Sewing Project Ideas

 One of the projects that I would like to make some day is a doll-sized version of Belle's library gown with really lush fabrics.

Belle's my favorite princess, and this is my favorite of her gowns. Even if AG makes it, I am not sure I trust them to do it right.

Original dress:

Inspiration:

Belle's Chair

 I made this chair a year ago, but I don't seem to have put it on the blog, and I keep telling people about it.

So clearly, I need to post it!

To make this chair, I measured her bottom and made a square slightly larger than her bum. 

In hindsight, I wish I had made it a bit wider. It would just look comfier, I think..

The height of the chair was taken from the length of her knee to her foot. It looks taller than it should be, but that's just the proportions of the doll.

The height of the back of the chair was the length of her rear end to her head.

A quilting ruler made all these calculations easier!

I cut out two pieces of cardboard for each piece and glued them together for strength.

Then I covered each piece in quilt batting and fabric. 

Some of the fabric pieces were sewn together to make it look neater than gluing, like the back of the chair and the armrests.

I glued everything together, and voila, a chair!

I picked out this fabric for Belle. I wanted red roses in a small scale.

I think this is actually meant to be peonies, but it looks close enough to me!

This doll does not have knees, so I made her a footstool so she can be comfy.

I put her on the chair and measured how far her feet are off the ground.

So the chair is  totally custom to her size!

I want to make a sofa for fashioned size dolls so I can display more than one at a time.

An American Girl doll sofa would be nice too, but there we run into storage issues, and it might need something stronger than hot glue to hold it together.

Maybe something that slots together and can come apart? I will think about this. I also want it to LOOK GOOD, so that might not work.

Disney Bounding!

 Disney bounding is the idea of subtly dressing like a Disney character. 

You don't want to copy the character's look, like with cosplay. You use the character's color scheme and accessories to hint at your character.

Disney bounding came to be because adults cannot dress like Disney characters in the park, so there is no confusion about who the official Disney employees are.

I haven't Disney bounded myself, but was inspired by someone making Disney bound outfits for her AG dolls in a Facebook group that I am in.

I like a creative challenge. I actually have the patterns to make the Disney princess dresses for AG, which I bought on sale in case a little girl in my life ever wanted them. I think that's Simplicity 5705 or 1581, if you are interested.

This is more creative to me, to make an outfit that suggests something without copying that thing.

I used Simplicity pattern 8072. It's cute, it's retro, it's easy to make. Actually, I had an issue with the dresses being a little too wide, and was carefully making them narrower for a better fit.

The first one that I made is Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

I just made the yellow dress from Simplicity 8072, and added a rose made of ribbon that I have been saving for years for the perfect project.

This dress is so super cute, and I think it definitely reads as Belle. 

Accessories could be more roses, or a stack of books? Or a purse that looks like a book?

I dressed Joss as Belle because of her brown hair and eyes, and I left her hearing aid on.

Hearing aids are important. Those of us who are hearing impaired would not leave the hearing aid off just because we are dressing up.

The next dress that I made is Ariel from A Little Mermaid. I made a purple dress with teal accents.

Then I found some teal buttons and added a row of those.

I like this one too! 

Astrid, who is Truly Me 61, is perfect to bound as Ariel, with her red hair.

I think this one is easy to accessorize. Seashells, fish, maybe a necklace with a music note.

I want to glue a seashell to a hair clip or two and accessorize her that way.

I really like this outfit as  Disney bound, and have more ideas for Disney bounds using the same pattern. 

Disney bounding is even cuter when you have a group of people with the same theme!

Disney bounding does not have to be retro, but I was looking at pictures of Disney bounding at Dapper Days at the Disney parks, pre-pandemic, for inspiration. The pictures that I saw are on the wonderful Epbot blog. Here's a link to their pictures from Dapper Day 2019. It's lovely eye candy.

You can see the dress I made previously from this pattern in Simplicity 8072 here.

Geek Belle

I impulse bought this Belle action figure on clearance for $4.

I love her!

She is from Ralph Breaks the Internet, which I haven't seen yet, but clearly I need to.

I love the idea of a modern, nerdy Belle.

Belle and Moana are my favorite Disney princesses.  These girls don't need to be rescued by a prince.
They rescue themselves.

Belle is really cute. She has very narrow shoulders and wide hips, and I kind of like this different body type.

Her arms are articulated at the shoulders, elbows and wrists, but she still has rather limited movement. She can't get near to touching her face.

Her knees are not articulated, which disappointed me.

I was also disappointed that her feet are pointed. There is no reason for this. She is wearing boots, not heels.

She probably couldn't stand on her own even with flat feet, but it just seems so unrealistic.

Still, I like her face, and her hairstyle. I like that they gave her a widow's peek.

She is a fun and cute doll, and I am thinking of making her an armchair with patterned roses to sit in.

Obviously, she is not an expensive doll, and I am happy with her for the four dollars that I paid.

I am thinking of making an AG sized version of her outfit, and having Joss wear it for Halloween.

She is definitely a different addition to my collection.

Here is as picture of Belle in the box. She can fit a hand into the pocket on the front of her shirt, but it's not easy to do.

She came with her shoes off for some reason, and a little plastic purse I didn't bother to get pictures of.

Belle is definitely a cutie!