Barnes & Nobles American Girl Demo

The costume I'm wearing represents the 1896 time frame, near the Gibson Girl era.  As you can see on my earliest entry, I mention this outfit and the event that it was made for. 

At the barnes & Nobles event, I dressed up my 5 dolls in different outfits.  This is my most favorite, the Medieval Traveling outfit.  You can see additional pictures of this outfit under the American girl doll label.

This outfit for the doll was inspired, Ohh, do you see the similarity?....it was inspired by my outfit.  My doll is also wearing a Gibson Girl outfit made with the same fabric as mine.  I'll post her outfit next time so that you might see the details a little bit better.  Since I just finished her outfit that morning, I wasn't able to include a not made up hat and fan. You can see the other dolls behind me, from left to right - Elizabethean outfit (my creation), Tinkerbell, Felicity's day dress [worn by Elizabeth] with matching purse [the object of the demo]

Here I am showing my audience how to make the stitches in the fabric

and helping them out with any questions,

The girls loved to ask questions.  We talked about the time period of these outfits, colors and fabrics, designing and the process of putting it all together.

It was a lot of work putting all this together, but, I must say, I truly enjoyed this short time interacting with them, the interest and the wanting to learn, and especially, the end result:  "I really did do this all by myself!". 

I want to give thanks to Anna, the Barnes & Noble children supervisor at the Silverdale Mall, for helping and especially for providing a fun program for the American Girl Club throughtout the year.

Barnes & Nobles American Girl Demo

I started with 3x8 inches of cotton fabric,

made channels at either ends with the sewing machine.  Then I had the little girls sew the side edges with yarn and a blunt end large needle.  I was amazed that a young girl of 4 was able to do quite a good job.  I cut twenty five of these for the girls to sew by themselves.  then I went to extra mile........

I cut an additonal  25 of these and sewed them up, placed som decorations on the front, as seen on both of these.  then I proceeded to insert narrow satin ribbon, as can be seen on the left side of the top picture.....

The finished product.  I gave each of the girls one of these to take home as a job well done.  They were quite excited about them.  and they all chose the same fabric purse as the one they had been working on.  I had an hour for the demonstration. 

Traveling Outfit in Royal Blue

The fabric I used is Microsuede.  It is a wonderful fabric to sew with.  Since I only bought one and a half yard of this fabric, I was able to make three outfits with this material.  One is the skating outfit and the other is also a Renaissance outfit

Traveling Outfit

A close up view of the front. The edges of the bonnet, tabs and peplum are embroidered with silver thread in a scroll design.
The bodice has silver eyelets and is closed with matching blue suede.

Another Traveling Outfit in Royal Blue

This shows the side view and the marabou feathers on her bonnet.  You can also see some of the detailing on the tabs and peplum of the vest and the edge of her skirt

Traveling Outfit

The Traveling Outfit in a purple color with black trim

Renaissance Traveling Outfit

This is one of my favorite patterns. The outfit includes a white long sleeve blouse, skirt, peplumed vest and bonnet. 
Thanks to my younger daughter, I have enough fabric to make quite a few outfits for the dolls.  This outfit is made out of olive green microsuede.  My daughter needed a cloak for a Renaissance Faire.  I provided the 50% coupon for $12.99 yard fabric in exchange for the leftovers.  Great deal!

I machine embroidered a design with silver thread and it came out beautifully.  I enjoy sewing on microsuede.  It doesn't fray, easy to cut, works well.  Just a reminder, cut the fabric in the same direction.  It will show if you don't.

Renaissance Traveling Outfit

This is the back view of the vest and hat.  The color of the fabric is more like an olive color, quite a bit darker than the picture shows.  The feathers are olive and black which goes quite well with the outfit.  Notice the embroidery along the brim of the bonnet and the tabs.

Renaissance Traveling Outfit

This is the inside of the vest.  It is completely lined and could have been worn reversed if it had a different lining.

Lady Lillian

Doesn't she just look lovely!  She's all dressed up and ready to go to the Faire with the other maidens in the Castle. Her dress is made of rich green satin, completely lined and held closed in the back with 3 snaps.  I could have laced the back of the dress but I wanted a little girl to enjoy this outfit. Lady Lillian wears a circlet made of the same fabric and trimmed with irredescent ribbon. Her long sleeves and neck scarf is made of embellished  sheer fabric.  A braided belt made of the fabrics from her dress encircle her waist and ends in a single braid down the front.

Lady Lillian

This is the back view of the dress.  All of the dresses I have made so far have included snaps in the back,  It's extra work but I just don't like velcro.  Little girls need to learn dexterity and what better way than to include snaps..!

Lady Lillian

Her dress is completely lined.  She almost could wear this dress inside out.

Lady Lillian

This picture shows the lined dress and her circlet.  She wears a stiff petticoat to add that extra fullness to the dress.

Chinese Lady - side view

My daughter's doll, Lillian Jean, is the model for all these dresses.  She owns this one and only wears it on special occasions. The edges are trimmed with gold bias binding.

Chinese Lady

It is always a little bit difficult to find fabric to scale for small clothing project.  I had some fabric that my son picked up in S. Korea for me and I decided to put one of them to good use. This brocaded jacquard frays easily and has to be handled carefully, especially doing small seams.

Pink Party Dress with Matching accessories

This pink confection has 2 layers of bridal illusion tulle cut in different lengths. The fully lined bodice has a sheer ribbon waistband. A ribbon rose with cascading ribbons is attached at the waitline. A rose and ribbon bow adorn each sleeve. The back of the bodice is closed with 3 snaps.

She wears a matching sheer ribbon headband which is embellished with a rose and cascading ribbons. On her wrist, she has a matching corsage.
This dress can be seen also at etsy.com and can be part of your doll's outfit.  I can make one for you in a different color. 

Tudor Lady

This dress was fun to put together.  I did have a hard time finding the pleated fabric, and the color goes so well with the teal corduroy.  I still have the same fabric left over and can make one for you. It's a one piece dress and comes with a petticoat and the French Hood.  contact me for pricing.

Cinderella 1

This is one of the first Cinderella dress that I made for a customer.   The bodice is lined and is closed with 3 snaps. The dress also includes a tulle petticoat.

Cinderella 1

The bodice is made of gold lame fabric.  The skirt is light blue satin with an overskirt of chiffon painted with gold stars.
The neckline and the front of the overskirt is trimmed with a gold/irredescent trim. 
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