Dressing Hope's Christmas doll

The doll's original outfit

For Christmas I bought a rag doll for Hope with woolen hair that she can rearrange. It came with a short green skirt and a blue striped top, both fastened with velcro.

I thought that in time she might like to change the dolls dress around so I decided to make some interchangeable outfits. I used material from my stash and went with velcro again for fastening. I made paper patterns from the existing doll's clothes and from the doll itself.

 

Trousers and flowery top

Basically I made two tops, one from material I inherited from my mother-in-law and one from some scraps of kimono material which I picked up at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate in November. I teamed these with a pair of wide trousers (as the dolls feet are quite big) with an elasticated waist, which I made from material inherited from my mother. I also made a long wrap-around skirt, fastened with velcro again, from the net underskirt of a dress bought in a charity shop which was too small for Hope to wear herself.

Kimono top and net skirt

I enjoyed making the doll's clothes and will probably make more as time goes on. I also liked the fact that by doing this I was passing on to Hope something of the two great-grandmothers she never met.