FABULOUS tights!!

Well, I was pretty discouraged with the nightgown. I’d been surfing the internet looking for more free stuff and came across an amazing tutorial for making tights out of socks. I’d been back to it several times and was a little hesitant to try it because I’m not good at sewing knits and I didn’t want to ruin a perfectly serviceable pair of socks. I am hooked on great socks and try to wear as colorful and crazy socks as I can every day. So whenever I am out, I keep an eye for socks. Well, as the fates would have it, I was at the dollar store and found a cute pair of black socks with lavender flowers. I thought, you know, I can waste a dollar trying, right?

I finally just did it. I followed the tutorial exactly and was super impressed with how they came out. Basically, you sew, then cut an ‘L’ shape in the sock – see below

 

Then you cut the top edge (the green) then sew the top of the sock together to make the waistband.

They look great, they fit great, and I have a new hobby J I made tights out of every pair of socks I could get my hands on after that J

The flower tights

I did white tights out of a pair of thick knee socks

I did brown with pretty fall leaves

I did red and white stripes (these used to be toe socks J)

I did black and grey tights

Now you guys know by now that I can’t quite call a project mine until I’ve messed something up… so here’s that part: I got carried away doing tights and since its not really a “measured” piece, its just “eyeballed”, I ended up making some of the ‘L’s (the legs) too skinny and too short. Because of that, they don’t look quite right on the doll – they are obviously too “small”, so I cut the feet off and made them footless tights, or leggings J

If you look closely, you can see in the one with the hearts that on the lower left leg (on the right in the picture) the hearts are all stretched out compared to closer to the waistband. That’s because I cut them so badly. They look good as leggings though, and were great practice! The snowman socks were mine – holes in the heels and toes – gosh I loved those socks!

 



By far my 2 favorites are the black and grey ones and the brown fall leaves ones. Those were a taller sock, which gave me a little more room for error – knee socks are perfect, crew-length are just fine but ankle socks just don’t cut it.

I give the tights huge thumbs up – even the tights-turned leggings J

Too good to be true

Well, working with the fleece and the dress form really bolstered my confidence so I decided to move forward with my next project. In my searches for free doll clothes patterns on the internet, I have come across so many wonderful blogs devoted to dolls, doll collecting, doll clothes, and best of all (for me J) doll clothes making!

I’m not too good at this whole blogging thing yet, but as I get better and learn more, I will be adding those places to my blog.

One of the things I came across is a fantastic page that has all of the original American Girl doll clothes patterns the company released. For free. I am in 18 inch doll clothes making heaven!

The first piece I decided to make is Josefina’s nightgown.

I didn't do the rebozo

 

It seemed fairly simple and straightforward. My mistake? Not reading the directions thoroughly… I know, I know, if I am a beginner, I really need to be paying extra close attention to the directions.

I have a stash of top sheets in my fabric collection – I chose a white and light blue striped sheet that I had been using as a cover for my fabric shelf. (I just threw the sheet over the messy shelf when company came over J)

I cut out the fabric, making a real effort to keep my stripes in the right spot – you’ll see what I mean when you see the pics! Then I started to construct the garment.

Now I must pause a moment to talk about confidence. I read that as your confidence in sewing increases, your stitch length should decrease. A larger stitch, like a basting stitch, is easier to take out. Beginners know that ‘easier to take out’ means ‘when I make a mistake’. And since I make LOTS of mistakes, my stitch length has always been set to the longest possible.

My machine, for whatever reason, doesn’t have a good ‘baste’ stitch – my longest stitch is actually much shorter than a baste stitch and it has been the only length I sew on  - I need all the help I can get when it comes to fixing my mistakes J

But if you remember my machine broke and I was using a loaner – that machine has a nice long baste stich. I was surprised to see how long; it made me realize that I shouldn’t be sewing on the longest stitch length always.

Also, the shorter stitch length makes a more professional-looking garment that is “held together” better, obviously.

So for this project, I decided to shorten my stitch length. I figured if I needed to use the seam ripper, I needed to use the seam ripper, right?

