D.I.Y : American Girl Doll Dresses

By night I'm an indie singer - rocking out stages around Hollywood.

By weekend, I am a jet-setting adventuring looking for my next exciting journey.

By day, I am a nanny. Toting textbooks, cupcakes, and board games. and making my girls giggle.

I have been working for the same family since the day I moved to Los Angeles in 2010. I spend 5 days a week with two perfectly behaved, incredibly intelligent, and occasionally sassy twin girls, now 10 years old.

As a child, myself, and my two sisters ( Jessica and Mariah) had American Girl Dolls. I had Samantha, and we also had Kirsten and Felicity. I never really played with them, or dolls in general. I began to accessorize with them around age 10. I have been a nanny for almost a decade, and in my expierience, young girls tend to treat their dolls like they are alive. Put them to bed, give them names, "feed" them, talk to them, teach them. As they get around 3-5th grade, they move on to collecting, accesorizing, etc.

That's where I started to really enjoy it. American girl dolls are incredibly expensive, but can be worth the investment. What makes it tough is the catalogues with all of the clothes and toys the children want for themselves and their dolls, and the extreme price tags attatched to them. We decided to started making out own. Sleeping bags, dresses, etc. No instructions, and at first- no sewing machine.

At this point, we were still sewing by hand. The doll in this photo above is Kit. Kit was in need of a holiday dress! We used a little Lace trim from Joann's and left over Green velvet from their mothers brides maids dresses from the 80's.... 

Our Second attempt on Felicity was simple, we made a front, a back, sleeves, and stitched it up on the site. False buttons and a ribbon at the waist for a more fitted look. They were farm from perfect... but the kids were so proud. Josephina looked like the new Hawaii doll so all was right in their world. It was easy to draw lines for the girls to cut in the fabric, and teach them to sew buttons. They were amazed at all of the little skills and tricks they were learning. 

 And in the end, Kit's christmas dress turned out pretty great. It was super frayed around the edges, and made completely by hand. 

 After this summer of sewing, I was stuck on what to get the girls for chritmas. The american girl doll dresses from the catalog were out of my price range- but then again, so was buying fabric and trim for all new dolls. 

One afternoon- We were sorting through their clothes to take out what didn't fit. I decided to take the items they were most attached to- but truly couldn't wear anymore- and make doll clothes for them. 

I brought in the help of my friend Carol Duffy from http://frankieandsue.com/ for a little help since I didn't yet have a sewing machine- we flew through a few! 

The dress as it was fitted for the kids. 

After, fitted for the doll! 

But the best part was their faces on Christmas Morning. 

 As it turns out, all of the old dolls, even those that have been since retired by the company post the patterns on line - I printed a few out for the dolls I knew they liked and threw them in the box. We will save it for a rainy day I suppose.