Wearing a purse out.

Today's craft was to officially make a little skirt out of this purse my daughter got as a gift from her Grandma.  Don't worry, Grandma bought it thinking it would make a cute doll skirt, so she knew we were going to cut it.  :)

The first thing I did was cut the strap off and also cut out the zipper and the purse lining. Then I simply sewed a casing and fed a 10 inch piece of elastic through it.  Then....instant skirt.

We love finding ways to make our own doll clothes and this little purse was perfect for the job!

Sorry for the terrible pictures, but hopefully you get the idea!!

Beauty Sleep

My daughter is a clever little thing.  Last week she asked me to make her and Julie matching sleeping masks.  I loved the idea of anything that might help my daughter sleep in, so I immediately went to work.  I am not an expert sewer by any means...in fact, I am just learning.  So I went online in search of a pattern.  I found this one that worked great:
http://familyfun.go.com/assets/cms/pdf/printables/0406_sleepmask.pdf
I made my daughter the full sized version and I printed a second copy for Julie by printing size 4x6.  This worked perfectly.  To add the elastic, simply measure from one eye, back around the head to the other eye.  We used two fabrics, a soft one for the back and a fun pattern for the front.  We sewed it all together inside out, leaving a small opening, then turned it right side out and finished off the opening with a small stitch.  Julie loves her new mask!

My daughter's video how-to is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqZer9fJRNI

Mini snacks

American Girl magazine has been a wonderful resource for doll fun.  This last issue, they showed how to make mini doll-sized s'mores and my daughter and I absolutely loved it!  Today I surprised my daughter and son when they came home from school with a mini s'more snack.  They had so much fun assembling the Golden Graham cereal, mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips.  We simply put a marshmallow on one graham, a chocolate chip on the other, microwaved for 10 seconds, then closed the two pieces together.  YUMMY!

Webkinz

My daughter has been a huge fan of Webkinz and was all about them until Julie came into our lives.  She started asking me if she could buy the American Girl pets from the catalog.  The last thing we need is another stuffed animal.  I told her that surely she must have a Webkinz that Julie could adopt as a pet.  She did.
So one day I am sitting in my office and my daughter comes running down telling me she has a craft idea...LEASHES!  I was so proud of her cleverness!  Again, we used our t-shirt scraps to make a leash and an old cat collar from when out cats were kittens.  My daughter added some bling with her Bedazzler and the rest is history.

She made a step by step video that gos into a little more detail that you can watch here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=600eDLyvLdk

This craft was completely thought up alone by my daughter...isn't it amazing what little minds think up?

Sleep All Day

After seeing Julie's bed in the AG catalog for the first time, my daughter and I were in complete awe.  That bed is just plain fun.  Prior to seeing it, we were using the box Julie came in as a bed.  My daughter and her friend made a cute pillow and blanket for the dolls out of fleece and voila! instant Julie bed. If you haven't made a no sew blanket yet, you really should try it.  There are tutorials for this online, so I won't bore you with the details here.  You can watch a whole video on how to do it on YouTube, just scale it for your doll.  1/4 yard of fabric is plenty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHxn0NbERF4&feature=related

This brings me back to the bed.  One day I was strolling through the clearance section at Hobby Lobby and stumbled across a metal plant shelf for 85% off.  It looked just Julie's size, so we were inspired to make it into a bed for her.  My Mom was in town, we had a fun time in Hobby Lobby finding supplies to make this bed extra special.  We chose quilted fabric for the mattress and used rectangular foam for the inside...so easy.  We then added beads and flowers for fun.  I made a few fun and funky pillows for the bed when Julie isn't using it so it can convert to a day bed, or couch for Julie.  We are so happy with the results. 

One of the things that is so fun about these dolls is the out-of-the-box thinking...in the case of this bed the pun was intended.  :)

For more detailed instructions, see our YouTube video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QXxNgLA1sA

T-Shirt Transformations

When people say a book changed their life, they are usually talking about such books as Great Expectations by Charles Dickens or 1984 by George Orwell.  But for me, it was Generation T: Beyond Fashion.

This book inspired me to pull out my sewing machine and start crafting.  Before I knew it I was transforming my daughters camp shirts into cute, totally styled and unique creations. Not all the projects in this book require sewing, which is what initially intrigued me about it, but after starting with the no-sew projects I ventured into the more daring sew-just-one-straight-line projects.  Here is a sample of one of my daughters t-shirts transformed:

Now as you can see, to make this shirt, the very first thing you do is cut off the sleeves.  These shirt transformations meant piles and piles of t-shirt sleeves on my desk.  This got me thinking....what can we do with these sleeves?  Well one thing led to another and my daughter and I started messing with the sleeves and found out that they make really cool t-shirts for the dolls!

These shirts require NO SEWING, so they are a great craft for kids.  My daughter and her friend have had a blast whipping these babies up.  Of course, we posted a step by step tutorial for each one. You can find them here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBQWS77cUtU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbXJW_P4ruE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtz072dekLM

Channel your inner fashion designer and get cutting!  Oh, and you should probably ask your parents permission before cutting up any of your t-shirts.  :)

The beginning

Well, here it goes...the beginning of an adventure in American Girl crafting.  Let me start by saying I love these (expensive) little dolls and so does my daughter.  She saved her own money to buy her first American Girl doll and since then we have started on a crafting adventure.  We have made clothes and other accessories for Julie to enjoy.  It's been such a wonderful bonding experience for both of us.  This mother/daughter time has been so important to me.  Now that we have quite a few crafts under our belt I thought it may be time to start a blog.
So for our first entry we will show the very first craft we did that started the madness...
American Girl Headbands.  Of course this will work on any doll...

We used ribbons and buttons and flowers.  The ribbons simply tie under the doll's hair.  Later, as we made more, we started to use a small piece of Velcro on the ribbon as my daughter was having trouble tying the ribbon on herself.  Learn as you go, right?

This was a busy day of crafting that included jewelry making as well.

 

 My daughter and her friend thought of a lot of these crafts on their own.  Enjoy the cuteness even more on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt68kXvNxCM

Have fun crafting!