Repunzel Doll and Boy Shirts

I normally end up making hair bows for my niece for her birthdays, but I've been wanting to make a Black Apple doll for some time.  I wanted to make Repunzel, but wasn't sure how to make long hair hang down in the back.  After asking around, a friend suggested a wig, and I kind of like how it turned out.

 

 

Now she can be long haired Repunzel, or Repunzel with a hair cut.

 

And why not make a market skirt (minus the pockets) for the birthday girl to match her doll?

 

I've also been wanting to make a machine embroidered shirt using this technique.

 

It turned out to be harder than I expected.  Even with the stabilizer, the fabric shifted on me a lot.

 

This was a little easier.  I sewed diamond shaped t-shirt material onto the shirt and stitched stripes on top to make an argyle pattern.

 

It's hard to come up with ideas for handmade boy gifts...I can't imagine that clothes are really that exciting of a present.

 

I'd love suggestions for next years gift for a 9 year old boy.

Ruffled Shirt

I wanted a girly shirt to wear with my taking notes skirt, and didn't want to spend the money on it.  So I took a boxy button up shirt that was a little too big and some pleated fabric to make a ruffled shirt.  I found this tutorial from Chic Steals, but I didn't want to make it this complicated so...

I did this.  I thought I had already posted this, so lets see if I can remember what I did.

First, I tried the shirt on, inside out and pinned along the sides and underarms where I wanted to take it in to make it more form fitting.  I drew a line on one of the sides between my pins and cut away excess fabric.  I used the excess fabric to show how much to cut off on the other side so it would be symetrical (even if I'm not).

I sewed the sides closed, zig zagged, and top stitched on one side of the seam to hold the seam allowance down.  This also made the seems look more like the original.

I ripped out the seem in the back an inch on either side of the tuck.

 Where I ripped out the stitching, I basted and gathered the lower piece to match the upper, stuck it back inside and sewed it shut.

 

Using my pleated fabric, I cut and hemmed 2 rectangles for each side (one 3" wide and one 1.5" wide) all over twice as long as the distance from my shoulder seam to below my bust.

 

...then stacked them to baste and ruffle.

 Starting at the shoulder, I sewed the ruffles onto the shirt along the collar down to below my bust.