So I am starting to sew this nightgown together, and not only are my stitches perfect, but all of the seams are straight, the stripes line up, I mean this piece was getting ready to be my magnum opus here! Since I felt so satisfied and confident of this piece, I felt OK to change something: the instructions say to sew lace to the neck line but since I have never sewn with lace before, it was a bit intimidating to me, so I opted to just hem it instead. No biggie, right? Here I am thinking that NOT using the lace would make the project “simpler” – ha ha on me…

I completed the nightgown and was just so impressed with myself that I decided to add a bit of rick rack to the neck instead of lace, congratulating myself on doing such a neat and careful job. So I continued to follow the instructions to the end and then I got to the part where it says to “add a ribbon to the lace” (some of you more experienced seamstresses probably see what’s coming, right?) I had absolutely no idea what that meant, but since I wasn’t using lace, I figured that part didn’t apply to me…

Let me use this opportunity to say that when I chose this pattern, I didn’t pull up the website to see what the “store bought” version looked like. Had I done that, this project would not have gone as awry as it did L here is the nightgown that American Girl sells.

Anybody figure out what I did wrong?

I sewed in the rick rack, still congratulating myself on a job well done. Check out the stripes in the back: do they not line up perfectly?

Well I finished and gazed upon this lovely garment I made, not really noticing how big the front seemed to be in relation to the back… I put it on the doll and was shocked!! You could have fit 2 dolls in this nightgown!! It looked terrible!! Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of this catastrophe – I wish I had. I was crushed! The back was perfect, the front was perfect, the sleeves looked great, where did I go wrong??

Well, apparently, the part I didn’t understand about adding the ribbon was that the ribbon was meant to weave in and out of the lace, creating a drawstring for the neck…

So here I am with this massive front (gorgeously sewn…) perfectly fit back (gorgeously sewn) and me not wanting to even fix it because I’ve never sewn anything so neat and tidy before. L

Now, I have learned a bit since this sewing disaster, so I know now I have some options to fix something like this, but at the time, I was flabbergasted. I chose to add a small piece of elastic to “suck in” the neck line. It only brought the neck line in marginally. So I added a second piece of elastic, thinking it might help. It didn’t.

 So I had a good cry at my beautiful garment that turned out ugly and told myself that if I could sew so nicely on this one, I can sew just as nicely on the next one! Back on the horse, right??

PART 2

In the meantime, one of the projects I was interested in was making some shoes. This is kind of funny to me because I refuse to buy this doll any store bought stuff since I am making the doll stuff to practice sewing, not clothing a doll for fashion purposes, you know? The thing is, I’m still a woman, and the thought of not having a good pair of all-purpose shoes to wear with the outfits I’m making just bothers me for some reason. When I make an outfit, I’d like to see it showcased well…

So I decided a good, plain pair of black mary jane style buckle shoes would be a good shoe to go with many of the outfits I plan to make and I’d been debating whether or not I want to buy a pair just to be able to put shoes with the outfits, or if I am really adamant about not buying stuff for this doll. Not wanting to buy shoes when the purpose of even owning the doll is to practice sewing, I opted to make a practice shoe, similar to the type I wanted.

While pattern shopping, I had picked up McCall's 3469

I chose the shoe in the lower left corner – the pink ones. I thought they looked simple enough and in black, would sort of look like a buckle shoe – with ribbon instead. I didn’t want to waste the black satiny fabric I had in case I botched them badly, so I decided to practice with “practice” fabric – my striped sheet.

The shoes were relatively simple, pretty straightforward, and gave me an insight into the basic concept of a how a shoe is put together. I used the fabric cut into strips and folded in half instead of ribbon and they came out really nice.

When I realized I had a nightgown and little “slippers” out of the same fabric, I went ahead and cut out 2 triangles, sewed them together, and hemmed the edge with elastic to create a sleeping cap. I didn’t measure or anything, so the cap turned out kind of dumb-looking, but altogether, the pieces look pretty cute together.

I give the nightgown a sideways thumb, the cap a thumbs down, and the little shoes a thumbs up!

Whattya think? J

A two-for-one

The next project is a two-fer J

I enjoyed working with the fleece so much and had stocked up during the 99 cents pattern sale that I decided to make my son something.

