Handmade Gifts for the Girls!

I was sick pretty much everyday after Thanksgiving, so I had plenty of time to sit, or lay, around and sew. So, I took the opportunity to make some doll clothes for my two oldest girls and some little booties for my baby girl.

This will be the dress for Naomi's American girl doll, Elizabeth, that she's getting for Christmas. The pattern was free, and I found it here. It's called a wedding dress, hence all the whiteness. But I'm thinking of adding some crocheted flowers or ribbon or something to it. I think Naomi would appreciate that.

This is the front view. It should fit any 18" doll.

This is a view of the back. The pattern did not call for any kind of closure at the top, so I figured a button would work. I just used one of the spaces between stitches for the button hole.

And here is the dress I made for Mae's doll she is getting. I don't know exactly what size her doll will be, but I'm assuming not as tall as an American Girl. This is using the same pattern, except I did fewer rounds at the bottom and ended with two rounds of single crochet instead of one. I also added a round of trim that was 1 single crochet then two chains in each stitch. Makes it kind of ruffly. Finally I added a ribbon that was simply a chain stitch and weaved it through the middle.

This is the front view. I had these three colors, but not enough of one to make a full dress, so I made a tri-color dress. I actually like it better than the solid white!

And this is the back.

I love this pattern because it's so easy and works up super fast. It uses mostly double and single crochet with a few v-stitches (which is just dc & ch stitches). My favorite part is that it is sewn in one piece, so no joining parts together! And you know what that means! Fewer ends to weave in! Unless you change colors like I did with Mae's doll's dress.

Finally, here are the little booties I made for Illiana from this pattern here. I had to change the pattern quite a bit through, because my babies have all had fat feet and these booties just didn't cover those chubby baby feet. I added a few more stitches per row and moved the strap back a row to have it more centralized on the foot. These also were worked in one piece and super quick.