Repurposed Doll Clothes

 See this cute little girl?  She's one of my precious grand daughters, her name is Isabel Louise.  We call her Izzy.  She loves dresses and skirts.  She chooses her clothes every morning and does a great job at coordinating her outfits.  The dress she is wearing in this photo was one of her absolute favorites.  This photo was taken 2 years ago when Izzy was 4 years old.  She just had a birthday and now she's 6 and in Kindergarten!  The time sure does fly by fast.

It was a shame to get rid of this dress, but it is pretty worn...

I had an idea to repurpose it and make a dress for Izzy's 18" doll for her birthday.  

This is my 18" doll, her name is Red Rose.  I bought her for my grandchildren to play with when they come to visit.  Her beautiful ringlets have become fuzzy, but she's loved.  She has the outfit that she came with and I made her an extra dress.  I keep meaning to make her some more clothes for the grandchildren to have even more fun with!

Red Rose is my model, she fashions the clothing I make for my grand daughters.  Here she is wearing Izzy's repurposed dress.  It's a long dress (ankle length) and I was able to keep the original hem.  There wasn't quite enough fabric for the entire dress so I found some in my quilt stash for her bodice.  I even put the original tulle lining under the skirt, keeping the original hem and gathering.

I didn't have any knit fabric or any fabric besides quilting cotton.

Red Rose's top is from a pajama top I had.  The pants were Izzy's and I kept the ruffled hem and reattached the bow at the waist.

These cute Santa pj's were Izzy's too.

This monkey robe used to be Izzy's and she laughed and laughed when she saw it.  I used the original hems again and used the robe sash, it was the perfect length!

All of these doll clothes were our birthday gift for Izzy.

I made this dress from fabric in my stash and the rick rack trim is vintage.

I thought this was such a cute and easy idea and wanted to share it with you.  The dresses and the top were painstakingly time consuming.  I had to take a break for a few days and then I was fresh and able to finish them.  It was all worth it when I saw the joy in Isabel's face when she opened her gift :)

Baby Brit Quilt Along week #5

By now you should definately be thinking about what fabric you want for your sashing and your border.  Solid, print, stripe, polka dots, the choices are yours :)  I have chosen my sashing but I am stumped as to what I will choose for the posts in between the blocks.  Everything I have tried seems too bold.  

This is my fifth block.  I really like it!

This is Rebecca's block.  I like the way the stripes are all on the diagonal in different directions.

Have fun with your blocks and don't forget to post them to the "Baby Brit" flickr account :)

Baby Brit Quilt Along, Week #4

Welcome back, we are on week #4!  These blocks are so much fun to cut and sew.  After you've made the first one, you can hardly wait to see what the rest of your blocks will look like with your fabric combinations.

This is my fourth block.

Here are two of Rebecca's blocks.  She thought outside of the box and chose vintage clothing.  You can see buttons and ties, eyelets and tucks in the fabrics.

This is Lindsay's third block.  I really like the red with the green!

Alice from alidizia has joined the Baby Brit group on flickr. 

Jennifer from Project Remnant Redo has joined the group also.

Go and look at everyone's beautiful blocks.  It is always so much fun to see what others create :)

There's still time to join if you're interested. 

 Two more weeks of making blocks.  In reality, all six blocks can be made in one week if you have the time.  The seventh week we will be sewing our sashing and borders, the eighth week we will be machine quilting and the ninth and last week (October 1), we will bind our quilts.  

We will finish just in time for Rebecca to have her second baby (a boy:) due around October 31!!! 

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #2

If you haven't joined the "Baby Brit" quilt along yet, it isn't too late.

Once you get the fabric cut, these blocks don't take very long to sew together.

Week #1's tutorial is here.

You can upload the photos of your blocks onto Flickr, on

 the "Baby Brit" group HERE.

I am so excited to see your finished blocks, that I can hardly contain myself :)

This is the color scheme I chose to sew together this week.

I never throw away these scraps, they can be used to cut squares for another quilt :)

I have all four rectangles cut out.  I am really careful to cut two rectangles and then turn the template the other direction and cut two more rectangles.  I would be so upset if the crosses didn't match, I would have to buy three more pieces of fabric, and Material Girls is in another state.  I can't just get in my car and drive there in 5 minutes like I used to be able to do!

The skinny light blue polka dot strips are ready to be sewn onto the rectangles.

The light blue polka dot strips are sew onto the rectangles and pressed towards the light blue polka dot strips.

I cut the edge of the three strip flush with the edge of the ruler so it will be straight.  Notice how the bottom long edge of the fabric is even with the horizontal line on the cutting mat.

I cut the two strips I needed and have a long strip leftover which I will put in my scrap box.

The two strips are ready to sew between each of the two rectangles.

The long red strip of fabric on the left is waiting to be sewn next.

The seams are always pressed towards the skinny light blue polka dot fabric.

Now it's time to sew the long red strip to the two rectangles.

My second block is complete, it looks similar to true Union Jack colors.

I am so excited about my daughters' blocks!  They are part of the reason I began this quilt along.  

Lindsay went to Material Girls quilt shop and chose her six fabrics.

I especially like her greens and gold, and blue houndstooth.

One of the most enjoyable parts about making a quilt is choosing the fabric.  I love to see what different people choose.

Here is Lindsay's finished block.  It is really beautiful.  

I was so excited to see the photo in my email!

This is Rebecca's block, very original.  This is what she said,

"I decided to try something a little different to get a more vintage look (hopefully) and to repurpose some fabrics by using clothes to make these blocks.  I used two pairs of pants, a dress, a nightgown, and two shirts. It took a few extra hours to cut the strips out of each article of clothing and make sure they were the right measurements, so it definitely added some time to my first block.  I think it is worth it if you have some favorite clothes you want to keep a piece of, or if you want to work in some of the details of clothing into the quilt, such as buttons, pockets, or pleats.  Or just for fun."

We will see you next Monday for week #3 :)