Lately my younger son has been taking the kitchen glove (that you pull the hot stuff out of the oven with?) and putting it on his hand and doing hilarious hand-puppet voices. What makes this particularly funny is that this child is too old for the whole hand-puppet thing and he knows it, so his hand-puppet antics are not cutesy little skits, but the observations of a slightly cynical, mildly incompetent hand puppet. As his mom, I find this both adorable and hilarious, but don’t tell him I said adorable J

Now what usually happens is this: he grabs the glove and starts chatting. We all laugh and because we’re usually in the middle of cooking something when he thinks to grab the glove, he’s using the only glove in the kitchen…so we have to grab it away from him to use, usually causing the glove-turned-hand-puppet to start “dying” and making gruesome noises amidst the peals of laughter from the peanut gallery…

So I thought I would make him an actual glove to use. Its part serious (I made you this great glove) and part teasing him (oh the wittle man wants a cute hand puppet). I found the greatest pattern: McCall’s M6667 and just had to do this to make him laugh. The one I did was the gold fish-looking one (second picture in, with the froggy :))

I had gotten a lot of fleece from the remnant bins (remember less than a yard J super cheapJ) and chose a great camo fleece. I figured if I was going to make him something, even something partially making fun of him about, the camo would at least make it a little manlier J

I made a mistake in choosing the size. I assumed (and what do we all know about assuming???) that the pattern was sized for a child, so I chose the largest size – my youngin’ is a big ole preteen, you know. When I laid out the fabric and cut out the pieces, I thought they seemed a little big, but I knew that sewing them would reduce the size quite a bit, so I didn’t really think anything was wrong at that point.

The second part I really had an issue with was understanding how the thumb part fit into the glove part. I’ll tell you what; I scratched my head for a long time before I finally got it. Now I am no dummy, but for some reason, I just could not make it look like a glove! I pinned it every which I could, including the way the instructions told me J and it just didn’t look right. So I finally resorted to basting – I just pinned it as best as I could, even though it did not look right, and just sewed it in.

Well it worked J you ‘d think I’d have remembered sewing the mittens for the doll outfit not how many days ago?

The finished product was ADORABLE! By far one of the greatest things I’ve made to date. The only issue I had was that after seeing how huge the mittens turned out, I went back to read the sizes and they were sized for children and adults. I made the largest adult size…hmmm…I may make myself a pair J

Aside from the hugeness of them, they did turn out great. My son laughed and laughed when saw them (I hadn’t told him I was making them) He put one of them on his computer over his pencil can so that it stares at him while he’s on his computer. Mom rocks!



Flat

On his hand



Smiling! How cute!!

 The little camo mitts for my kiddo took such a short time and I was so proud of my handy work, I decided to keep going. I’m really on a roll with these short, simple projects.

I’d been doing some shopping online looking for free doll clothes patterns that I could practice with (hey – free is better than 99 cents right?) and I came across Liberty Jane’s website. OOO MMM GGG am I in heaven. Moderately priced, fashionable, and even some free ones and support if you want to sell doll clothes one day? Oh where do I sign??

Now my only gripe is that for most of them, you only get 1 item for 3.99, whereas a paper pattern from Joann’s gives you 4-8 different items (usually) and I consider them 99 cent patterns(I know, I know, the patterns are regularly 14.99, 17.99, and up but I only buy patterns when they are on sale) However, 3.99 is quite reasonable and the folks at Liberty Jane are a family run home based business, so I am A-OK to buy her patterns J when I can…and my husband isn’t looking…ha ha ha

The first Liberty Jane pattern I bought was actually not doll clothes. I wanted to see if the patterns were good and since I had just gotten an actual dress form for Christmas from my mom (thank you mumma!!!!) I decided to purchase the doll dress form pattern from Liberty Jane!! (I have since purchased many patterns, but the dress form was my first J)

Side story about the dress form I got for Christmas: I was elated when I took it out of the box and set it up. It more wonderful than I imagined...then I turned the little dialies and set it to my own measurements... I was shocked!! Who is this fat girl in my living room??? The dress form didn't look so hot anymore! ha ha ha Time to trim down!!

