Rags to Britches

t-shirt skirt

2011-03-24T12:02:00.001-07:00

I found this skirt tutorial and a pile of old t-shirts and some old curtain scraps just sitting around the house and was determined to make one. I write this after so long of being a horrible blogger cause if I don't write a tutorial of my own, i'll forget how i did it and where i found all the links. (Plus, i have a feeling i may be making this skirt again...my daughter LOVES it!)

So, here I go...

Here is the tutorial i found and followed. J-crew inspired tee shirt skirt

It was intimidating at first cause i'd never made a ruffle. So, i searched the web and found these sites, Ruffle Dress (scroll down to the middle of the dress tutorial, she explains how to do a ruffle). Now, it's a decent explanation (not as good as having someone right beside me showing me how to do it, of course!) but i needed more, so i found this one too, Ballet Ruffle Skirt. Between the two tutorials and some trail and error, I finally figured it out. And, like most things, as soon as you figure out what the heck you're doing, it's easy-peasy. (Just for my own future reference, i set my machine to the third setting and set the stitch to 5.0mm. i tried to use the sixth setting, but it didn't work as well for some reason. Also, DON'T use cheap thread! It'll break as you pull right when you think you're done and then you have to start over and it'll almost...almost make you cuss. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything. A-hem.)

So, I didn't take step by step photos, cause her tutorial was pretty self-explanatory. I'll do it next time though. (although, if you look closely at the tutorial's finished product, you'll notice her silky ruffles are fraying already. i didn't want that i happen to mine, so i doubled the size of the silk ruffle as i cut it out, folded it in half, sewed it together length-wise, sewed one end together, then turned it right side out using a chop stick, folded the open end under 1/4" and sewed that end up as well. This is where pictures would have been way beneficial! Now, my ruffles won't fray. :) )

Here's the finished product...

With my new found Ruffle-Making Skills, i bought a plain hot pink tank at Target for $4 and added a ruffle.

She thinks she's hot stuff! ;)

Tutu

2009-11-15T13:22:00.000-08:00

i just made my first tutu! She's ready to dance away. :)

Name em!

2009-11-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

i think we're going to offer embroidered names for the dolls. What do you think?

These are two more babies i made last week. :)

We've Got...

2009-10-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

two new girls... AND...
Tags! Lighting is terrible in basement so...

Best i could do so you could actually read them! Website is at bottom of tag and YES! It is up and running. Check it out here. I'd love to hear what you think. Ideas? Typos you see?

Oh, and click on the image above to make her bigger. She has little freckles. I have to do those by hand, but it doesn't take too long.

And with my new embroidery machine i can do names!

And check out their faces while you're at it. We bought a machine where you can upload digitized designs. Dustin found some software online where you can scan in an image (i sketched the faces for him) and digitize it, load it into my machine, set up the embroidery hoop and hit a button. SO COOL! And man is it easier than doing it by hand!

We've Been Busy!

2009-10-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

D and i are trying really hard to get Rags to Britches up and running. The website is SOOOOO close! In the next couple days, look for news that the site is ready. :)

Here's some samples.

Gettin' back into it

2009-06-18T06:33:00.000-07:00

i made three new dolls. these guys were for a friend who just adopted two little toddlers from Ethiopia. She had started them (cut them out, stuffed their arms and legs) but ran out of time before they had to leave to pick up the boys. i just put them together and finshed them off.

And this little lady was for a friends daughter. She has beautiful curly red hair and got her for her fourth birthday.

Four New Faces

2009-03-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

These ladies aren't finished obviously (they still need their britches and two need bows) but i wanted to show them off. I tried to do all different hair and skin colors. Yellow, light brown, dark brown, red, and black. I ordered a really soft minky for the red hair and i LOVE it! Lizzy drug her around yesterday and Red (we haven't named her yet) even went down the slide a couple times.

I think she may be my favorite so far. Lizzy's too. :)

Three Finished Projects

2009-02-27T12:37:00.000-08:00

Read the post below first. This is Triny, she is done now with her bows and britches. :)

Evan named this one Lauren.

And i put socks on little Marian (Ev named her too) i think i like them!

Here she is with her britches.

And Lizzy wanted to take a nap with her big doll (about 18") Maggie. Her bow seems to be lost somewhere now. Hmmmm....

In the Works

2009-02-25T15:02:00.000-08:00

Yes, I've been slacking on this blog, but not on the dolls.

These two ladies are in the works. I've been practicing my embroidery so it's taking me longer to do each doll. The others i've done were painted, but i like them much better with embroidered faces. I'm thinking i'll go check out a book on different stitches. Or take a trip to Ky so my mom can just show me!

I tried to embroider one with opened eyes. Not too bad, but still not great. I'm trying though.

This one is for my friend Heather's niece. She still needs her britches and some hair bows. That's next on my To-Do List.

And, Ta Da! (or Da Da! as my little one would say) i just got my Burnt Orange Minky (i tried to find a definition, but can't--it's made of that really super soft fabric that a lot of baby blankets are made out of. Some of them have dots--does that help?) delivered! I can make red haired dolls now!

Curly Tails

2009-02-16T09:12:00.000-08:00

This is the first doll i made with curly pig tails. I used yarn, bunched it up and sewed it on just like the regular pony tails. I think they turned out cute. Oh, she is also the first doll i've made for profit. :)

Embroidered Face

2009-02-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

I wanted the dolls to have a more "professional" look, so i took a stab at embroidery (gracious, i can barely spell it!). I had to start her little eyes over three times! BUT i think i like the finished look much better than painting it on. I guess i'll still have to paint on the little rosy cheeks though.

