I’m always on the lookout for fun fabrics for unique doll clothes. These bright Vera Bradley napkins called to me at a garage sale. I used two napkins to make this Popsicle Top and Four Square Skirt. For the skirt, I left off the pockets, and used the existing napkin hem edge, which saves both time and fabric!
Jenna’s skirt and top used the same two patterns as above, only this time, I cut up a Vera Bradley apron. Cute, casual and colorful!!!
Mix and Match Bright Colored Skirts and Tops for 18 inch Dolls
The Popsicle Top is the perfect top for every bottom- skirts, shorts, pants, jeans etc. This blue top has a little bit of tone on tone stitching at the hem, just to give it some interest. And don’t forget to make them reversible- two tops for one sewing session. The pattern is available in 6 popular doll styles here.
Make some fun outfits for your dolls this summer with loud, floral prints like these Vera Bradley fabrics.
Fall Themed Batik Fabric- Perfect for the Spring Shine Dress
Leah looks amazing in this fall version of the Spring Shine Dress. The fabric has so many colors and so much movement, it’s hard to believe it’s just one piece of fabric. I used hot fix crystals instead of buttons- which is a favorite detail of mine. Find the pattern HERE. A simple but stunning outfit!
Batik Fabric with Crystal Accents- Perfect for Doll Clothes
Mary and Lanie (below) are wearing the same Popsicle Top. The fabric is so eye- catching and I added hot fix crystals for some extra shine.
Oh Sew Kat! Popsicle Top and Sandbox Shorts PDF Sewing patterns
Use Batik Fabrics to add interest to Doll Clothes
I love this very lightweight blue batik fabric I was gifted by my mother. It looks like denim, but it’s so much easier to sew!! Jenna’s skirt is made from the Sun Day Skort pattern, and her bandana top is a reversible Picnic Play top.
Make a Hawaiian Inspired MuuMuu Dress for Your Doll
Below, I use THIS PATTERN HACK of the Playtime Peasant Top to make a beautiful muumuu for Nanea. Batik fabrics give an island feel to your fashions, so it’s soft and pretty. Find the pattern HERE.
Is Kirsten Larson part of your doll world? Whether she’s brand new, or the doll you had when you were 10 years old, she’s a classic beauty and Oh Sew Kat! can help give her a wardrobe refresh.
DIY Doll Clothes for American Girl®’s Kirsten Larson Doll
Are you sewing for your childhood Kirsten Laron doll so your daughter can have the Little House on the Prairie experience some of us are wishing on our own daughters? Thanks to the 35th Anniversary release, in addition to our classic Kirstens, there are brand new Kirstens hitting the dolly market. Whether you are trying to spruce up your OG Kirsten for a fresh look, or add to your new Kirsten’s wardrobe, be sure to check out these pattern hacks using Oh Sew Kat! pdf patterns for Kirsten.
Click on each photo, to go right to the tutorial.
Kirsten Larson American Girl® Sewing Patterns
There will be more tutorials coming soon! For more ideas to sew Oh Sew Kat! for your historical dolls, visit this HISTORICAL INSPIRATION GALLERY here.
Spring is here!! Usually that means it’s the beginning of craft show season! Whether you sell your doll clothes at a table, or in a tent, or even online, here are some best practices to make sure each outing is worth your time and effort.
Spring Craft Shows- Tips for Successful Doll Clothes Selling
Your booth, table and set up are what will draw people into your space. Make sure it’s open and inviting, with cute items at eye level to grab attention. Use bright colors and set up a multilevel display.
Your dolls are your models, and how they look sends a strong message to potential buyers. Do they look natural? Clean? Tidy? Style them in realistic poses; pull their arms down to their sides, lower their chins, and put their feet together. Add some shoes and cute accessories. Choose your models carefully. Show some ethnic diversity. The most popular 18 inch doll on the market is made by American Girl®. Yes, they are expensive, but they will also show off your outifts the most. If you find older dolls in thrift stores, spend some time cleaning them up and making them look as close to new as you can. Also, realize that older AG dolls are much bigger than current ones, so not all clothes will fit exactly the same. (Many older tissue patterns are also sized to fit the bigger dolls and look dated and dowdy on the current dolls.) Ensure the outfits you put on dolls show a variety of your work, but are also show stoppers. Would you stop at your booth and take a look or move on past?
