Bonjour! With the new "Beauty and the Beast" movie in theaters, what little girl wouldn't want her doll to dress like Belle? This dress is based on the older, animated version of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" and was made from pattern Simplicity 1581. (I found this pattern of the new version that includes a doll dress at Hobby Lobby and it was on sale for 99 cents.It's currently back-ordered on the Simplicity website.)
As with most doll clothes patterns, it was a little short on instructions, but everything worked out fine in the end. I omitted the ribbon trim at the bottom because it looked bulky and Belle didn't have any on her dress;) I didn't love hand sewing the covered buttons to the drape on the skirt, but I'm impatient. I think they look cute though. I was going to do ribbon roses, but this fabric is more of a gold yellow and I couldn't find anything to match. Everything was made from scraps in my overflowing bins, but the main dress fabric is a washable satin and the matching lace is washable as well. There are some shoulder straps on the pattern you can't see in this photo because of the lace. There is also darling slip underneath that's hard to see, but really easy to make. If the little girl in your life needs a Belle dress for her favorite doll, please be my guest!
I've been contemplating making a quiet book for the grandchildren for a long time. When my darling grandsons, Miles and Vaughn, both had birthdays coming up, I decided it was now or never. There are lots of patterns and page ideas out there, but I finally decided on this one from LindyJ Design:
See pattern here
The story follows Max the dog through different scenes as he looks for a new home. They are a lot of work due to the detail on each page, but that's what makes them so cute.
The pattern was great and the instructions were clear. (She has sooo many other patterns that are adorable! If I made them all, I might be able to use up my felt stash. Or maybe not.)
The designer offers a quick and easy method for applying the pattern to the materials. It's a freezer paper method and you can actually print the pattern on the freezer paper pages cut to 8.5 x 11. From there you iron the pattern right onto your fabric, which makes it easy peasy to cut those little pieces out. (Thank you LindyJ!) That saved so much time over tracing or laying the pattern pieces on the various fabrics and felt. My poor printer struggled to pick up the pages when I loaded them all at once. When I fed them through one at a time though, it worked like a charm!
I made a few modifications to the pattern. I'm fussy about unfinished edges, so I bound the edges of the finished pages with a continuous binding that I fed through my handy dandy bias tape maker. (There is a tutorial here. Let me tell you, when you start cutting you won't believe your eyes when you see how much binding you get.) I found the binding fabric at Hobby Lobby. Because I bound the pages, I had to adjust some of the background pieces so they extended all the way to the one alternating side and the top and bottom edges of the felt.
I also used extra-large Dritz eyelets to loop the binder rings through because I didn't want someone pulling too hard and ripping the page after all that work.
I hope my grand-babies love them for a long time!
When your darling granddaughter asks for some doll clothes for the new 18" American Girl type doll she got for Christmas, how can you say no? I've been busily sewing for her ever since.
McCall 6480
I used View B. For the skirt I selected some pre-ruffled yardage I've had for years and was thrilled to put to use. All it took was an elastic casing and a seam. The jacket fabric is from Jo-Ann's fancy fabrics and the silver dot t-shirt yardage comes from Hobby Lobby. I made the snazzy boots from some leftover vinyl.
Small seams and tiny pieces can be challenging, but doll clothes are usually quick and this pattern was easy to follow. I always try to use scraps on hand, but even if you have to buy fabric, it's usually such small amounts they don't end up costing much. I've made several pieces from other views of this pattern, so it's a good value, especially when you buy it for 99 cents.
My granddaughter was so excited when I gave the clothes to her and to be honest, I could probably make hundreds of outfits from my incredibly large stash, so I'm not done yet!
If you have someone in your life who doesn't eat school lunch and you feel guilty about all the paper and plastic bags you're throwing away, Simplicity 1385 is great choice for a lunch sack.
See here
I've made it several times in all different types of fabric, but I love the way the camo bag turned out. (I've also made the hobo style and it's awesome too and a little more feminine. I'll post that review at a later date.) The pattern specifies an insulated fleece such as Pellon Insul-Fleece, which helps keep the cool inside.
These handy bags are just the right size for a small water bottle and a reusable sandwich container from the dollar store, plus some room left over for a snack. It's a super easy pattern with several other bags, so it's a great value. This bag is a fun and earth friendly choice for all your favorite lunch buddies!
