Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Creating A Doll Outfit from Stuffed Animals


You can create your own doll clothes easily from stuffed animals. Makes perfect outfits for your dolls for holiday displays. This one is for a bunny for Easter. I found the stuffed bunny at Dollar Tree for $1. It will fit a 12" doll. If you cut the feet off of the stuffed animal then it will fit taller dolls but be shorter on them.

1. Open up the back seam with a seam ripper and take all the stuffing out.
2. I took the stuffed animal's head off by rippng out the neck seam. You now have the body and head separate. See photo below.

3.  Cut just the face out of the bunny head or stuffed animal head. Shown below with the face cut out. Discard the face.

 4. Sew bias tape around the face opening and around the bottom of the head.
5.  Add Velcro or snap at the neck line to hold the new hood on the doll.
6. Sew bias tape around the neck edge of the bunny body. You can also turn under and hem if you would rather do that.
7. Sew velcro or snaps on the back.
8. Open up the hand are at the end so the doll's hands can come through.
9. I left the opening unfinished. But you can hand sew a hem in the hand opening if you want. Dress your doll and you have an adorable animal costume for it.

How to Make a No Sew Tutu for Any doll

It is easy and fun to make a no sew tutu for any doll.
You will need 1/4" wide ribbon. The length will be determined by the doll's waist measurement. You will need tulle in the color of your choice. Match the ribbon.
1. Measure your doll's waist and add 12". Cut a piece of 1/4" wide  ribbon that length.
2. I lay a ruler on the dolls body from her waist to determine the length I want the tutu. Double that length and add 3 more inches.
3. Cut the tulle the length you just determined from the formula stated in number 2 and width of 7". I made this tutu for a 12" Lalaloopsy doll. I cut the tulle 6" long by 7" wide.
4. Scrunch up the 7" side of tulle into your hand. then fold the 6" in half.
5. Take the ribbon and put it over the folded piece of tulle and open up the loop that is the fold. Shown in photo below.
6. Take the ends of the folded piece and put them through that loop shown in the picture above, making sure the ribbon is in the middle of the loop and the ends you put into the loop. Pull tight on the ribbon as shown in the photo below.
7. Continue steps 4, 5 and 6 until the ribbon has tulle on it that is the waist measurement of your doll.
8. You may need to trim the length of the tulle after your tutu is completed to even it up.
9. Tie the ribbon in the back of the doll into a bow. Now you have a new sew tutu that took you minutes to make.
Have loads of fun making tutus for your many dolls in many colors.