Welcome to our sewing and embroidery tutorial for crafting a Spring Flowers Folk Style Skirt and Top for 18-inch dolls. In this tutorial, we'll guide you through the steps to sew an ensemble embellished with machine embroidered blossoms. Follow along as we combine folk style with a touch of springtime, making your doll's wardrobe bloom with creativity. Let's dive in and bring this adorable outfit to life!
These skirt and top are designed to fit 18-inch dolls with a soft body, such as American Girl, Our Generation, My Life As and similar dolls.
We used embroidery designs from the Flower Border Set.
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For the skirt and top you will need :
- embroidery thread, either polyester or rayon (choose colors you like);
- about 1/2 yard of solid-colored light-weight fabric, such as light-weight cotton, cotton-polyester blend, etc., (we chose off-white 100% cotton);
- small amount of colored fabric for the hem trim and waistband ;
- light-weight cut-away embroidery stabilizer,
- either sew-on snaps or ultra thin Velcro tape,
- chalk pencil,
- small rotary cutter or scissors,
- sewing pins,
- iron,
- #12 universal needle,
- printer and paper.
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Patterns:
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Download the template for the top. To open and print the template, which is a PDF file, you will need Adobe Reader or a similar program. Adobe Reader is free to download and install.
Template Download (PDF file)
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Print out the templates and cut them out.
Note: Seam allowance of 1/4" is included in the templates.
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The Top:
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Embroidery:
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For the top we used the corner design from the Flower Border Set.
Stabilize a piece of fabric with light-weight cut-away srabilizer. Hoop tightly and embroider the design.
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Cutting:
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Position the paper template of the front over the stitch-out. Trace with the chalk pencil.
Cut it out. Press. Cut away the excess stabilizer around the embroidery.
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Use the paper templates to cut out all parts of the top.
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Assembly:
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With face sides together, pin and sew the shoulder seams. Repeat for the lining. Press the seams open.
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With face sides together, pin the top lining to the top along the neck, back opening and armholes.
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Stitch along the edges: back opening, neckline, armholes.
Cut the corners and clip the curves, being careful not to cut through the stitching.
Trim the seams to 1/8".
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| Turn the working piece right side out. Take your time to straighten all corners and lines. Press. |
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With right sides together, fold the top and lining to align the sides. Pin. Stitch. Repeat on other side. Press the seams open.
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| You can either fold the hem of the top and lining 1/4" to the wrong side, press and topstitch, or finish the hem with a colored trim. |
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Out of colored fabric, cut a strip 1" wide and 1/2" longer than the hem of the top. Zig-zag or serge one of the long edges of the strip.
With right sides together, pin the strip to the lower edge of the top, with the short ends of the strip protruding past the top by 1/4". |
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| Stitch. Fold the short ends back and press. |
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| Unfold the strip, press. Fold it to the lining. Press. |
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| Topstitch the strip in place. |
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| Put the top on your doll to mark the placement of the closure. Sew on either snaps or ultra thin Velcro tape. |
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Skirt
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Feel free to make your skirt longer or shorter, fuller or more straight. Here are the general directions on how to sew it.
First of all make the embroidery using the light-weight cut-away stabilizer. We embroidered one of the borders from the Flower Border Set in vertical lines with 2 1/2" space between the embroidery.
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When the embroidery is done, cut out the skirt panels. We used 2 panels, each 15" long and 6 1/2" wide. We left a 1" margin under the embroidery and 2" margin over the embroidery.
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| Out of colored fabric, cut 2 strips measuring 3" x 15. Stitch each of the strips to the lower edge of the embroidered panels. Press the seam down to the colored strip. |
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Using zig-zag stitch or serger finish the short sides of the skirt parts and the long edge of the colored strip.
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With right sides together, align the panels and sew the short sides together, seam allowance 1/4", leaving about 2" unstitched at the waist line. Press the seam open.
Fold the colored strip onto the wrong side so that the finished edge of the strip covers the seam. Press.
Topstitch the hem in place.
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Sew 2 rows of gathering stitches along the waist edge starting and finishing 1/2" from the short sides.
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Measure the waist of your doll. My doll's waist is 11 1/2". For the waistband I cut 2 strips 6 1/2" long and 2" wide. Finish one long side of the strips with zig-zag stitch or surger.
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| Working with one panel and one waistband strip at a time, right sides together, match the center of the unfinished edge of the strip with center of the skirt panel. Pull gathering stitches on the skirt to fit the belt, leaving 1/4" of the belt at each end. Pin in place. |
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| Stitch. Remove gathering threads. |
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Fold the belt strip right sides together lengthwise and sew each end with 1/4" seam allowance.
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| Cut the corners. |
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Turn the belt right side out. Press. Pin.
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| Sew the finished edge of the belt over the seam allowance by hand or topstitch. |
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Put the skirt on the doll to mark the placement of the closure.
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Stitch a closure of your choice in place.
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| Have fun! |
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