Lauren’s Custom Gift

Once upon a vacation, we went here. Where and what is this little farm house, you might be asking.

It’s Laura Ingalls Wilder’s house located in Mansfield, Missouri. It is a must see for any “Little House On The Prairie” fan.

While buying up everything in the gift shop, I bought this cloth doll pattern.

Which I made for my niece Lauren a few years ago. With Christmas creeping up on me, I decided to make her a few more dresses for her doll. She’s older now and plays with her doll. Of course a custom doll needs custom dresses.

The pattern for the skirt just gives measurements. Since I wanted to make more than one dress, I made a paper pattern piece for the skirt.

I picket out scrap fabric that I had. Does this green, floral fabric look familiar?

I had first used this fabric to make Mia’s dress that she wore to Grandma Joyce’s 100th birthday party. (See previous blog post, “Mia’s Green Dress”.)

The dress bodice.

Prepping the sleeves. They are wide because they are gathered and become poofy when sewn on.

Sewing on the sleeves after I’ve gathered them.

Now that the sleeves are attached it was time to sew them closed. The pattern instructions said to sew the sleeve and sides of the bodice closed in one long seam.

Hemming up the skirt.

Making button holes on the back of the bodice. It has little buttons that close it in the back.

When I originally made the doll, I made a dress that was white with little blue flowers. I also made a pair of black boots. With the colors in this dress, I decided to make a new pair of boots for her doll, using this tan duck cloth fabric.

Sewing up the new boots.

This doll needed more than one new dress. I grabbed the scrap fabric from another recent sew. I had used this fabric to make an apron. (See previous blog post, “The Flower Pot Apron”.)

The bodice was assembled and the sleeves were ready to go on.

Carefully hemming up the sleeves.

Hemming it all up.

The second dress was finished!

I still wanted to make one more dress. I found this fabric in my stash from a previous sew. This one happened before I had my blog. It got picked because I think smaller pattern designs look best for doll clothes.

Sewing the gathering stitches on the skirt.

Button holes for the back.

The dress was finished! I got them wrapped and ready for Christmas.

Of course, gift unwrapping happened so fast I didn’t get any picture of it! Lauren was happy to get new dresses for her doll.

She was kind enough though to do a photo shoot after Christmas!

Here Lauren is with her doll that I made, wearing her new pink dress. Lauren is wearing the apron that I gave her, which was part of last week’s blog post. ( See blog post “Mother -Daughter Aprons And Lots Of Thoughts”.)

Back when I made Lauren’s doll I picked out yarn for the hair that best matched Lauren’s hairs. The doll’s eyes are embroidered blue, to also match Lauren.

Lauren was very “into” this photo shoot, and posed her best poses! I love it!

Clearly her doll needed a pretend make over.

Lauren was happy to do her make up!

So what do you get your sweet little niece that she doesn’t already have? A one of a kind doll that is made with lots of love! Besides, doesn’t every little girl need a Laura Ingalls Wilder-rag doll replica?

Lauren really does love her doll and plays with it often. I’m glad that I am able to give her a special gift!

I really believe homemade gifts are the best to give!

As for me, onto the next!