Holy cow this pattern was fun! The pattern is set up so that you make the form, stuff it, and then put it on the “stand” which can be a candlestick holder, votive holder, or anything like that. How awesome is that? I decided I really wanted to do this all in one sitting, so I intended to go shopping for the candlestick holder beforehand, but then got to excited to start that I just made the top part and then went to the store. I’m such a goober!

I also knew I didn’t want to pay more than a buck or 2 for the holder. I mean, turning out a nice product is one thing, but remember this is all supposed to be practice so I get better, not make crummy expensive things because I need more practice.

My first stop was the nearest dollar store. I thought for sure I would find something there. NOO L I left feeling quite discouraged but then passed a thrift store on the way home J yay J I stopped in and sure enough, the most beautiful, wonderful (wax covered and dingy) candlestick holder was there waiting for me. I paid like 85 cents for it J SCORE!! It only took me a few minutes to clean it up and it was good as new!

So I had my form stuffed (the project really was just as simple as it could be) and the only trouble I ran into was learning to use the glue gun (I had never used one before J) and making sure everything was even.

And voila! Is that not the coolest dress form???? Thank you Liberty Jane!!

Fleece winter outfit...and a broken sewing machine

The next thing I tried my hand at was a winter outfit. I enjoyed working with fleece so much that I knew the next project I did would be something out of fleece – I just wasn’t sure what I wanted to make. I hit up my 99 cent pattern sale and had enough fleece left form making my brother’s Thundercats pillow to do this outfit: Simplicity M6257 [upper right pic]

I’m a big fan of winter and I liked how this looked in white, very crisp and clean. Inspiring!

So I started…

Now I must say, fleece has a way of boosting your confidence, I think, because it doesn’t ravel, it doesn’t stretch when you don’t want it to, but will when you do. It’s just an allover good fabric, in my opinion. However, I can’t exactly make everything out of fleece, so I do appreciate it when I can work with it.

On a side note, the leftover fabric that I used for this project made me really stop and look at how much fabric I was using. When I started to learn to sew, I learned that most patterns I was interested in making required 3 or more yards of fabric to make – even my youngest son’s pajamas pants takes 2 ½ yards now, and with prices the way they are, I just can’t justify spending that kind of money on beautiful fabric just to make something no one in their right mind would wear…you know?

The doll clothes use less than a yard, most times less than ½ a yard, and a lot of times, even less than that! (wait till you see what I made with a “book sock”) Sooo…with my policy of not spending more than 20 dollars a trip to Joann’s, I discovered the REMNANT BIN! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

Heaven, pure heaven!

For a few bucks – almost always under 5 dollars, I can buy enough fabric (even expensive, fancy fabrics) to make a complete outfit which
1. Allows me to practice technique, on sometimes difficult fabric even
2. Still gives me the satisfaction of getting to “finish” a project in one sitting – which I’m real big on
3. Really lets me expand the type of outfit I’m making. (for example, I got a tiny remnant of canvas and made some awesome shoes and a gorgeous upholstery fabric that I am going to make into a ball gown)

Okay, back to my fleece outfit.

This outfit was actually done in 2 sittings because of the many many many pieces. I cut out all of the pieces and the way they were eventually going to be attached to one another practically jumped off the table at me!! I took that as a good sign J

First was the main dress. I stitched this one up rather quickly but had some trouble figuring out whether the Velcro went in the front or the back. Most doll clothes the closure is in the back, but after looking at the picture and trying it on different ways, I determined that it went in the front.

Next I did the boots. I have to say, I’m prouder of those boots that I really should be. Looking at them now that my skill has grown a smidgy, I have to laugh at my little boots I was so proud of!! They are cute, don’t get me wrong, but I see all the mistakes of course!

The boots were easy to construct, but difficult to work in such a small space. Making these boots was the first time I really realized that doll clothes would be a challenge because of the close quarters. I am optimistic, but a little concerned.  Oh but they turned out so cute!!

The next thing I did was the mittens, which were also challenging due the tininess but really brought out my “holy cow this stuff is cute J” and really made me happy J The mittens have elastic around the cuffs and actual separate thumb pieces (!!!)

