American Girl 18″ Doll Clothes with pattern and tutorial

I walked into the Dollar Store to pick up sandwich  bags.  As I passed a rack of scarves and hats, this teal and lavendar color combination caught my eye.  Hmmmm . . . I also had doll clothes on my mind as there are three little girls on my list that absolutely adore their American Girl and My Generation dolls!  I picked up the bags and returned to the rack of hats and scarves.   An idea had begun to blossom and as I sorted through the offerings, it began to take shape.  A ribbed hat that was pretty stretchy, a big scarf as wide as the doll body and a striped kid’s scarf to tie the colors together.  For only a $3 investment, I decided to see what that nubbin of an idea would turn into!

HAT:  Sorry –I got so wrapped up in making things happen, I forgot to take a picture of it before cutting.  But you get the idea of what it looked like.  The 18 inch dolls have a head that is 12 inches around.   This hat would stretch that far folded flat which meant it was 24 inches around so I knew it would make two hats.  I cut the top of the hat off as shown above, using about 5 and a quarter inches from bottom of hat to make the doll hat.

 For the individual hat, I folded the piece in half as shown and then cut the excess off the bottom side so both sides matched.  Then I stitched around the open sides with a straight stitch as a way of basting them together.  This knit was a double layer so I had to be sure I caught all the edges.  Then I zigzagged over the cut edges so the knit would not ravel.  And all done!

SCARF:  From the striped scarf that measured 22 inches by 5 inches, I made two doll scarves.  Fold it half, cut in the middle so you have two 11 inch long pieces, trim the cut ends to match the scarf’s ready made ends and zig zag.  Done in one sentence.

JACKET – CUTTING:    Making the jacket was a little trickier.  The scarf was 8 inches by 54 inches.   I wanted to use the finished edge as the edge of my garment.  I didn’t have a long sleeved jacket in my pattern stash,   but I found a couple of patterns I could alter and mash together.  And then to figure out how to maximize the finished edge.   I began by using the ends and side to form the front of the jacket.

Fold the scarf in half, taking care to match the corners (or rounded corner) exactly.   I matched the front edge of the pattern with the long edge of the scarf and the bottom edge of the pattern with the end of the scarf.  Cut out the other two sides — around the neck and shoulders and around the sleeve and side.  Do not cut anything on the bottom or  front of the jacket.

This is what the finished cut will look like.  Note the finished edges do not match the square bottom of the pattern.

Fold the scarf as shown and place the back pattern on the fold with the bottom edge on the finished edge of the scarf.

The cut out piece will look like this — note the finished edge on what will become the jacket bottom.

Fold scarf again so you can cut two sleeves.  Place pattern so bottom of sleeve is on finished edge of scarf.

JACKET ASSEMBLY:  Match front shoulder seam to back and stitch. Repeat for other side.  Match notches on sleeve to notches on armhole in jacket, placing right sides together.  Gently ease fabric around curve. Repeat for other side.  Beginning at bottom of jacket, place right sides together and stitch a continuous seam to bottom of sleeve.  Repeat for other side.  Turn jacket right side out.  Finish neck by running a zig zag stitch on the edge.

Done.  I cut both jackets out at once — but if you want to be really accurate or don’t want to handle  that many thicknesses at once, you can cut the first and then cut the second one from the second half of the scarf,  following the same sequence as above.  Repeat assembly directions for second jacket.

Two outfits, two hours and three dollars.

Jacket, scarf and hat for any 18″ doll.

Download jacket pattern here.

Have fun — you know the little one who receives this cute outfit will!

Other 18″ doll projects:
How to Make a Parka for 18 inch doll
Jacket, Hat and Scarf from Dollar Store purchase  with jacket pattern
Pillowcase Dress for 18″ Doll with pattern
Party Dress for 18″ Doll
Sleeping Bag for 18″ Doll
Fiesta Skirt made from a fat quarter

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