American Girl Doll Sewing Classes

Dear Hannah,

I was 9 years old (pretty close to your age) when I first learned how to sew.  I remember that my mom had a whole cabinet filled with fabric...still on the bolt.  I didn't have to go to the store to find anything....she had it all right in our house.  I was pretty lucky.  But today, fabric is really expensive. And when you add all the pretty lace, trim and other things, it can get really expensive.  So I thought I'd show you how to buy old clothes at a thrift store and turn them into something wonderful for your American Girl Doll!!!

But first.....get mom or dad to take you to Hobby Lobby this week. All the American Girl doll patterns in the Simplicity catalog are on sale for just 99 cents!  Now, that's a great deal!!!

I bought this sweater today for $2.99 at a thrift store.  It's for an 18 month old girl.  You can see that it's a whole lot bigger than the pattern:

I laid out the pattern, and cut the sweater down to about 1/3 the size that it is.  That's one of the things I can teach you how to do when you come to class.  Then I sewed it all back together and just look at what a beautiful sweater it made for my American Girl model:

Not only is the fabric cheaper, but I could use the pretty embrodery that was already on it:

and just look at the beautiful border around the neck, down the front and around the bottom.  I couldn't buy that in a fabric store!

and I even kept the flower that was in middle of the back!  It only took me about an hour to make the whole thing!

And as you know,  I was so lucky because I found this American Girl doll at a thrift store for just $4.99.  But she needs a whole new wardrobe, so we are going to work on that this week.

 Next time I'm going to show you how to take a little girl's t-shirt and turn it into a t-shirt for your doll plus a matching pair of panties!!!

I can't wait til you come to class.  But you need to go find something at a thrift store that you can turn into a pretty outfit for your doll!!!  

One of the best things I ever did was to learn how to sew.  I hope you will love it as much as I do!

Love,

Jen