Then I took a break from the red and did the shirt because I really wanted to start trying it on and checking the fit. The shirt was very easy and quick and I was pleased to have a versatile piece to go with some other things in the future.

The last thing I did was the hat. And just as I was on top on the world…I broke my sewing machine. L

I started piecing the hat together, it turned out FANTASTIC. Then I decided to use bias tape for the straps instead of ribbon. With what ended up happening, I see that the choice of bias tape versus ribbon didn’t make a difference - my issue would have happened either way. What I did was fold my strip in half and after sewing it to the hat, continued stitching down to keep the strip folded in half.

Well apparently when you sew a tiny thin strip of fabric over a big plate with a HOLE in it, sometimes when you don’t know what you’re doing, the strip can get sucked down into the hole and make the needle stuck… and then if you really don’t know what you’re doing, you tug and tug and you can bend your needle. L I didn’t know this. I tugged and tugged finally got the little strip of fabric out and then the needle would go down but not back up.

I was crushed! 

Fortunately, you guys know about the sewing ladies in my life and I of course called my mom up and said “mommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” She said she’d look at it but it was late at night on like a Tuesday when this happened and I wasn’t going to see her until the weekend.

I was impatient and didn’t want to just stop soo close to the end!  I am unbelievably blessed enough to have a spare sewing machine though!! (how cool is that?) It’s not really mine. My friend and her husband moved away a few years ago and she did some serious cleaning out. She came across her sewing machine (still in the box) and said to me “I will never use this…please hold onto this for me until one day when I decide to learn to sew” and I have been hanging onto it for her for years. I hope one day she will learn to sew with me and then I can give her machine back (C’mon Jen! All the cool kids are doing it!) but in the meantime, I was absolutely grateful to have it as a backup (she did say I could use it if I needed it J I never thought I would!)

I’ll tell you what: my mom was right – when you sit down at a machine, you just “know”. Her machine is newer than mine so it’s much less complicated to thread. The bobbin winds SUPER FAST – hooo weeee! And where my machine goes WHIRR WHIRR WHIRR WHIRR and practically shakes, her machine goes SHH SHH SHH SHH and gently vibrates. It’s all quiet and still! I really liked using it – but you experienced seamstresses out there already know what I’m going to say (not you experts – you guys own and feel comfortable on like 5 different machines, huh?) I loved the machine and it was so sleek and awesome, but it just wasn’t mine L

So on Jen’s awesome sleek machine I sewed the other strap on – not folding in half… (lesson learned) and then did the pants. I meant to have tights or leggings for the outfit because of the style, but I didn’t have a pattern on hand. So what I did was “whip up” a pair of pants (ha ha me? Whip up?) and then tighten the fit and tighten the fit and tighten the fit until they were as snug as I felt comfortable taking in.

I’m giving myself a fail on the pants, but an enthusiastic thumbs up for the outfit as a whole – even with the breaking of the sewing machine and half folded/half unfolded ties J

Let me know what you think!

 

 



The ugly purple dress

Hi everyone!

Okay next up, I decided I was ready to plunge into my new hobby of making doll clothes and had researched the subject enough to realize that there are people on Etsy and eBay making doll clothes and selling them! I thought, you know, not only am I using the making of the doll clothes to practice sewing so I can sew people clothes, but if I got any good, I could sell my doll clothes. So my eventual goal is to get good enough to sell my stuff.

I don't anticipate that being any time soon...

So here we are at the next attempt. Joann's had a super-dee-duper pattern sale. For those of you who don't know me, I absolutely cannot pass up a Joann's 99 cent pattern sale. I stalk their ads, hound my aunt and show up at opening the morning of the 99 cent sales. I love me some 99 cent patterns :)

Here's what I picked: McCall's M3900 [top middle pic]

So I got a cute dress and thought the concept might be simple enough: bodice front, bodice back, skirt front, skirt back, puff sleeves – simple right?

Except you forget that I am the Shaky Seamstress and while my bravado is extremely high, my skill is still quite low and my attempts quite shaky.

I started this project by picking the fabric. Check the About Me for my behind the scenes in my fabric stash :) Thank you to my sewing matriarchs.

