Make 50s style Fashions and Outfits for your 18 inch Doll.
Maryellen Larkin and her family are glad WWII is over and everyone is hopeful about the future in 1954. She loves pretending to be a 50s movie star and playing the jukebox at the diner with family and friends. Use Oh Sew Kat! patterns to stitch up 50s style outfits for your Maryellen doll and her friends.
Ad: Want to learn more about Maryellen’s adventures? Find Maryellen’s stories by Valerie Tripp HERE and at the American Girl stores.
Use Oh Sew Kat! patterns to sew 50s outfits for your Maryellen Larkin Doll.
Do you want to make Maryellen a new outfit? Try these twists on patterns from Oh Sew Kat! Find all of these patterns in my Etsy Shop: www.etsy.com/shop/ohsewkat.
If you have a tee shirt pattern for your doll that you just love, it’s so easy to use that same pattern in a new way and make a super cute, tee shirt dress for her!!
Make a tee shirt dress for your doll with the Simple Sweet Tee Pattern.
If you want a great selection of hardy knit fabrics, head to your local discount store instead of your fabric store. Shop the women and girls departments for a large selection of leggings! I always buy the largest size they have on hand, since it will provide the most fabric and the most design options. Shop the end of the season for the best prices!
I found these happy emoji and lacy leggings in the girls section of Walmart. The galaxy print was found in the women’s section and is perfect for Luciana, the 2018 Girl of the Year. The emoji and lace are capri style leggings, so they didn’t have a ton of fabric, but certainly enough to make 2-3 dresses (or 2 dresses and a tee). For a grand total of $2.29, that is certainly a bargain!
My dresses were made using the Simple, Sweet Tee pattern by Oh Sew Kat!, but any tee shirt pattern you have will work. If you have a tee already made, put it on your doll and decide where you want the dress to fall on her leg. Make a note of that measurement. I decided on three inches from the longer version of the Sweet Tee pattern.
It’s easiest to use the hemmed edges of the pant leg if they are big enough. If you can’t take advantage of the hemmed edge, add 3/8th inch to your measurement for your lower hem. You can simply lay your pieces down on the pant legs, and measure them to make sure they are the same and cut them out.
Usually, I like to create new pattern pieces when I do things like this. That way, I still have them for later to use again and don’t have to recreate anything when I want to make another one. Cut out the back and front pattern pieces, and tape them to a new piece of paper or graph paper. Using a ruler, simply extend the side edges down the amount you measured in the step above of both the front and back pieces. Create a new hemline and cut it out.
Extra tip: This pattern has a straight side seam (the hemline is a perfect 90 degree angle to the side seam). Sometimes, if you extend this line down too long, it won’t cover the doll’s bum in back because she is thicker there than at her waist, where the tee usually ends. After measuring and drawing my new lines, I moved my side seam out 1/2 to 3/4th inch and simply connected this back up to the armscye, giving the bottom edge just a little more room and flare. With knit fabrics, they will still stretch and work, but having a little extra room ensures a nice fit. If your tee shirt pattern has a tighter fit, or curves inward, I strongly suggest adding this extra width to the hem to ensure your dress fits.
Lay out your pattern pieces on your leggings or fabric. I used the existing pant hems here. Cut out your pieces, paying close attention to which direction the fabric goes and where the fold lines end up. It was kind of a tight squeeze to get the back piece on the child’s leggings, and I put one sleeve on each leg to maximize the fabric I have left over for the next one. Assemble the shirt according to pattern directions. For the lacy dress, I left off the sleeves and used fold over elastic using hemming method #1 from the pattern. For the emoji dress, I used the normal hemming method #3.
Add a little bling and a little sparkle to the doll clothes you make!! Here’s a quick tutorial on how to make a sparkly tee shirt like this one. You can purchase a tee shirt, or make your own with the Simple, Sweet Tee pattern. Use the free skirt pattern (Four Season Skirt) to complete your outfit!
**This post has affiliate links. See my full disclosure HERE.
Add HTV to a doll tee shirt- DIY Doll Tees!
Use a cricut machine or other e-cutter to personalize tee shirts for your dolls
Using your electronic cutting machine software, or using a standard die cutting machine, cut out your pattern from Heat Transfer Vinyl. HTV is cut from the material in reverse, and then pressed onto the fabric. If your design is not symmetrical, like a word for example, you need to mirror the image before you cut it out, otherwise it will be backwards on your item. For these snowflake tee shirts, my design is sized to about 1 1/2 inches and I used silver Heat Transfer Vinyl by Cricut.
Weed the image. This means to pull off all of the vinyl around your design (the negative space) so that all that is left on your clear backing paper is the image that will end up on your tee shirt. (I typically cut a square around my designs as well, to avoid using more HTV than I need, but to also make this weeding process easier.) A light pad (or window) can help you see the lines! Use a tweezers, a seam ripper, or other sharp tool to remove those teeny tiny pieces in the snowflake centers (or in letters if you are using a word design) too! The only thing left on the clear backing paper is what you want on your actual garment. There may be touches of glitter left on the backing paper and this will not end up on your item.
Position your image onto your shirt and press it with a hot iron or heat press machine for 20-30 seconds. It’s best to use a teflon sheet between your item and the iron, but with HTV, it’s not necessarily required. The new EASY PRESS by Cricut is a great, new tool for pressing, but a regular iron works just as well, especially because doll shirts are tiny and usually don’t end up being washed over and over like a child’s shirt would be. Remove the clear, backing paper (it will sort of curl away from your design as it releases it when heated) and discard it. Let your item cool.
If desired, add to your design with some sparkly crystals to make your design even more unique! Have fun with colored crystals and patterns. You can purchase them on amazon or at local craft stores. Depending which type you purchase, some have the glue (called HOT FIX) already on them. You can use the iron or a hot fix tool to melt the glue and attach them. You can also glue them right on with E6000 glue (also found at amazon and craft stores). If you add crystals, be sure that the age of the user is taken into account before you add them.
Have fun making personalized tee shirts for your dolls! See all of the design possibilities in the Cricut software HERE and let your imagination run wild! What will you make first?
I made the skirts with the FOUR SEASON Skirt pattern and added a few extra crystals with the E6000 glue to add a little more bling! Find the free skirt pattern HERE.
I used a CRICUT EXPLORE AIR machine to make these snowflakes shirts. Visit the Cricut website to see more about these innovative machines and products to take your crafting to the next level and beyond! Make your own tee shirt for dolls with the Simple, Sweet Tee shirt pattern found HERE.
Oh Sew Kat! 