meet dolly!

dolly is the Tag-Along Doll from Hillary Lang’s Wee Wonderfuls Book.  i made dolly for the bee during her first fall, when she was about four months old.  dolly was almost as big as the bee.  and no, i could not think up a better name than dolly.  dolly is a best BEST friend.  she’s kinda dirty, with a permanent five-o’clock shadow of dirt on her face, and has been washed bunches of times already.  both arms have come off and been re-attached.  but dolly’s dress and old collar were the most beat up… dirty and faded.  so this year for christmas dolly got three new dresses!

her old dress was sewn directly onto her body, so i carefully removed it and made her a new dress in the same pink floral fabric.  instead of adding a collar to the dress, like the instructions in the book, i sewed two rows of shirring at the top to make it elastic so that it could be taken off and put back on.  the side seams are sewn with a 1.5″ opening for dolly’s arms, then sewn the rest of the way to the top.  i pressed the seams open and stitched the seam allowance down to the dress to prevent the fabric from fraying as it goes on and off.  this is such a simple construction that could be embellished with all kinds of trims and buttons!

i made two more dresses, using my overlock machine’s rolled hem setting to create a finished hem at the top, then shirred them like the first.  my local fabric store had these adorable tiny hangers, and i hung them from the tree like ornaments.  i never, ever in my life thought that i would be making dolls clothes, but i love these!  i’m sure that there will be more.  so far, the bee can’t, or won’t, change dolly’s dress by herself yet, but she enjoys asking us to help her.  i think the best gift that she got for christmas was the ability for dolly to be naked.  she gets so excited!  she yells “dolly’s naked mama!” and then gives her a “bath”.  perfect.

dolly’s getting underpants soon.  i’m hoping that this encourages my little resistant potty trainer to try it out!