Newbie

A New Meet Outfit for Katie

Among other things, Katie is a bit of a movie buff. One of her favorite movies is My Neighbor Totoro. She also loves going to the mall and feels she is very fashionable. She likes to blend fun and girly with southwestern style (skirts and shirts). She also loves jewelry -bracelets in particular.

Note: Katie is a GOTY Marisol, but no longer has her meet outfit (didn't like it at that point... sigh..). So, here is her new 'meet' outfit.

http://naturefairypics.weebly.com/3-22-2014--a-new-meet-outfit-for-katie.html

I actually am not very good at planning out sewing/beading projects ahead of time. I might have an idea of what I want to do, but normally I end up heading off in several directions before I'm done.

For this project, originally my plan was to make a skirt (that I'd been planning on making for the last month or so) and a shirt of some sort to go with it. While I was figuring out a shirt, I came across a bag of silk purses and a pom-pom that had come off of a human winter hat. So then my previously basic outfit has a purse and a plushie to go with it.

As it is still pretty cold outside most of the time I wanted some sort of wrap to help Katie stay warmer. As Katie has taken a liking to Josefina's clothing style, I decided that a rebozo-type wrap would be the style -and I had just the fabric to compliment the skirt. After that, I just had to figure out jewelry.

My Outfit Design

I started this out by drawing a girl wearing a skirt. After I figured out what shirt style I wanted to add I drew in that too. Afterwards, I edited this a couple more times, when something was added to the outfit. My outfit will be a headband, shirt, and removable drape made from fabric from a human shirt, an upcycled baby skirt, a purse made from a silky strapless pocket/purse and embroidery floss, a plushie made from a pom-pom, and jewelry. (Shoes are American Girl)

The next few pictures I took during the process of creating my outfit. Most are pictures in the middle or towards the end of ___ being made, as once I get started I tend to forget about anything else till I'm done..

Creating a pattern

This is the first time I've ever created my own pattern. I admit, I was very worried about whether or not it was going to work out. I read online somewhere about using paper towels to help visualize how the piece will fit the model, so I used that tip to help me make my pattern.

Uh-oh!

Aaannndd... it turns out the paper towel idea was a really good idea. My original pattern would never have fit an American Girl doll if I had made the shirt from my trace of the dolls outline (or, half of the doll if you want to get technical). So I drew up another piece to make a side panel so that the shirt would fit right.

Taking a quick detour

The Purse and Soot Sprite plush. The purse is a premade silk purse that I sewed embroidery floss into the seam, and then added a braided embroidery floss strap.

Fabrics I'll use

These fabrics are for the shawl, shirt, and skirt, in that order.

Closer....

A closer view of the shirt and skirt fabric.

Shirt Fabric

The shirt had a bit of lining inside of it (pictured), so I removed it (and dismantled it), and that is what I used for the dolly shirt.

In Progress

Here's the skirt and shirt pinned together.

All Done! :D

..with the sewing parts, anyway.. Next up: jewelry!

A bit of a spoiler

A bracelet in progress.

Okay. The outfit is now done. Every piece sewn/beaded, and ready for viewing. :)

Katie's New Meet Outfit

Well, part of it is visible anyway. Her new wrap is long enough to go over her head and still wrap around for warmth.

Katie's New Meet Outfit, pt. 2

Now you can see her new shirt and skirt, plus some of the accessories.

Meet Outfit, sans wrap.

Now you can see her shirt, removable drape, skirt, and accessories.

Soot Sprite

The pom-pom Soot Sprite plush. I had been planning on attempting a Totoro plush, but I don't have the stuff for that currently.

Katie's Bracelet

Made with glass seed beads, a plastic silver bead, and larger Amethyst (I think) beads.

Closer

Katie's headband, necklace, and neckline of her shirt.

Necklace

Made with glass seed beads, larger Amethyst (I think) beads, and a metal daisy pendant.

The Removable Drape

The removable drape ties under her arm.

... Comes Off.

It comes off to reveal a t-shirt that can be either a off-shoulder tee (with a straight neckline) or an on-shoulder tee (with a ruffled neckline).

Embroidery Floss Ribbons

The shirt has embroidery floss that ties under the arms.

Closer view

Here's a closer view of the shirt hem and the middle and top layers of the hem.

The Bangles

I wanted some extra bracelets for her, so I took some eyepins I had handy, and I put some beads on it. When I couldn't figure out how to get the beads to stay where I wanted them, I just kept adding beads 'til the pin was full.