Doll Faces- Pose dolls so that their chins are not in the air. Turn them to look at each other rather than just out in space. Comb their hair. If hair is a mess, braid it tightly or use ponytails. Messy dolls won’t inspire sales.
Take the time to press every item you sell, whether it’s on a doll, on a hanger, or in a bin. Presentation does matter and it sends a message to buyers about the quality of your work.
Think like a young girl, not like an adult. Look for current trends like Doc McStuffins, Care Bears, Baby Yoda etc and see what you can create around those themes. Show a few princess style gowns, but also separates and what “real girls” wear. Separates that can be mixed and matched also offer great value. Ask girls that stop by your booth what they like and what they don’t, what they would love to see, etc. Make some notes for next time.
Offer different size clothing for different sized dolls- one seller I know lets girls bring their dolls to try the clothes on to check the fit before they buy.
Don’t forget to offer basics like panties, diapers, sleeping bags, purses, and shoes. Package clothes as a complete outfit, but also offer pieces as separates and see which work better for your target market.
Price your items at three different levels. Really inexpensive (panties, purses, etc) for little girls to shop with their own money, your basic mid range for your market, but also have a few, higher priced speciality items, especially if they show off advanced sewing skills. Well sewn, well presented doll clothes can fetch a fair price. Your booth and display need to appeal to girls, their moms, and also their grandmas.
Use princess colors and themes for younger market (ie pinks and purples for Welliewishers™ and Bitty Baby™), but maybe check online and mirror current trends for older girls (Forever 21, the Gap, Old Navy, etc.) Avoid classic calico prints and homespun fabrics unless you are sewing historical, prairie inspired outfits. Choose small prints that are high quality and eye catching. Purchase real girls clothing on sale and use them for fabric.
Limit the holiday sewing- except for pajamas. As much as we enjoy sewing cute shamrock dresses, real kids don’t wear those types of outfits as much, especially the older girls. However, holiday tee shirts and sweaters, with jeans and shorts can work really well. (Try using a cricut machine to make your own graphic tees. Find out more HERE.)
There are so many cute sewing patterns available for doll clothes, you no longer are limited to just the tissue paper patterns that are often ill fitting and dated. Search the net, visit the Oh Sew Kat! Etsy shop and find clothes with a more modern fit to appeal to modern girls. Look for modern outfits, and dresses and tops that don’t choke the doll’s neck. Real clothes don’t look like that.
Online sellers: Purchase a true color or ring light and use it for your photography. Something simple like this: AD: https://amzn.to/41I35bH. Use a simple background and let the clothes be the star. Don’t forget to comb the dolls’ hair, lower their chins, and accessorize with purses, props, and shoes. Pay attention to your background and what a potential buyer will see. Things like stained carpets, pets, and clutter can send a strong message and it might not be the one you are hoping for.
If you carry a lot of doll clothes inventory, you can find some tips to speed up your sewing operation and be more efficient in THIS POST.
I’ve been to a few craft fairs in the recent months, and quite a few last fall. Although there are very few doll clothes sellers at most fairs I visit, the ones I do see always surprise me at how different their displays and offerings are compared with what I see online. With a little effort and a little forethought, a doll clothes booth can become a doll clothes boutique. A pleasant place to be and to shop. Good luck!!!
The Sunshine Dress is easy to download and quick to sew. Find it HERE in 3 popular doll sizes: to fit 18 inch dolls like American Girl, 14.5 inch dolls like Wellie wishers, and 16 inch Animators princess dolls.
Easy to sew, Basic Dress for 18 inch Dolls
This beautiful floral fabric started life as a Vera Bradley waterproof bag. The bags are not quilted, and have a fabric shell over a plastic liner (like to put wet bathing suits in, I guess.) It’s easy to cut it apart and gives me about a fat quarter of fabric. I purchase these bags very cheaply at the Vera Bradley Outlet in Virginia. Vera Bradley makes such beautiful prints that I often break the rules and use these fabrics for doll dresses despite the large print size. See more large print doll dresses in THIS POST.
Sew a sleeveless doll Dress in fun, Vera Bradley fabric
The Sunshine Dress pattern shows a short sleeve dress on the cover. It has three options for the front of the dress- one piece, a straightline inset, or princess seams. WIth this large and busy print, I chose the one piece front and used THIS method to leave the sleeves off and make it a sleeveless shift dress.
What fun fabrics have you used to make doll clothes? See more Vera Bradley doll outfits HERE and HERE.
