Alphabet Girls: really simple clothing

Violet, Charlotte, and Hannah

V is for Violet, very Victorian
C is for Charlotte, who crochets charmingly, and
H is for Hannah, happy for hours :-)

Violet is wearing a bit of crochet lace as a collar, and a simple gathered skirt.  Charlotte is sporting pants and a crochet poncho, and Hannah wears a very simple pillowcase dress.

All seams are 1/4 ".   My dolls are about 10" tall, so you may need to adjust the size of the pattern for your own doll.  But, as you can see, these are just squares and rectangles, and the fit is loose and forgiving.

The skirt and the pants are a simple rectangle, as shown by the upper left and upper middle images. 

To make the pants, cut two rectangles 5 1/2" wide by 5 3/4 " long.   Mark the casing line at the waist 3/4 " from the top, and the hem for the pants 1/2 " from the bottom. 

Find the midpoint between the legs and mark the crotch cutting line 3" from the bottom of the pants, shown in the upper right image.  Don't cut this line yet; sew the crotch seam as in the lower middle image, then sew the side seams.  When sewing the crotch seam, as you get close to the turning point, change your stitch length to a very short one and take it slow around the corner.

Carefully cut along the crotch cutting line, and clip the corners of the crotch seam close to the seam.  This will let you turn the pants right side out and smooth the wrinkles out of the seam.  Lightly ironing this also helps.

Press down the casing line at the waist and press up the hemline at the bottom of each leg.  Sew the casing by machine 1/2" from the folded edge, leaving an opening at one of the side seams to insert the elastic. 

Use 1/4" or 3/8" elastic and wrap it around the doll's waist, with about 1/2" overlap.  Insert the elastic into the casing with a safety pin and work it around the waist.  Sew the overlapped ends of the elastic so it lays flat in the casing, then handstitch the casing opening closed.

Hand sew the hem with matching or contrasting floss.  Done!

The skirt is even simpler.  Cut your fabric 12" by 4 1/4", sew up the center back seam, press under the casing at the waist and the hemline, then sew up the casing as in the pants, insert the elastic, then hem the skirt.

The pillowcase style dress has to be the simplest dress in the world to make. 

Cut two pieces of fabric 6" by 6".  Sew the side seams up to 2 1/4 " from the top, then press the seam open, pressing open the unstitched 2 1/4 inches to make finished armhole openings.  Press the casing at the neckline down 3/4 " and stitch the casing in place 1/2" from the folded edge.  Do this on both the front and the back of the dress.

Insert ribbon into the casing with a large tapestry needle and run it all around the neck edge.  You can use one piece of ribbon, like I did, or use two pieces and make bows on both shoulders.

Turn up the hem and handstitch in place with embroidery floss, and you're done!

You can use the pillowcase dress pattern to make a very simple top to go with the pants and skirt, or make rompers out of it by lengthening the pattern a bit and making a crotch seam as for the pants.

Charlotte's poncho was very simple to make, using fingering weight yarn and a size 2 steel crochet hook:

Chain 48, join to form a ring.  In the ring work (3dc, ch1)eight times, (3dc, ch2, 3dc, ch1) once (front point made), (3dc, ch1) eight times, (3dc, ch2, 3dc, ch1) once (back point made).  Join to the first dc. 

Slip stitch in the first two dc, then work (3dc, ch1) in each ch1 space, and (3dc, ch2, 3dc, ch1) in each ch2 space.  this will create a point at the front and the back of the poncho.  Work until it is as long as you want; I think I worked 10 rows.

Sneak Peak!  Ann, Kitty, and Ursula :-)