Doll Clothes

Here I lay 12:30 on a Friday night, oops Saturday morning, just full of thoughts….Where do I start?

As the birth of my grandson approaches…on Tuesday, the waiting has got me very ansy. It’s sort of like being pregnant myself, the nesting sets in and you want to do things like cleaning and making things, to bide your time until the blessed event happens. It’s like a mother hen knitting while waiting for her chickens to hatch. No one told me this happens to grandmothers too.

I have been meditating on my granddaughter lately. What will she think of a new baby brother? Will she be jealous? Will she be gentle with the baby? I gave her a new baby doll and doll stroller for her to be busy with while mommy takes care of the new baby.

This worked well for my boys when they were 2 ½ yrs old and taught them how to be caring fathers. Well, at least my eldest remembered this lesson in nuturing his daughter. The other’s have yet to have a real experience, but they are very caring and playful with children and babies. Even my youngest son took his turn as a toddler in dressing the baby doll until he started school and lost interest. Look!, I don't think he forgot the experience either. Here he is with baby C, my granddaughter at 1 week old.


Anyways, a doll is only interesting for so long. What keeps a little girl’s interest in a toy? Something new, like …….new clothes? So my knitting has detoured a bit, while I am sewing some new clothes for my granddaughter’s new doll. I used to make clothes for my dolls as a child and my sons’ baby doll when I was a young mother. So I dusted off my sewing machine and searched around for some left over scraps of fabric. I purchased a Simplicity pattern to make doll clothes.

Remember when life was so self productive?. Heaven forbid that the youth today would have the skill or even the passion to learn how to sew doll clothes? They would rather buy it at Walmart or go to the Mall, or better yet order it on Ebay! What a shame for this generation to have lost a valued character trait called “resourcefulness” that our parents, who had experienced the Depression, took time to remind us Baby Boomers about, as we grew up.

I started making some outfits for a medium size doll about 16”. I couldn’t remember the exact size. As I finished the first outfit, I realized it was probably going to be big. The first outfit was a Fleece Jacket and pants set made out of some left over Black Fabric. It actually looks like a Ninja Suit. I added a removable hood. Well, if the doll can’t wear it, perhaps the new baby can.

Today, using the small doll pattern, I made a cute pink print dress, with white tights. I love this outfit, my favorite. I love the trellis of little red roses.
The next outfit I just finished as midnight was approaching was a little white blouse and rose colored jumper. Tomorrow I will try to make a sleeper suit. I plan to go to my granddaughter’s house for delivery on Sunday.

This has been very fun and I hope my granddaughter likes the new clothes. One thing about the experience is that I remembered why I do not sew much anymore. These old eyes are shot! It is getting harder to thread a needle and on a sewing machine, one does that a lot. Perhaps this is why I picked up again “knitting”. Knitting is so much easier on the eyes.