Your 18-inch doll’s favorite outfit can come directly from your scrap bin!
And so can your 18-inch doll’s second-favorite outfit. And their third-favorite outfit! And their fourth, fifth, and sixth!
There are so many terrific free tutorials online to show you how to make amazing doll clothes using the stash and scrap fabric you already own. Here are some of my favorites!
Apron
When things get messy, your doll will love to have this pretty apron to help her keep her fancy clothes clean. To save yourself a little construction time, use 1/4″ bias tape from your stash instead of making it.
Cape with a Hood
My favorite doll clothes to sew are the garments that I wish I could have for myself–like this cape! The pattern is designed for fleece, but any beautiful scraps, especially velvets and faux furs, would work. The back of the cape also has plenty of room to applique even more details and embellishments.
Drawstring Dress
When I made these for my little kids, they were called pillowcase dresses, because you could make them from one pillowcase and some ribbon. It doesn’t work quite the same for American Girl dolls, of course, but the process is almost as easy. And if you have plenty of stash fabric, you could use the pillowcase dress as inspiration to make a matching dress for a kid!
Face Mask with Ties
Because dolls don’t like to share germs, either! This face mask requires just two scraps of fabric and two lengths of bias tape, and you can even make the bias tape from scratch.
Fleece Hat and Matching Poncho
This super cute matching set is an easy way to gear your doll up for Winter. For a completely no-sew project, make just the poncho.
Gathered Skirt
You can make a doll skirt as short or as long, as poofy or as sleek as you like with these simple directions. The use of fold-over elastic means that you don’t even have to sew a waistband casing!
Mod Dress
Okay, your doll’s owner probably won’t know what a mod dress is, but they WILL know that this sleek dress is a fun change from the usual type of 18-inch doll dresses with all their gathers and elastic. The color and a band at the hem are both optional, giving you even more chances to use up your scrappiest fabric bits… or not!
Peasant Dress
I hate working with both hook-and-loop tape and snaps. I also hate hooks and eyes and zippers. Basically, I hate ALL fastenings, especially when I have to add them to teeny-tiny doll clothes. Happily, this peasant dress sneaks around all fiddly fastenings, thanks to its elastic at the neck and waist. And frankly, that makes it even easier for kids to dress their dolls independently, because if there’s one thing I hate more than sewing fastenings onto doll clothes, it’s someone small bringing me the garments I’ve sewed those fastenings onto every five minutes so I can help them fasten all those fiddly snaps and buttons and zippers.
Peplum Coat
This peplum coat pattern is meant to be made with fleece, but you can substitute different fabrics, depending on the weight. Denim might be a little thick, but some other bottom-weights would work, as would wool or even some types of upholstery fabrics. If your 18-inch doll is slightly bulkier than the American Girl dolls that I usually sew for, you could even get away with making this pattern in lightweight pattern as a peplum shirt.
Romper
This romper pattern sews up quickly and only requires a quarter-yard of fabric, plus elastic. It looks cute with any lightweight fabric, but my very favorite fabric to use is scrap toweling. Doesn’t a little terrycloth romper feel so summery?!?
Skirt with a Contrasting Border
This is a fun way to make a skirt with just a little more color than expected. The construction is very similar to that of the gathered skirt, above, but this skirt calls for a contrasting border fabric to make it extra fancy.
Sleeveless Dress
This sleeveless dress makes a terrific basic wardrobe piece for your 18-inch doll. Layer it with leggings underneath or a sweater on top, or, since the whole dress takes just 1/4 yard of fabric, sew your favorite person’s favorite doll a whole rainbow of sleeveless dresses so they always have something that matches something else!
P.S. Want to sew for your 18-inch doll using pattern pieces that you don’t have to download and print yourself? Check out my favorite pattern books just for 18-inch dolls!
