5 a Week: Skirts for Dolls

It’s Sunday, so it’s time for week 3 of…

…The Five a Week Pledge.

If you haven’t been around here, it’s where you pledge to do five things each week of your choice (see the first week for more info).  I pledged to make five small crafts each week.  Feel free to grab a button and join me.  If you already have, post a comment or a link to share what you accomplished.

This week’s craft:

Skirts!

Doll sized to be exact.  And they’re all circle skirts too.  I got the idea from watching video on this Youtube Channel.  She makes lots of sewing tutorials and many of them involve circle skirts.  They looked pretty easy so I decided to give them a try. 

There were several reasons why I decided to make them doll size.  First it’s quicker and sometimes easier to sort of test drive a sewing technique in a smaller scale.  Second, it lets me use less fabric.  I can easily use leftover fabric this way.  Third and most importantly, I have a poor little ball jointed doll named Hikaru that I’ve owned for about a month and a half (see Catching Up -- A New Friend).  Sadly, I haven’t sewn much of anything for her yet, so she could use some more clothes.

This first one is made from an off-white floral print cotton I had left over from I dress I made for Comicon (see Time for Some Catching Up).  The waistband was made by just by folding the fabric to make a casing for elastic.  I call it the cheater’s method.  I actually would only recommend it on rectangle skirts.  It’s harder to do on fabric cut curved instead of straight.  Plus it may look okay in the photo, but it looks sort of messy in person.

The second skirt is basically take two for the first one.  I sewed the elastic directly to the skirt this time.  It’s easier to do for a circle skirt and looks much nicer.  The only problem is the fit.  I messed up the first time and had to cut the fabric and redo it.  This resulted in a pretty skirt that’s a teeny tiny bit too big for my doll.  You can see her staring at it like “what did you do to this thing!?”  It’s not that bad, but it would be better for a doll that is a little larger than her.

This third one was probably one of the easiest.  It’s made with two layers of blue tulle leftover from my Halloween costume (see Halloween = Tulle) plus a lining.  I just had to hem the lining, quickly stitch all three layer together at the top, then sew on the elastic.  I kind of want to make several more of them.  Maybe in more colors. 

This skirt is made from scraps from my spring dress(see Catching Up – Conventions Anyone?).  It is lined.  I attached the lining fabric to the floral print at the waist opening, then turned the fabric and top stitched along the top to make a casing for the elastic.  This was probably the easiest way to make the waistband for these skirts.  I love the fabric, it’s the perfect weight for doll clothes.  I think I would like to make a dress with it too.  Eventually.

The final skirt is one of my favorites.  Hikaru likes it too.  I used more of the that off-white fabric and some of the red floral print fabric I used for that comicon dress as well as a previous Easter dress.  I made it the same way as the previous skirt, just making the “lining” longer than the top layer.  I added some simple lace to the top layer of fabric.  It’s a nice sweet touch to a pretty skirt.

I’ve learned a lot about sewing circle skirts from these.  Now I can’t wait to try to make a human sized one.  Also to try making some doll sized shirts to go with a few of these skirts.  Maybe that will be for next time.  Look forward to it!