Cinderella Princess Dress for American Girl Doll

Well, It's been a long while since I have posted...about 9 months in fact! 
That's just crazy, but I've had a lot going on with my health and just getting priorities straight in my life!

It's good to be back though, and I hope I will be better about posting on a regular basis now.

I've gotten so behind that a lot of the projects I will be posting will be several months to a year old, but I'm hoping they will still be of interest to my readers/followers.

I love to sew and as my regular readers know I've been sewing a lot of doll dresses lately specifically American girl doll dresses! 

Here is one I made for my precious Grandgirl "B", a Cinderella Dress from Simplicity 5705 view C.

I have three granddaughters and two nieces who love dolls so I stay pretty busy cranking out those outfits! 

I suppose I would consider my sewing skills to be somewhere between beginner and intermediate. 
Even though I've been  sewing since I was a child I've had large gaps of years where I didn't sew at all. 

And for that reason I sometimes struggle with the more difficult patterns and working with fussy types of fabrics. 

I can't tell you how many times I cussed while trying to sew these princess outfits with these sheer fabrics such as tulle, satin and crêpe! 

I look back on it now though and am grateful for the experience!

 If I can get good at sewing these little tiny doll clothes with such difficult fabrics hopefully I will be able to do an even better job on regular size clothing!

When I first bought this awesome pattern, the Grandgirls and nieces were immediately smitten with all the pretty styles and each one picked out their favorite for me to make for them!

 

          I started with the Mermaid dress, which I made and blogged about here. 

Then I made the Belle dress for my Grandgirl "J" and thought I was going to end my stint making tiny princess doll dresses!

Fortunately, after a bit of time passed...I was ready to give it another try and make the Cinderella dress for Grandgirl "B"!

She had been so patient waiting for it...and I didn't want to let her down.

I was surprised to find that this one went much smoother than the first two!

 
It makes sense I suppose...after struggling with the first two and a lot of trial and error on those dresses, I was finally starting to understand all of the pattern instructions and how to work with the difficult fabrics. 

I had a little bit of trouble making the "pouf" sections around the waist of the dress, but a call to Simplicity and a google search or two helped me figure it out!

I usually post a photo showing what tools and supplies I used for a project, 

but somehow when I completed this project, I forgot to take a photo of the supplies and tools, so since it has been awhile...I won't try to gather all of those things up for a photo, but I will put this list here for reference:

Tools/Supplies Used for this Project:

(Note: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.”)

Pattern, Simplicity 5705 Disney Princess Costumes for 18" Dolls

Fabric - Satin Solid w/Glitter, Sky Blue

Fabric - Cotton/Broadcloth/Poplin? (Not sure exactly as this was a scrap piece) - Used to make the lining/interfacing of the bodice.

Fabric - Cotton Woven, Light Blue (For Headband)

Tulle, Light Blue - (For Slip)

Sewing Machine - Janome New Home 49360

Thread -  Light Blue

Elastic

Scissors 

Straight Pins

Velcro

Fairfield Polyester Fiberfill (for Puffs/Poufs)

Ribbon, White Satin, w/Silver Accents, 5/8", Christmas House Brand (For Trim on Bottom of Skirt/Dress)

 

My sweet Granddaughter "B" was so happy, and that's what matters most to me!

 

Hope you enjoyed my post!

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Thank-you for stopping by my blog!

Hope to see you again soon!

This project/post is linked to the following Link Parties/Pages:

Disney Princess Belle Dress for American Girl Doll

As much as I fretted over the last princess doll dress I made (see post)...I decided to make at least two more, because I promised my Granddaughters J and B that I would!

So...here is the second one...which I made for J's Birthday!

She had specifically asked for a Princess Belle dress and I was worried because me and delicate fabrics do NOT get along well!

I wanted to make it as authentic as possible though and make sure it had that magical look of a princess!

So I did my best to work with the satin, organza and tulle and tried not to cuss too much!

It would all be worth it in the end...to see the smile on J's face!

For this dress I used the Simplicity 5705 pattern.

I made a couple of changes in the embellishments on the dress, mainly because I could not find some of the notions called for on the pattern.

 I was not able to locate the 1/4" covered buttons, that were supposed to go on each side of the 1/2" center button on the shoulder drape, so instead just used the one 1/2" button.

The pattern called for 1/2" buttons on the skirt also, but I chose to use

 small satin roses in the draping on the skirt, rather than the covered buttons. 

I just felt that the roses fit the "Belle" story and looked very "Princess" like!

Another minor change I made, was the trim on the bottom of the dress.

The pattern showed a Disney print themed ribbon for trim and years ago when this pattern first came out, a lot of fabric stores carried a whole line of this ribbon, but alas...when I went to look for it this time, it was no longer in stock anywhere, so I just purchased some coordinating solid satin ribbon.

The draped piece around the skirt was especially tedious to sew...because it is such small scale and 

is sewn using such delicate materials!

