Making American Girl Doll Clothes is easy with this free sewing pattern. It is an easy doll dress to sew and can be made in less than an hour.
Making doll clothes can be a great beginner sewing project! Doll clothing doesn’t take much fabric so it’s easy to handle while building your sewing skills.
If you are looking for more easy ways to learn to sew be sure to check out my practice sewing sheets. They are a great way to become familiar with the sewing machine. Then you are ready to sew this doll dress.
18 inch Doll Clothes Pattern
This dress is perfect for 18″ American Girl dolls, or any 18-inch doll. Doll dress patterns don’t use much fabric, so they are a great way to use up leftover fabric. They’re also great for dressing up teddy bears!
If you have baby dolls you might also like this doll diaper pattern. It too is a free printable sewing pattern.
American Girl Doll Clothes Dress Supplies
- Free American Girl Style Pattern for Doll Dress Download and print pattern
- 2 – 8 1/2″ X 11″ pieces of cotton fabric (make sure to pre-wash the fabric before cutting)
- 24 inches of 1/4″ ribbon
- safety pin
- marking pen
- sewing machine or needle and thread
- scissors
- straight pins
- tape measure
- seam ripper (let’s hope not)
How to Make a Doll Dress Easy!
We are ready to get started on our easy doll dress! You won’t believe how quickly this dress goes together. It is just like a pillowcase dress.
NOTE: Do not cut the pattern, use the complete outside of the edge of the 8 1/2″ X 11″ piece of paper to cut out the fabric. Mark dots onto fabric.
With right sides together sew together side seams, from dot to bottom on each side. The open area creates the armhole.
Press open seams. Next, sew close to the edge of the top side opening. Start at the top, go down around the bottom (just below where the side seam started at the dot) and back up. Repeat this on the other side of the dress.
Turn top down 3/4″ and press. Do this on each side of the top of the dress.
Sew across the top on each side 1/2″ in from the fold, creating a pocket for the ribbon to slip through. Repeat on the other side.
Place a small safety pin on a ribbon and slide it through the pocket.
Start on the far right front then through the back. If the pin gets stuck in the side seams open up the pocket with a pencil and try again.
Turn the bottom of the dress under a 1/4″ to 1/2″, press and edge stitch all the way around. Put the dress on and tie a bow.
Tips on how to make a dress:
- If you prefer finished seams, serge or zig-zag around the outside edge of pattern pieces before beginning.
- If you feel this dress will be washed at some point be sure to prewash the fabric.
- I am a fan of the disappearing marker to make markings on the fabric.
There you go, a simple doll dress pattern that you or your child can easily make!
Hope this American Girl doll clothes pattern helps you whip up a bunch of doll clothes!
My Favorite Sewing Tools
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More Free Patterns & Tutorials
I am always on the hunt for easy doll clothes patterns–sewing doll clothes is so much cheaper than the real thing…. plus it is fun! Here are some more fun DIY crafts.
- Barbie Doll Sleeping Bag
- If you crochet, try this doll scarf to make a complete outfit
- Cloth diapers pattern for about 15-inch-sized doll
- How to Make a Doll
- Doll Quilt Tutorial
Thank you so much for this pattern! I adapted your tutorial to a smaller version for my 3 year olds crocheted doll and linked back to you in my post!
(http://craftyandcaffeinated.blogspot.ca/2014/03/crocheted-doll-makeover.html)
With how easy this dress is, I can make a few for this much loved doll!
Wonderful tutorial – we made adjustments to fit my granddaughters 14″ Hearts4Hearts dolls & made 3 dresses today.
super! i’m so glad that if found your web site I will be saving this for
later! – free-doll-clothes-patterns is an interest of mine and and your “Easy Doll Dress To Sew | Skip To My Lou” article is without doubt fantastic work.
keep up the great work, I’ll check back again soon!
Just made this dress with my 5 year old and it was great! We did it in about 30 minutes, and I’m not an expert sewer by any means. My daughter was even able to do much of the sewing since it’s a lot of straight stitches. Looks great on our doll – thanks!!
I just want to say thanks! I’ve never sewn a day in my life and even though the dress didn’t come out as cute as yours, my daughter is thrilled with it, and I’m proud of myself!
I’ve been way intimidated to sew, and even with a screw up and a start over, I was able to do it!
http://instagram.com/p/iZTAzKnH9s/
So glad you liked it. Thanks for letting me know.
Thank you so much! I have a similar pattern however this one is super simple and is perfect to use up my out of control scrap pile! It took only 30 min. to make 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this pattern! Can’t wait to make this!!
Hi RF, It is a knock off…and I am sorry I don’t remember the name. I thought it was a discontinued Zapf, but I am not sure. I know I paid less than $50.00. I will see if the doll has any markings.
Hello,
can you tell me about the doll. That is the prettiest doll I’ve ever seen, I’d love to find it for my daughter. Can you tell me the brand and the name and where you got it?
Also, the pattern is lovely. Clever and easy. Glad there are people who can create these things for others to enjoy.
Super cute!!!
The download was hard to see thank you for letting me know. I have now fixed it.
I can’t get the download links to work to get the pattern.
Hi, Noel! The dress is sewn straight across. I think it only looks like a scoop neck because the ribbon is tied loosely and the fabric is gathered more in the middle front. If you play around with it on the doll you’ll be able to achieve the scoop effect.
hi i love this i did it with a little bit of my moms help and it looks so good i am makeing a matching head band