Custom Belle Dress for American girl dolls

 For this costume I followed my Disney Princess Doll pattern for the basic sizing but I altered it a lot. I changed the sleeve loops, and the skirt.  I also chose a printed satin fabric. The swirl designs are golden and they shine and sparkle in the light.

 

There are pearl buttons at the neck and at each skirt loop.

 

I gathered the skirt so it would look more like Belle's dress from the movie. 

 Here's a view of the back.  It closes with Velcro, and she has a tulle petticoat under the dress to make it fuller.

This is a custom dress that is available in my shop!

Turning an American Girl Kailey doll into Belle

Kailey was quite a mess when she arrived!  She had a bad haircut, and purple paint on her lips and eyelids.  Her limbs were all loose and dirty, and she had nail polish on her fingers and toes.

I removed the nail polish and purple paint on her face.  As I was removing the paint from her eyelids some of the original skin colored paint was also removed.  So I had to re-paint her eyelids a natural skin color.

Then I removed her wig, blushed her cheeks, and painted her lips.  I chose to paint over her teeth to make her look more like Belle and less like a child. 

Next I added new hair!  I used a weave instead of a doll wig. 

I love the hair! It's so long and pretty.  With a weave you just have a long string of hair instead of a wig.  So you attach it by coiling it around the head in circles starting at the back of the neck. There are some great video's on YouTube showing how to do it.

 You can see where I stopped the weave, but I think it looks fine.  Especially if her hair is up it wouldn't show.

I also restrung her limbs.

I bought the weave from Lee Beauty, it's called Freetress Equal Loose Deep I got it in color 27.  It is actually a little more brown than the pictures show. 

She does have a couple small problem spots, first her body fabric seems to have been bleached.  It has lighter spots all over it.

 I had a real hard time showing them on camera.  It looks like little faded spots that are lighter than the body color.  She also has a small bit of glue or something on her right arm.  I tried to remove it but it wouldn't budge. 

 The defects are not noticeable, especially with clothes on you would not see the fabric body.  Here are some before and after pictures to see the difference.

 

 

Dress her up in her beautiful yellow ball gown and she's ready to meet her prince!

American girl Sleeping Bag

We are getting ready to take our summer vacation and my daughter wants to bring her American Girl doll along.  She has her outfits packed and realized that she wont have her bed to sleep in while we are gone.  So we took a trip to the fabric store and picked out some cute corduroy fabric for a little sleeping bag. 

 

The inside is micro fleece fabric.  It has a zipper up one side, and a matching pillow.

Perfect for a good nights sleep!

When she's not sleeping you just fold the sleeping bag in half, and roll it up.  The straps are sewn to

 the bag so they cannot get lost.  They Velcro closed to hold the sleeping bag tight. 

And with the handle she can carry her own luggage thru the airport!

Snow White Costume for American Girl doll

I grew up with the classic Disney movies and I still love them!  When we lived in Southern California we had passes to Disneyland and visited all the time.  I made princess dresses for my daughter but I never thought of making doll dresses!  They are so small and quick to make.  So it was only natural for my daughter's American girl doll to have princess dresses too!  I ordered this Disney Princess doll pattern a few weeks ago.

It has six different princess dresses, Tinkerbell, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, and Belle.  I decided to start with Snow White.

 

I did make a few alterations.  I changed the sleeves a little, and the neck line, and I changed the dress length.  I made my own headband out of ribbon instead of following the pattern instructions. 

I think that with the changes she looks just like Snow White.

 

I used bridal quality satin and taffeta fabrics to create this little dress.

 

It closes in the back with Velcro.  This lovely dress is available in my shop!

I don't know why it took me so long to start making doll clothes!  I love how fast they work up and how little fabric they take.  I'll be making the rest of the patterns soon!