts that had me "finish" the edges (even though I didn't need to because its fleece) were a little bulkier than they could have been because I didn't know where I could "leave off" and where I needed to stick to the instructions.

I will get better at this, right???

So I am following the instructions very closely and feeling pretty good about myself - even though it was a little more complicated than the elastic-necked peasant top... than I got to the part where you have to "line" the edge (my robe that I wear doesn't "fold back" but this one does. So I had to "line" that part that folds back -let me draw it)


 

The blue part folds back - I don't have a problem with that. It's the part underneath that blue part that caused me so much grief, basically the back side of that part.

I sewed it correctly, or so I thought. The "fronts" matched, the "backs" matched. I was really doing good. The problem was, I couldn't figure out the back of the neck part. No matter which way I turned it, it seemed to be in backwards. I showed my mom and she turned it this way and that and couldn't figure it out. She said if I had sewn it in backwards that I should take it out and flip it and it would fit that way, but I was so convinced I had sewn it in correctly... I was being very obstinate...

Well, after I took the piece off...ripped out that seam...and flipped it...it matched and laid correctly. You were right, mumma :)

It did come together nicely. The robe was uneventful after that. The only other trouble I ran into was doing the tie. I chose not to turn it because of how bulky the fleece was, so I think it looks sloppy, but its a better width, I think.

What do you think?

This is the robe:

 

This is open:

 

This is showing the side flipped open.

 

The blue line shows where the outside is, both pinks show the "inside" and the green arrow shows "the other inside" which is where I had my trouble...

Here is Roger in the robe. Isn't he cute? :)

 

Roger kind of hunches over, like he's meant to stay sitting, but I sort of propped him up so you could see how long the robe is on him compared to the doll.

 

Pretty good, huh?