Packaging Dilema

2009-02-16T09:07:00.000-08:00

I'm open to suggestion here. Most of the current orders i have will have to be shipped. I spent a ton of time online yesterday trying to find a "cute" box i can get to ship orders in. Man, they are expensive! Even plain brown ones aren't as cheap as i was hoping. I guess maybe a plain brown box and then some cutesy tissue paper on the inside? Oh, i don't know.

Yes, i know she looks dead, but how else could i ship them?

Hence the "Britches"

2009-02-16T09:06:00.000-08:00

So, the first of January as my husband and i were on our way to meet family and do some outlet mall shopping (YAH!) we were talking about if we did decide to start a real company, what would we call it? We wanted something really cute, and he came up with "Rags to Britches".

I loved it. BUT it just didn't make much sense. The dolls that i had made up to this point had sewn on leggings and i had made one with a skirt. "Britches" weren't in the equation.

So, i started thinking. And decided to come up with a pattern for cute little pants. I like em.

Hence, the "Britches".

Second Boy

2009-02-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

And no, don't ask me to take pictures of the "First Boy" cause i ain't gonna do it. ;)

It's a bit embarrassing. But don't tell my first born son. He thinks his doll is the best thing since sliced bread (ok, well he's not a huge bread fan. Let's go with, the best thing since boxed macaroni). I'll just tell you this: If my first attempt at a boy doll was a real person, he would have been picked last in gym class.

Moving on. My second attempt was MUCH MUCH MUCH better! In fact, i think he's my fave doll i've made so far.

I even made him tiny little cargo pants with working pockets! Yes, i was proud.

And i got real ambitious and bought button eyes and embroidered a crooked little mouth on the little guy.

He's a happy camper, can you tell?

New Hair Material

2009-02-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

The first dolls i made had felt hair. I used the 8 1/2 by 11 sheets they sell at craft stores. I noticed about a month later that my first doll (Sophie) hair was balling up. She hadn't even been played with that much. Well, yeah, dragged around a bit, but still afteer only a month?

So, my mom suggested i use fleece instead.

#1 it's much softer
#2 it looks better
#3 it hasn't started balling yet!
#4 Go MOM!

All By Myself!

2009-02-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

This is a 19" doll. The others are 15" tall. I really wanted a bigger doll to make a whole wardrobe for.

I made this one all by myself. If you scroll down a post or two, you'll see my mom helped me make the other one, but this one (her outfit and all) i did all by myself!

It took me forever, but she was worth it. :)

Big Doll Try #2

2009-02-16T08:55:00.000-08:00

So i guess really this is try #4. The first ones failed miserably and i had to recruit my mo to help me.

Over Christmas, my mom and i went up to Walmart late one night and spent hours looking at and modifying doll patterns.

The next couple days she showed me how to read patterns, told me what all the terms meant, and how to actually sew the doll.

I had also bought a pattern for 18" doll clothes and Mom showed me how to do that too. This little gingham dress was the first dress with set in sleeves i'd made. It's not easy, but hopefully i'll get better at it. I did it the first time too. No seam ripper for me. ;)

Forgot One

2009-02-16T08:54:00.000-08:00

I made this doll for my niece for Christmas and forgot to take a picture before i wrapped her. She's got little blond pig tails.

NO stretchy material allowed!

2009-02-16T08:52:00.000-08:00

I sure am learning a lot in a short time period. Lesson of the day? DO NOT, under any circumstances, use a stretchy material to try and make a doll dress.

This top one is great. NO problems. And she's adorable too, right?

The other one though? Man, i had a hard time with her. I didn't think anything about it when i cut up an old onesie to make the doll's dress. The material kept getting sucked into the machine and i thought i was going to break it. And then it took a ton of ployfiber to fill her cause it kept stretching out. She kept getting fatter and fatter...

So, lesson learned.

Christmas Gifts

2009-02-16T08:49:00.000-08:00

Adelaide is the one on the far left. We kept her, but the other two i gave as Christmas gifts. The girls loved them. I love that they were homemade gifts. So special. :)

Big Doll Failure

2009-02-16T08:44:00.000-08:00

I think the pictures kind of speak for themselves! FAILURE!

For this first larger doll, i made the mistake of painting her face first and forgot to take the seam allowance into consideration. It wasn't pretty. She looked alien-esque. I painted over it in white cause it was so horrible. Plus the neck was all wrong. i cut her legs off and used them for attempt #2.

She's wasn't terrible. Until i picked her up and realized the poor thing couldn't even hold her own head up. Sad, sad.

I thought her face turned out cute though. Well, at least she didn't look like she lived in another universe.

The First Two

2009-02-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

I was checking a friends blog out one day in November and she had made these cute little rag dolls for her three kids. She included a link to a segment on Martha Stewart where you can download a simple rag doll pattern.

I used the pattern for these first two dolls i made. And realized i not only loved making the dolls (and seeing the glee on my little girl's face) but i also loved sewing. Who knew?

Since then, i have modified the pattern to suit my needs and i love the final result.

The dolls have come a long way in a short amount of time (what, 2 or 3 months?) and i'm very proud of the product i've made.

This is Sophie and Talullah. My oldest likes to help me name each doll.