Your dolls will be ready for spring sunshine with matching outfits made in a fun, buzzy print! Poppy and Callie are wearing matching Backyard Bibs outfits with Playtime Peasant Tops. You can find the patterns in six popular doll sizes right HERE.
Matching Sister Dresses for American Girl Dolls- Backyard Bibs by Oh Sew Kat!
The Backyard Bibs is a simple sewing pattern to sew for dolls from 8-18 inches. With attached straps (no buttons or button holes) and a simple, one piece bodice, the outfit comes together in no time at all. Choose pants or skirts for your one of a kind outfit.
Make your own American Girl Doll Clothes
The teeny, tiny Caring for Baby sized bibs join the bigger dolls for this fun, popular pattern. Make it for your 16 inch dolls like Animators and A girl for all time, or for your 15 inch Bitty Baby Dolls. It’s also available for both American Girl dolls and Welliewishers and Glitter Girls. With an open back, it’s easy for young hands to dress their own dolls.
The 8″ sized Backyard Bibs pattern includes the peasant top (long and short sleeves) and offers two options: pants or gathered skirt. Find it HERE.
DIY Doll Clothes for 8″ baby Dolls like Caring for Baby by American Girl®
Oh Sew Kat! offers pattern hacks and tutorials for many of their patterns. Find the full list HERE. Be sure to also visit the Backyard Bibs Inspiration Gallery HERE to see more tester photos and sewing ideas.
The 18 inch sized Backyard Bibs patterns offers shorts, capris, a-line skirt, and gathered skirt. The peasant top is sold as a value bundle or separately.
Matching Doll Clothes for 8″ and 18″ Dolls- Backyard Bibs by Oh Sew Kat!
It’s not too late to fill her Easter basket with a pretty bunny themed dress for Easter!! With easy ordering on Etsy, you can download your pattern, print the pattern pieces on your home printer and being sewing in no time at all!!
Easy to Make: Easter Dresses and Easter Outfits for Dolls
Camille (above) is a Welliewishers™ doll. Her outfit was made with this Backyard Bibs bundle. She’s 14.5 inches tall, so smaller than the standard American Girl® doll. Find patterns for dolls like her right here!
Quick and Easy Easter Dresses for Dolls to Make Yourself
Oh Sew Kat! offers beginner level sewing patterns with clear, step by step photos and instructions for every step! Whether this is your first doll dress or your 100th, you will be successful with Oh Sew Kat! PDF Sewing patterns.
Easy Easter Outfits to Sew for Dolls
The Sugan n Spice Dress offers a simple overskirt pattern, that is perfect for fun, holiday border prints, like Lanie’s skirt above over a solid green dress (also in the pattern). Keep your dresses in solid colors and change the overskirt for the season. Turn the skirt around for a cute fashion outfit too! See this POST for more on that.
Emily, above, is also wearing an adorable Sugar n Spice Dress made with contrasting fabrics. Grace, below, has a dress made from the Easy Up! Jumper- super quick and super simple!! See more HERE.
Doll Sized Easter Dresses- Perfect Basket Fillers
What will you make to put in her Easter basket this year? Visit the Oh Sew Kat! Easter Inspiration Gallery for more ideas and make something special for her today!
The adorable collection of Welliewishers™ dolls hit the toy market with a bang. They are hard plastic dolls, made by American Girl® with adorable outfits and stories (and even a TV show!) aimed at the 3-6 year old age group. We saw an upsurge of smaller patterns and even some new doll lines (Ruby Red Fashion Friends). Glitter Girls are exactly the same size, but offer a cheaper alternative and are available on Target and AD: Amazon.
Oh Sew Kat! offers 31 PDF sewing patterns and value bundles that are perfect for your 14-15 inch dolls. Enjoy this easy reference post to see all of them at once! Click HERE to go right to the shop.
Sewing Patterns to Fit 14-15 inch Dolls like Welliewishers™
Click on the photo to go right to the pattern. Find lots of ideas for each pattern in the Inspiration Gallery.
Oh Sew Kat! Dress Patterns for Welliewishers™ and Glitter Girls®:
Although my patterns are not specifically made to fit the newer, 15 inch Ruby Red Fashion Friend BJD dolls, there do have a similar shape and you can alter the patterns shown here to make them fit. I’ve collected a list of those changes in THIS POST.
