swimsuit for dolls

Is your doll ready for the beach?

or just sun bathing in the grass like ours?

After building the Adirondacks chair, I could not help it

and I sewed 3 swimsuits for the girls....

I know, I am crazy, I cannot and do not want to change!

Don't they look lovely in their "new" swimsuit,

with their towels and pillows?

I say new loosely because I started with a few of Miss C.'s old swimsuits!

It is recycle at its best, nobody wants to get an used swimsuit,

so I felt quite comfortable cutting through them.

Here is what I started with 3 1/2 swimsuits and a summer dress.

I was inspired by this cool tutorial from the My Froggy Stuff,

I changed a few things here and there,

but if you are interested in making some, go check it out!

The other thing I want to make clear is this is not the best sewing I have ever done,

probably the opposite, as fabric was limited and not everything matched up perfectly,

but the outcome turned out great and Miss C. is very pleased!

For the Tinkerbell suit, I started by taking apart the original suit carefully,

and pinning it on the doll for a proper fit.

Then I stitched the sides, with right side together.

I turned under the sides (from the under arm to the chest), and top stitched them.

I also folded under the bottom and stitched the crotch (it should have been done on the inside!)

I hand stitched the straps to the top, they were also recycled from the suit.

I was able to keep some of the ruffles and most of the pictures on the front and back.

This second swimsuit is a 2 piece, the top started has a bottom.

I just cut the suit at the side seams and used the back upside-down for the top.

The sides were already finished, so I folded over the top to make a casing,

and the bottom to finish the edge.

Then I stitched the back seam, and used some cord from another swimsuit

to make a tie around the neck: a very easy and fast swim (or regular) top.

For the bottom, I used the pink suit to get a rectangle of fabric,

using the top edge to skip a step, fold under the bottom part,

and stitched the crotch.

I also used the top of the bikini to make a head piece,

no sewing required, I just remove 1/2 of the bikini top,

and knotted around her head, a perfectly match accessory!

Since her suit is 2 piece, and the top can also be a regular top,

I made her a little cover up skirt, using part of the summer dress.

I cut half of the bottom tier of the dress,

I folded under the top and stitched to make a casing,

then I added an elastic and stitched the side to finish the skirt.

The bottom edge was already finished with a cute lace.

For the last swimsuit, I followed almost exactly the tutorial of My Froggy Stuff,

except that I did not have enough material out of Miss C.'s suit for the lining,

so I used some actual swimsuit lining that I had around.

This is the only time where I had to use something else than the old suit,

so not bad at all.

I did a little stitch at the neck line to decorate this otherwise simple suit.

I once again reused the strap of the suit and did not make them

as recommended in the tutorial.

So here they are, the 3 girlfriends

enjoying a sunny day!

Happy sewing!