You've seen Dolly before. She's named after Dollywood, not Dolly Parton. Or is that the same thing? She's Hannah's new companion, and is almost as much loved (in good ways and bad) as Lydia is. Well, here's a little history of Dolly's wardrobe.
I can't believe I'm posting this picture, but take a good look at the quality shirt I whipped up for Dolly one morning. (Yes, I am cringing with embarrassment.) I have freely admitted that I am not a perfectionist, and really, I'm not even very detail-oriented. Funny then, that I should take up sewing as a hobby. Tragic that I should attempted to sew doll clothes.
The truth is, Dolly really needed some clothes that Hannah could put on by herself. Taking the clothes off seems to be no problem, but putting them on again is another story. I whipped up a simple, elastic-waist skirt in no time, and even finished the edges with an overlock stitch, pre-serger. Then Dolly went around naked, or shirtless for as long as I could stand it.
I remembered when I was a little girl, watching in awe as my mom sewed clothes for my Barbies.
(Now there's someone who's detail-oriented! Barbie clothes!) So I thought Hannah could sit in similar awe while I made Dolly a shirt. Haha! I must have been about 7. Hannah's 2. What was I thinking?
I even gave Hannah her own fabric to cut. "Doing fabric," she calls it, as in "Mama, are you doing fabric? Can I do some fabric too?"
Well, you can see how far I got on the project! So Dolly schlepped around for several embarrassing weeks with this "shirt" with a neck hole big enough for her waist to fit through, and the unfinished edges getting stringier and more tattered by the day. Hannah, on the other hand, was delighted that Dolly had a red shirt that she could (almost) put on my herself.
One day, I couldn't take it anymore. I dug out a book of Cabbage Patch Doll patterns my mom gave me. Yes, my mom sewed clothes for my Cabbage Patch Dolls too. Isn't she awesome? I pulled out some very stretchy knit fabric, and went to work making a T-shirt. Since Cabbage Patch dolls are significantly bigger than Bitty Babies, it turned into a knee-length thing, which I cleverly added a ruffle to, making it a dress.
The neck opening is quite wide, giving Dolly some kind of mock-turtleneck-gone-wrong look, but it turns out to be advantageous because the wide neck makes it easier for Hannah's little fingers to put the dress on by herself.
So I threw that pile of red rags in the trash, and now I can look at Dolly without hanging my head in shame.
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