Spring is springing – at least for some of us. Why not dress your doll for a perfect picnic on Easter Sunday? Choose the Picnic Play Sewing Pattern from the Oh Sew Kat! shop. The pattern includes the reversible (one piece!) top, cute cuffed capri pants, plus a bonus surprise accessory- a back pack in two sizes! These three pieces are quick to sew and create a perfect outfit for the beach, the park, or the playground. Find the Picnic Play Pattern for 18 inch dolls like American Girl® dolls here. This pattern is also available sized for 14.5 inch Welliewishers™ HERE.
DIY Doll Clothes – Picnic Play- Sewing Pattern from Oh Sew Kat!
This sweet bunny fabric was perfect for this play time outfit. It doesn’t have to be just for Easter. I added some simple green striped cuffs as contrast.
Try the Picnic Play Sewing Pattern for 18 inch Dolls: Capris, Reversible Top, Cute Knapsack
When you look closely at the lace top, you will notice it is two layers: fabric and lace. I cut the white fabric and lining as usual, then added a square of lace (Larger than the pieces) between the right sides before I sewed it together. Once it was sewn, I trimmed it to the same size as the top and carefully turned it to give a soft, pretty lace overlay. Even such a simple pattern can offer a surprise design element.
See more ideas for this fun pattern in the Picnic Play Inspiration Page HERE.
Meet the newest Animators’ doll- Moana. I’ve had a lot of questions about the fit of Oh Sew Kat! clothing on Animators dolls, but also about Moana, because she has a little larger body than the usual Animators’. Her feet are definitely bigger!! But those eyes- she is just plain adorable. I’m also a big fan of her movie and her story, so maybe that helps. 🙂
Make your own Doll Clothes for the new 16 Inch Moana Animators’ Doll
Oh Sew Kat! offers 26 patterns and bundles for the 16 inch Animators’ dolls made by Disney®. The Animators’ series is not consistent across the years and dolls, some are a bit bigger or smaller than others. (For example, Anna is a full inch shorter than Elsa!) But I found that OSK patterns have enough ease and give to still fit every Animator doll I have tried, as well as Moana. Click HERE to go to the Animators’ Section of the Oh Sew Kat! Etsy Shop to see the full line of patterns available. These patterns often also fit Baby Galoob dolls as well.
I pulled out some of my Oh Sew Kat! pattern samples that I have made over the years, and tried many of them on my new Moana Animator Doll. These are all of the same outfits that are shown in the photos in my patterns here on the blog, and in my shop, and you will see them on the other dolls like Anna, Elsa, Ariel, Belle, and Rapunzel. I am happy to report that I did not have any trouble with any of the patterns I tried. Shoes, however, were a little different story. If Moana is wearing shoes, they are regular 18 inch doll size shoes. She did not come with shoes and her feet are very wide. Here are the patterns I tried and every single one fit just fine.
PDF Sewing Patterns for Animators’ Dolls and Moana
Above -Moana fits perfectly in the Spring Shine Dress! It’s a simple dress with pretty flutter sleeves (or leave them off) and a fake button front (no buttonholes required- it closes with hook and loop tape in the back!). It also makes a super cute top (instructions also included.). You can find it HERE.
Make Your Own Doll Clothes for your 16 inch Moana Animators’ Doll
The Bloomer Buddies will quickly become a favorite pattern due its mix and match options and versatility. Make it with or without sleeves in three lengths (top, tunic, dress) and add bloomers in one of three lengths (shortie, shorts, capri) for lots of different play clothes options! Moana looks adorable in polka dots!! Find this pattern HERE.
Moana Animator Doll – Sewing Your Own Doll Clothes
Above – The School Dance pattern has options to make the front of the dress in three ways- straight center (shown ladybugs above), princess seam center, and without a center at all. Basic long sleeves plus a-line skirt equals a classic dress!
Doll Clothes for Animators (Moana) with easy to sew, Oh Sew Kat! Patterns
Above – The Party Time Peasant Dress is super quick to sew. I love to make it with holiday fabrics and it easily moves from season to season. See the Inspiration Gallery HERE and purchase the pattern HERE.
Below- Moana is wearing a short sleeved peasant top, which is really a wardrobe staple. Her 3 tiered prairie style skirt lets her wander the beach or dance the night away. Find the Playtime Peasant Top and Twirl Skirt pattern HERE.
Be sure to visit THIS POST to see Moana in more (different) Oh Sew Kat! fashions, and find the full catalog of Animators’ sized patterns HERE.
Oh Sew Kat! 