Sewing for Wellie Wishers

Last summer I posted about making doll clothes for Willa, my granddaughter's Wellie Wishers doll. I have two granddaughters who are just about a year apart, and both have Wellie Wishers dolls. Ella has a Willa doll, and Pippa has Camille. I like sewing for these dollies better than Barbie because it's just easier to sew the slightly larger pieces. The difference between the teeny pieces for an 11" Barbie and the slightly larger pieces for the 14-1/2" Wellie Wishers dolls is immense.

Ella got her doll first, so I've had a few more opportunities to sew for Willa. Camille lives in Canada, so I try to put a little something for her (and her mommy) in every package I send. Unfortunately, I'm not great about taking pictures, as usually it has to go in the mail that very day. This little outfit - an elastic waist skirt and a sleeveless top, was very quick and simple to sew for Camille (and it went with her purple shoes!,) although the knit for the top wouldn't cooperate. I forgot all about using ball point needles on reluctant knits. It's been awhile since I've sewn anything except quilting cottons it seems. I hope I won't forget again. The frustration of skipped stitches wasn't much fun. I finally discovered that the knit stitch on my Bernina is stitch #9. It's a slightly different stitch than the one on my previous machine, but seems to work well when I remember to use it.

I had a lot of fun making Willa this little raincoat. I tried it out in quilting cotton first, but then made it from a scrap of oilcloth I had leftover from making a cosmetic bag for traveling. The pattern was a commercial pattern I purchased at Joann's by Ellie Mae Designs. It was intended for 18" dolls, but I found a resizing chart for Wellie Wishers dolls on Rosie's Doll Clothes website, and I've found it works pretty well. I've only had one project fail using her resizing chart. Since it was my first, I decided it would be prudent to try it in the inexpensive Kona cotton rather than my limited supply of oilcloth. It turned out great.

And here's the same pattern in the oilcloth.

I also used a free online pattern to create this party dress. The pattern was from PA Country Crafts and was intended for the Merida doll from the movie Brave. My first attempt was too small, so I added about 3/8" to each of the bodice pieces, adding about 1-1/2" overall, and it fit perfectly. The fabrics were from the remnant bin at Joann's. I loved the tulle overlay, and Ella was pretty pleased with Willa's new dress.

Pippa got Camille for her birthday last year, and I thought it would be fun to make dolly a complete wardrobe. Camille got plenty of tops and skirts,

a pair of jeans,

a pair of shorts,

a pink party dress (from slightly different fabric,)

and a yellow raincoat.

The jeans were super fun and very trendy, with a dropped waist, a fake fly, and working pockets. They were kind of fiddly, but very fun to make. And naturally, all the pieces coordinate for that put-together look.

My only failure in downsizing American Girl patterns was this fleece hoodie. I used the 65% recommendation, but the jacket was too tight for Camille, which is really too bad because it is very cute and had a working zipper. I'm not sure if it was because of the thickness of the fleece or what. I may try it again at 70% and see if it fits better. It's really super cute. I really wish I had a Wellie Wishers doll for a model. So it's been fun to sew for these dollies. I'm glad that I've been able to help my girls enjoy their dollies.

Handmade Christmas: DIY Sleeping Bags for the Dollies

 

We are, apparently, an American Girl family.  All of the kiddos who are old enough have American Girl dolls.  While I was perusing the interwebs before Christmas, I saw a blog post by Kim Brancato where she showed how to make a dolly sleeping bag.  Since I had a lot of fleece scraps from the mermaid tails and the whale's tail, I thought it would be fun to make sleeping bags for each of the dollies.  

There are a number of patterns for dolly sleeping bags out there, but I liked this one especially because Kim used an elastic loop sewn into the bottom seam to roll up the bag.  Genius!  Some of my littles are not old enough yet to tie a bow - or even a knot, really - and the elastic loop allows them to roll up the bag all by themselves, and not have to continually pester a parent or older sibling.

 

Kim's measurement for the 18" American Girl doll sleeping bag was 23" x 27", and it was perfect.  But two of my littles have Wellie Wishers dollies, and I knew that size sleeping bag would be too big for these 14-1/2" dolls.  I cut these dolly sleeping bags 18" x 24" and they were perfect.

 

The only change I made from Kim's tutorial was to attach the pillow to the sleeping bag.  This way, the pillow won't get lost, and dolly can always find her pillow, leading to fewer meltdowns from dolly's human friends.  The pillow then rolls up inside the sleeping bag and the elastic goes around the whole thing, making a nice, tidy bundle.  You may want to cut your elastic just a tad longer to allow for the pillow if you use this method

I tried several methods to attach the pillow, but I found that the easiest way (after making 3, I finally figured it out!) was to cut it with a 1" seam allowance at the bottom.  Sew a seam at 1" with an opening for the stuffing.  Then sew it closed.  Then sew the pillow inside the top seam of the sleeping bag at 1/2". This way, the stuffing doesn't get in the way while you're trying to stitch the bag together.  

