When author Erin Hentzel approached us about joining the blog tour for her new book Sew In Style: Make Your Own Doll Clothes, I quickly agreed. Having a 10-year-old daughter (and junior editor) who LOVES her American Girl doll, I bet you can understand why there was no hesitation. I have made doll clothes for her AG dolls before and I think they are fun, easy and quick projects.
My daughter Cydney hasn’t been sewing much this summer and I thought one of the projects in this book would give her a bit of much needed instant sewing gratification, if you know what I mean. Sometimes it is nice to just sit down and actually finish something in 30 minutes, amiright? (And we’re not talking about mending!)
She looked through the book and chose the messenger bag. It took less than five minutes to pick out fabrics and cut out the three pieces needed to make the Messenger Bag. She was excited because we actually had a similar fabric print ( Timeless Treasures Tossed Bicycles) to the one shown in the book; she thought this was perfect! I simply love using mini prints for making doll clothes. It is a small detail that really can make your project look great. (Hint: search your stash for small scale prints!)
Within minutes, this was Cyd, happily stitching away on mama’s Janome.
Since one of the ends of the bag requires rounded corners, I drew the sewing lines directly on the wrong side of the fabric. I figured it might be hard for her to remember which corner needed which detail.
Next, Cyd had a lesson in clipping corners and turning the body of the bag right sides out. She had a little trouble clipping, but I just assured her that she was doing fine.
She was gaining so much confidence that she even wanted to do the ironing herself. In total, this took less than 30 minutes from project selection to photo shoot!
Next, I set her loose with my iPhone and some dolly accessories appropriate for an 18″ Doll on the go.
After this experience, I can strongly recommend Sew In Style: Make Your Own Doll Clothes. I am always a big fan of C & T books, but books under the company’s FunStitch Studios imprint have many, many how-to photos to help young sewists. And that is the case with each of the 22 projects in this book. I think working on small projects such as doll clothes helps build sewing skills while not using a ton of fabric or taking a lot of time to complete. It’s a win-win in my book!
Thank you, Erin, for including Gen Qon your blog tour. C&T is doing a give-away – Visit them here and enter!
Why not check out a few more stops along the tour?
COMMENT #1
Love the bag and the photo shoot at the end of this post. Congratulations on a great job. Looking forward to getting a copy of this book for my daughter.