Spotted: The Arts and Crafts for Your American Girl Doll Blog

Arts and Crafts for Your American Girl Doll
Arts and Crafts for Your American Girl Doll
My nine-year-old did this American Girl doll photo shoot. Did you know that American Girl doll photo shoots are a thing? They’re a thing!

The American Girl Christmas catalogue came to our house recently, and you’d think that it was Wuthering Heights, the way that my kid has been poring over it. She was charmed, of course, by the kitchen sets and the pet sets and the bedroom sets, but she kept coming back, over and over again, to the little entry at the front of the catalogue telling about the doll hospital.

Mind you, the kid’s American Girl doll is in pretty good shape. The doll’s hair is untangled, her face is clean–what more can you ask for? So I asked the kid what she found so enchanting about the doll hospital, and you know what she said?

The hospital gown. The ID bracelet. If you send your doll to the doll hospital, that’s what she comes home in.

Of all the possible sewing projects that my kid could possibly desire, a doll hospital gown has to be one of the easiest. I mean, a hospital gown isn’t even supposed to fit correctly! And it isn’t even supposed to close completely! Piece. Of. Cake.

Nevertheless, there is a distinctive cut to a hospital gown, so I Googled “American Girl Doll hospital gown” to see if there were any free patterns out there in the interweb world.

I ended up at the PERFECT site for people who like to make stuff for their kids’ dolls: Arts and Crafts for Your American Girl Doll.

Here I found the perfect hospital gown pattern, and that’s what the dolls are wearing in the above photo. One gown is made from a thin, rather flimsy vintage print that I’m quite frankly stoked that I found a suitable project for–don’t you think it looks just right as a hospital gown?–and the other is a jersey print that I borked the neckline on, because I decided to rush and didn’t starch it before I sewed.

Arts and Crafts for Your American Girl Doll

And guess what there’s also a tutorial for, besides that hospital gown?

Yep. An ID bracelet! Hallelujah, because I had NO idea how I was going to figure out that one.

You’ll notice that both of these projects can be made with just stash supplies–in fact, not wanting to make bias tape for these hospital gowns, I simply substituted a thin elastic, and I think it looks great. Sometimes, project tutorials call for so many special supplies that you might as well just save yourself the time and buy the finished piece, since you’re certainly not saving any money, but these tutorials tend to call for easily available materials.

But that doesn’t mean that the results are ordinary. This blog has the tutorials to make all that specialized American Girl gear that your kid totally wants. Doctor/nurse scrubs. A complete Colonial-era outfit.  An entire gymnastic play set.

A complete Hogwarts school uniform!

And that’s why even though my daughter has told me that her doll really needs a set of scrubs so that she can perform surgeries, I have informed her that what her doll ACTUALLY needs is a Hufflepuff house Hogwarts uniform, and we’re making that first.

Eco-Friendly American Girl Doll Clothes and Accessories to Make
This American Girl doll T-shirt is actually a newborn onesie!

P.S. Looking for even more American Girl doll clothes tutes? My kiddo and I LOVE making American Girl doll T-shirts out of onesies, and this wrap skirt pattern is my absolute favorite.

2 thoughts on “Spotted: The Arts and Crafts for Your American Girl Doll Blog”

  1. That’s pretty great! I still have my AG doll from when I was a kid, though only her original outfit. I have to admit I’ve been strongly tempted to start using some of my scraps to sew a new wardrobe for her, but I don’t have a daughter yet. Maybe one of these days, if I ever do…

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