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.

Easy american girl doll dress to sew

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.

doll dress cutting instrucitons

With right sides together sew together side seams, from dot to bottom on each side. The open area creates the armhole.

doll dress sewing instructions

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.

american girl doll dress pressing instructions

Turn top down 3/4″ and press. Do this on each side of the top of the dress.

doll dress casing

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.

doll dress stitiching

Place a small safety pin on a ribbon and slide it through the pocket.

ribbon neck for doll dress

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.

ribbon through pocket

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.

doll dress hem

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!

American Girl Doll Clothes to 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.


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Comments

  1. My granddaughter is having a American Girl Doll Birthday Party. I can not attend — so she wanted a sewing date with me. This will be the perfect little outfit for her to make. And it goes well — we can make dresses for party treats for the attendees! Thank you so much. And may God bless!

  2. Kay: Why not use this pattern and jazz it up with lace and sequins. Get a remnant, something suitable for evening wear. Put in a fancy ribbon.

    Hope this helps.

  3. I am teaching a young lady how to sew and thought these would be perfect to sew for her dolls and little sisters dolls. Thanks.

  4. My 5 year old just made this for her new doll and it came out amazing!!! Thank you so much for this pattern!

  5. Thank you so very much for this pattern and for the tutorial. I’m a visual learner and so I appreciate the extra time you took for pictures. Ever think about doing video tutorials?

    Heather

  6. I want a simple 18″ doll nightgown printable on my computer?! Been looking for hours.. Need to have doll nitie-to match 6yr old kid nitie?! 😉
    Any suggestions?! TKS

  7. Hi, is there anywhere that I can find a simple pattern to make a dress for a 5 1/2 inch bisque Nancy Ann doll? Thank you.

  8. How perfect! Thank you for sharing. My granddaughter who is 2yrs. old will love some new dresses for her doll.

  9. I am having sewing camp for 2 days with my 10 and 7 year old granddaughters. They learned how to sew straight lines, then applied that to the doll pillowcase dress. They made 2 doll dresses and the 2nd one was even better. Now they are ready to make their own pillowcase dress.

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