A Raincoat for Willa

I took oldest granddaughter to Joann's for fabric for her annual grandma-and-me project, and we ended up picking out a pattern for her American Girl doll that included this adorable dolly raincoat.  When we got home, the littlest granddaughter decided her Willa doll needed a raincoat.  The problem with Willa, who is a Wellie Wishers American Girl doll, is that there aren't many patterns for clothes for her, perhaps because she is fairly new. 

Thank goodness for Pinterest.  I had a fairly long hiatus from Pinterest but reconnected to look for doll clothes.  As I was perusing Pinterest the other day I found a post which led to Rosie's blog where she told how to resize regular American Girl patterns for Wellie Wishers dolls.  I made a quick trip to FedEx and resized the pattern.  I decided to try it first with a scrap of Kona cotton from my stash.  I chose this yummy apple green.

This pattern sews up easily and the pieces fit together nicely, which is a big plus for me when sewing doll clothes.  I was pretty happy with the results.  Resizing 18" American Girl doll clothes at 65% for the 14-1/2" Wellie Wishers doll worked perfectly.  I had to add a bit of extra to the welt pockets and the collar to have an adequate seam allowance, but my first try turned out exactly right. 

E informed me that even though it looked like a raincoat, my first try was "just a jacket, Grandma," and she really wanted Willa to have a real raincoat.  Luckily, I had some scraps of oilcloth left from a previous project that turned out to be just enough to make an adorable "real" raincoat. 

Now oldest granddaughter needs a "real" raincoat for her Mary Ellen doll.  Guess I need to get on that soon.

Sewing for the Dolls

In a previous post I mentioned that I had been doing a lot of sewing for Barbie and Ken, and also a lot of time browsing Pinterest for American Girl patterns.  When my two granddaughters came to visit recently, they brought their American Girl dolls so I would have a model to make clothes for them.  Oldest has a Mary Ellen doll, which is a regular 18" American Girl doll, and youngest has a 14-1/2" Wellie Wishers doll named Willa.  Most of the time, doll clothes are fun and quick to sew, and I am excited to find that there are so many patterns online for these dolls.  Grandson also asked for some more clothes for Ken, so I guess my work is cut out for me. 

The two oldest want to sew doll clothes, and oldest and I worked together to make a new outfit for Mary Ellen over the weekend.  Grandson is anxiously waiting for his turn.  Even with two complete workstations in my sewing room, there seems to be a fair amount of competition for available sewing space, since their mom needs to sew as well.  As entranced as they are by the features on the Bernina 750, Oldest learned quickly that it was perhaps not the best machine to learn on.  She quickly moved to the 440 to finish her outfit after the machine kept swallowing the little pieces. 

The first day of summer vacation, which was also the day after the grands and their parents arrived, I sewed for the dolls while they were at the beach.  It was a lovely, relaxing day.  Normally, I need about a week to decompress after school is out, but I did ok this year with just one day.  The remote teaching from home wasn't nearly as stressful as a month of testing - at least not for me.  First, I made Mary Ellen a dress from an old McCall's pattern I had in my stash, and it ended up too big in the bodice, which was disappointing.  This morning I took it apart and took about an inch out of the bodice - quite a lot for a doll with a 10-1/2" waistline.  It's still a little big, but it's much better.

Youngest chose this fancy fabric for her dress.  I found a cute pattern online for a 14" doll, and after some experimentation (meaning I threw the first bodice away,) I came up with a dress that fits her well.  The first time, I tried the pull-through method for making the bodice, where you sew the armholes and the neckline and then pull the back through the shoulder seam to the front, but these pieces are just too small to pull the bulk of the back pieces through, especially considering the bulk created by two layers of fabric.  I ended up partially sewing the armholes and completing the rest of the seam by hand.  I thought this little dress turned out pretty cute and Youngest was pretty happy with it, which, after all, was the whole point.

Ken also got a new shirt, but he must be off with Barbie right now, because I can't find him, or the shirt, so more Ken clothes in a later post.  Grandson liked Ken's swimsuit, so I had to hurry and make Ken his own pair of shorts.  Every time I turned around, Ken was on the floor naked.

On Saturday afternoon, I made Willa another little outfit.  I used the basic Barbie skirt idea and changed the dimensions to 5" x 13".  This is honestly a 15-minute project.  The fabric is one of the scraps from the hospital gowns I made a few weeks ago.  The top was a nightmare.  The fabric is a quarter yard of knit I bought at Joann's before Christmas.  It did not want to sew.  The machine kept skipping stitches, and I couldn't find a ball point needle, although I know I have several packages of them somewhere.  I finally used a piece of paper in the seam to keep the fabric from getting grabbed by the needle.  It made a 30-minute project into an hour-long one, at least.  The pattern for the top is the Pixie Faire trendy t-shirt pattern for 14-1/2" dolls, but it is honestly a bit too tight.  Next time, I will add maybe 1/2" to front and back in the width to make it fit better.

So, I'm keeping busy.  Lots of other projects on the list while the grands are here.  We'll see how many get accomplished, but we're making good progress so far.  We've been checking things off the list pretty regularly, and as far as I know, no one has been bored or missed any of the activities we can't do because of all the closures due to Covid-19.  So far, so good.