I decided I wanted to use 2 of my coordinating fabrics – so I picked a heavier purple for the dress and bodice and a lighter white with purple dots for the sleeves. I even got cocky with this one and decided I wanted the skirt piece to be the purple with the white over it for a nice “2 skirt effect”...

I've got hiiiiigh hopes

I've got hiiiiigh hopes
I've got high apple pie in the skyyyyyyy hopes

Sigh...

So I laid out the fabric, put the pattern pieces down – remembered what I was cutting out of what – and cut out my pieces. Boy was I on top of the world!

I started sewing the pieces together, I followed the instructions e.x.a.c.t.l.y. (or so I thought) I did the bodice okay – no problems there. I even did a pretty good job on the sleeves. I think I’m pretty good at gathering...more detail on that technique later. I even remembered to put both pieces of skirt together and follow the instructions for both...however, this is where I began to lose it.

The first thing I did wrong was sew the hems of the skirts together. I don't know why I did that , I think I was not paying attention. I intended for the skirt to be 2 separate pieces but because I sewed their hems together, what I ended up with was a purple skirt piece sewed behind a white with purple dots skirt piece. It looks like one is the front and one is the back...not really what I intended. Well thats ok...I guess...its just a practice piece, right?

Then I don't know what happened!

I know now how doll tops are made – sewn flat. I have been interested in learning about this from Sewing with Nancy – apparently she discusses this in some detail. I just haven't yet. The idea is that you lay the sewn front and back pieces (having been sewn together at the shoulders or something) and sew the sleeve seam and the side seam as one. Its much flatter and convenient when working with doll clothes.
 

Like this:



 

I had no idea of this technique when I made this dress and really thought I followed the instructions exactly. However, you can see from the picture that I did not sew the sleeves in this fashion and then I couldn't figure out why there weren't instructions for the sleeves! I'm a mess here!

 

 

 Aside from the skirt piece being connected when I didn't want it to be and the sleeves not being sewn...at all, I also didn't like how “big” the dress seems on the doll. I was really making tiny seams at this point and the dress just seems overall too big for her.

Okay, check it out – let me know what you think.

A good try, but I give it a huge thumbs down. The robe turned out way better...

I need a doll...and other projects

When I started this venture, I realized that it didn’t make a difference how good or bad my sewing was, if I didn’t have a way to gauge the fit, my efforts were for naught. So I wanted to buy a doll to put the clothes on. I had Roger to try the robe on, but no doll yet. I also had to stop making doll clothes before I even started because I had other projects to do!

Drum roll…

I recently learned to loom knit, taught my husband and for some reason we got the brilliant idea to make our extended family (all 31 of them) handmade hats for Christmas… HUGE undertaking. It took us a long time to make these hats. J It was worth it though!

Also, I got a pattern for some awesome mug cover pencil holder things [Simplicity 2450] and I knew I needed to make one for my mom and my Aunt C. My initial attempts were dismal. I found the most fabulous tutorial on how to attach bias tape and felt like a total expert. Check it out here. My seams, however, leave much to be desired.

I didn’t take pics of the ones that I made for my mom and aunt, but the seams were much straighter.

I also got the idea that I wanted to do handmade gifts for my brother and his son too. I made a humongous gigantic stuffed Pikachu for my nephew and a Thundercats pillow for my brother. Now, before I contradict myself as a beginner seamstress I must say that the Pikachu and the pillow were just a front and a back cut out and sewn together and stuffed. I’m a fairly good artist so I drew the Pikachu shape and Thundercats logo and cut them out. Then I cut out squares for the pillow and eyes, nose and a tail for Pikachu and then straight-seam sewed them on. So it was a fairly simple process for some pretty nice looking projects if I do say so myself! No pics though L

But back to learning the more complicated stuff!

Around Christmas time, when I finished all of my projects, I started shopping for my doll. Best time for a good price, right? Well, maybe beforehand. After Christmas, all the good dolls are gone L I decided on an Our Generation doll from Target. Moderately priced, and I liked their faces better than the Springfield doll.

So I had my doll to fit the clothes, I made the robe and was feeling pretty good…  J

 

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?