I think the draping should have laid a bit flatter and closer to the skirt, but this was as close as I could 

come to make it to look like the photo on the front of the pattern.

I used baroque satin on the dress and bodice and organza on the shoulder and skirt draping.

That may explain why the draping did not lay so flat...the organza was very stiff and had very little "give".

I took some photos of the dress on my "model" American Girl Doll before we left to visit our Grandaughter in Oklahoma.

On the way there, we stopped in Dallas to visit my Mom and Sister and we went to the American Girl Store there... 

and picked out a special Birthday present for our sweet Princess "J"!

I think she was very pleased!

She wasted no time in changing the doll's clothes into her new Princess Belle dress from Gramma!

Then she posed proudly with her Mommy and Daddy and her new doll!

There is nothing better for a Grandma than to see that kind of happiness in their Granchild's face!

Here is a collage of some of the steps involved in sewing this pattern....

Here is a photo of the tools and supplies used to complete the project:

Tools/Supplies List:

Singer Superb 2010 Sewing Machine
Pattern, Simplicity 5705
Baroque Sating Fabric (Yellow)
Mirror Organza (Yellow)
Tulle (Lt. Yellow) (for petticoat underneath skirt)
Broadcloth (Yellow)(for bodice lining)
Thread, Polyester,Yellow, Gutermann (807)
Thread, Polyester, Yellow, Coats & Clark Dual Duty (7330)
Elastic, 1/8"
Ribbon, Satin/Polyester, Yellow, 5/8", Berwick Offray
Cover Button Kit, 1/2", Dritz
Velcro, 5/8" (Cut down to size required on pattern)
Bobbin Winder, Wrights Side Winder
Straight Pins
Measuring Tape
Safety Pins
Scissors, Large, Fiskars
Scissors, Small, Fiskars
Point Turner/Seam Creaser, Dritz
Mini Satin/Polyester Roses, Yellow, Offray (8 ea.)
Marker, Air Eraseable, Violet
Dress Marking Pencil, Blue
Wooden Chopstick, Smooth, Pointed (to help turn and smooth points)
Seam Ripper
Seam Allowance Ruler
Iron, Sunbeam (Not shown in photo)
Press Cloth

So happy you stopped by for a visit!
Let me know what you think of my project by leaving me a comment below!

Thanks!

Disney Little Mermaid Princess Outfit for 18" Dolls - Simplicity 5705

As my regular visitors have already surmised...I have a lot of doll loving little girls in my life at the moment (3 Granddaughters and 2 nieces)!
So, you won't be surprised to see that I've made another doll outfit.

I tend to be a pattern hoarder and have purchased almost every American Girl (18" Doll) Pattern out there, so about a year ago, I showed a good sampling of these patterns to my sweet little ones and they all picked out an outfit that they wanted, so I had to get busy!

This is the second outfit of that bunch, you may have seen my first one, this pajama ensemble that I made for my niece "K".

Her Sister "H" picked out the Disney Princess Little Mermaid Dress from this adorable Simplicity Pattern:

I was a little worried, as I am still somewhat of a novice sewer and wasn't sure I could handle the fabrics that are required for this project, but it's the one that sweet "H" wanted, so I was going to give it my best shot!

I did have some problems with the purple fabric used in the bodice.
It was called "Confetti Dot, Purple" and contained nylon filament and metallics.

I kept getting the fabric stuck in the hole of the throat plate and tore up several pieces of fabric before I realized that I needed not only to change the needle (fine needle 60-70) but needed a different or "special" throat/presser plate made for sewing such delicate materials on a small scale (doll clothes).

I did not come to this realization on my own however...as much as I'd like to claim credit...lol!

After total frustration, I did a lot of "googling" to try and find a solution to my problem.

I finally found a somewhat obscure site that solved my problem: http://www.sew-fashion-doll-clothes.com/sewingmachines.html .

There was some great advice on this site and best of all it addressed my specific issue with the delicate fabric and presser plate.

The only problem was...Singer (the mfr. of my machine) does not make a straight stitch plate for my model, so I was still in a bit of a pickle...I tried making a makeshift cover made out of card stock per the instructions on the above site, but I just couldn't get it right.

It did work, for a bit, but it definitely wasn't a long term solution.

Fortunately, my good friend "D" has a Janome machine that has a straight stitch plate and she let me borrow her machine to finish my project!

I think I will stay away from the delicate fabrics for doll clothes for awhile...at least until I can afford a different machine that accomodates a straight stitch plate!

Overall, I was pretty happy with the finished product!

I was really excited to finally get it to my sweet niece "H" and was so pleased she was happy with it!

Hope you all enjoyed looking at my project and if you'd like more info or have questions you can e-mail me or message me on my facebook page. 

If you'd like to see more pictures of my project check out my Flickr page.

Thank-you for visiting!

This post/project is linked to the following sites/link-up parties:

 sweetcsdesigns.com