"Rag" Doll Dresses

{Click HERE to buy my Rag Dolls or my Rag Doll Sewing Pattern.}

From Rag Quilt to Rag Doll Dresses, I have been finishing a couple sewing projects that have been in the works for a while.

I started all these Doll Dresses over 6 months ago! I wanted to make matching dresses for my little girl and her doll. I didn't finish the doll dresses in time, though. My little girl has already out grown all the dresses that I sewed for her! :) I hope she will be using the doll dresses for many years to come, regardless of whether or not she has matching dresses for herself. :)

The little red plaid dress is made from a true rag. 

One of my shirts that I have been wearing for over 8 years bit the dust this last summer. It became a rag when I ripped a hole in the back on the shoulder area. There was still plenty of good fabric in the back of the shirt to use for a rag doll dress. I even cut the doll dress sleeves out of the shirt sleeves. :)

I have been making rag dolls and dress as a creative outlet. 3 years ago, I was inspired to make rag dolls by reading an adapted version of Little House In The Big Woods to my oldest son (who was only 2 at the time. My, has he grown fast!)

 I had a particular type of doll in my mind to make. When I was a little girl my mom had cut out the pieces of a rag doll for me to sew. I was only about 7. My Mom had used a pattern from a library book. The book was part of a unit study on American pioneers. The rag doll turned out to be a good activity even though it was poorly done. Remember, I was only 7.

 The poor little doll never had any hair. Making hair was beyond any of our capabilities at the time. My Mom had never made a doll before and didn't know how to attach hair. And, this was before the internet made finding out how to do thing so easy.

 I wanted my design to be similarly shaped to the one that my mom had cut out. I looked for patterns and ideas on Pinterest and Etsy. I could not find exactly what I had in mind. So, I made up my own pattern. It has been working great, yielding results that are exactly what I had envisioned.

The way that I construct the dresses is just a miniature version of a human dress.

I finish all the seams and reenforce the sleeves in hopes that I will never have to do any repair work on these dresses. 

I know myself, if one of the dress seams rip out I will not get around to fixing it. I just don't like doing repairs. :)

Did you have a special doll growing up? What do you do for a creative outlet?