Faith and Felt Obsession: Lei Flower Baby Doll Dress

Since our lei flowers have been out since my Easy Peasy Lei Flower Quiet Book Page post, I decided to make the baby doll dress I have been threatening for a while.

It has proved a great way of using up some of our leftover artificial lei flowers.

Another idea is to glue them down on your drawing or painting. We did that too, but I don't have a photo, sorry.

Materials needed to make our Lei Flower Baby Doll Dress:

a baby doll to measure
a baby singlet in stretch knit material, mine was size 00, but smaller is probably better
thread to match
artificial lei flowers

Put the singlet on the doll inside out. And pin down the sides so it fits your baby. When we got to this point, Tahlia said "No, not pins" and put baby safely away in her pram! I waited until she went to bed to continue, since she was being such a good Mummy.

Next, take the dress of the doll and adjust the pins so they are even and symmetrical.

Sew along your pinned lines. Make sure your armhole edges line up properly. Sew perpendicular to the edge at the armholes rather than in the same line you have been following. This creates a slight sleeve and works better for a thick edge. Trim the excess. Since it is stretch knit material, you do not need to finish the edges to prevent fraying.

Put the dress back on your baby doll and turn up the hem to mark the length you want.

Take the dress back off and pin and sew the hem close to the bottom edge.

Trim the excess.

Lastly, turn the dress back in the right way and pin doubled lei flowers all around the edge and at one shoulder. Set your sewing machine to 0 stitch length, and put it on a wide zig zag setting. This will make it go back and forth over one spot, creating a short line. Use this setting to sew down each pile of lei flowers. Trim the thread.

Done!

We shall see if Tahlia is impressed or not in the morning!