How to Sew a Ridiculously Easy Barbie Dress in Under a Minute

The other day my four year old found a bag of fabric scraps from old sewing projects. As she was looking through them she got a most terrible idea. "Let's make Barbie clothes out of this fabric Mom!" "No way Jose!" I thought. Sewing teeny tiny Barbie clothes is not what I consider a good time. But then inspiration struck that made both me and my daughter happy. Introducing "the ridiculously easy Barbie dress that can be sewn in under a minute". No tight seems to sew or itty bitty hems to finish. These pretty dresses are so easy to make, your Barbie could have a whole new wardrobe in just ten minutes.

You can even use the same pattern to make a long maxi dress, a shorter knee length dress, or even just a simple t-shirt.

Ready for the super simple instructions?

Start with a piece of knit fabric that is approximately 14 inches long and 3 inches wide. It has to be knit fabric or else the dress won't be able to stretch to fit onto the Barbie. Also, the beauty of using knit fabric is that you don't have to sew any hems or edges because it won't fray. This is a great way to use up small fabric scraps or even re-purpose an old pair of leggings or t-shirt.

Fold the fabric in half, right sides together, so that your fabric is now approximately 7 inches long. Starting at the bottom sew up toward the folded edge using a quarter inch seam allowance. When you get about a half inch from reaching the fold stop and back stitch. Repeat on the other side. Once done cut a semicircle along the center of the folded edge as shown below. The semicircle should be about 3/4 inch wide.




Super simple, right? At this point you're just about done. Now turn the dress right side out . . .

And ta-da! You're done. Dress complete. It doesn't get much easier than this.




Here she is, looking pretty in her brand new dress.

One of my favorite things about this pattern is that it still has sleeves without having to actually sew any. So simple, but still so classy.

So go ahead and raid your fabric bin for knit fabric. I know you're dying to whip up some new Barbie clothes now. Even better, have your daughter do it. This makes a great begging sewing project for kids. My twelve year old was excited to sew her little sister some of these easy dresses as a homemade Christmas gift, and she loved them! (See my other ideas for gifts kids can make HERE.)

Big Floor Pillows--Tutorial

Be sure to stop by Cut Out and Keep this week.  They're featuring my book Quiet Book Patterns as the book of the week!  You'll find my author interview, a free sample project (along with template), and you can also enter to win a copy of my book.  Find it all here.  -Amy
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I needed a little something more to add to our reading nook to make it extra cozy.  I decided that some big floor pillows would do just the trick.  I had originally made some giant floor pillows (which I spied on Pinterest) for the boys to lay down on while watching movies but I needed something a little smaller.

I had a lot of fun picking out some happy-looking fabrics for this little corner of our home.  I first cut out some 20x20 squares and 4 strips that measured 5x20.

I then took one of my large squares and laid the strips along the edges, right sides together, pinning them in place.

Since the corners overlap when lying flat you'll have to lift them up and pin them together.

I sewed three of the corners together first.  You'll want to keep one open for later.

Then I sewed the contrasting edges together.

I found the trickiest part to be taking this piece and pinning the top square to the edges of the strips. 

Once that is sewn then turn it right side out and use that one corner that wasn't sewn shut to stuff the pillow with batting.  Enlist some help--your kids will think it's fun!  Plus, it takes lots and lots of batting!

When it's stuffed to the firmness that you like you can hand stitch the last corner shut and--viola!  You have a great floor pillow!

These floor pillows were the perfect addition to make our reading nook a cozy place to cuddle up and read.

How to Make a Fabric Quiet Book Cover

Want to make a fabric cover for your quiet book?  I gave some brief instructions a few years ago how I made this cover but with all the extra quiet book pages I've sewn over the past few years I needed a few more covers, and why not make them all matching while I'm at it?  Something simple and sturdy to keep all my pages contained.

This is what I came up with:

I used quilted fabric to make my covers nice and thick and added two big chunky buttons just for fun.

All the pages are held together inside using three 1" binder rings looped through buttons holes in the cover.

The back has a nice big zippered pocket to hold any loose pieces.

I love to see my quiet book pages all neatly bound together sitting on the shelf.

Ready and waiting for little hands to come and play.

Want to make your own fabric quiet book cover?  Follow the directions below:

This cover is measured to fit my 7" x 8.5" quiet book pages.  Feel free to adjust the sizing to fit your own page dimensions.

Cut a 10.5" x 42" piece of fabric.  Fold in half.  Using a fabric pencil or marker, mark your fabric as indicated below.

Unfold fabric and cut along the 5 inch line marked along with a little "V" snip on each end.  This is where your zipper will go.  Fold the fabric toward the back creating a 5/8" opening.  Press flat with your iron.

Lay a 7" zipper on the wrong side of fabric over zipper opening, pull tab facing down.  Pin zipper and sew around opening to secure zipper in place.  Yeah!  You have the zipper done.  The hardest part is over.

Place a quiet book page on top of  the cover and center it over the 1.25" area.  Use a fabric pencil or marker to mark where the holes are onto your cover.

Using the place holding marks in the above step, place six 5/8" marks as shown below.

Using the button hole setting on your sewing machine create six button holes where your 5/8" marks are.  Carefully snip open button holes once done.

Unzip the zipper (this is important) and fold the quiet book cover in half.  Pin raw edges and sew at 1/4" (don't sew along the fold.)

Clip corners (be careful to not clip too close to the stitching).  This will help the corner lay better.

Now turn your cover right-side-out  through the zipper opening.

Use and iron to press your cover flat.  Stitch along your three marked lines from top to bottom.

Add a velcro closure to book cover and flap.

Sew buttons onto flap.

Insert quiet book pages into book by looping 1" binder rings through the button holes and quiet book pages.

Lovely little quiet books all done!

Baptism Dress

It's been an exciting time at our house.  My daughter just had her eighth birthday.  In our church when you turn eight you can choose to be baptized.  She's worked diligently over the last year to prepare herself for baptism and has looked forward to it. (Learn more about LDS baptism here.)

I wanted to make her a special white dress for her special day.  We went to the fabric store several months ago to look at fabric and patterns.  I had a lot of requirements for this dress. I wanted to make something simple but beautiful.  I wanted my daughter to love it and be something that fit her style.  I also wanted a pattern that wasn't overly complicated because I had a lot on my plate at the time.  It's kind of silly but I fretted and worried about making this dress way too much.  After a long period of deciding and then re-deciding I finally settled on McCall's pattern M5795.  I used this same pattern to make my daughter a flower girl dress for my sister wedding a few years ago.   It's rare that I use the same pattern twice but I love it when I do.  After I've made a dress once I have a better idea of how it all comes together and looks in the end and so the second time I can confidently make changes to the dress to make it look how I want.  This time around I re-drew the sleeve pattern to make it more of a cap sleeve, removed the darts in the bodice, and took some of the fullness out of the skirt.  I also added two inches of satin to the hem.

I wanted to take some pictures of my daughter in her dress to have as a keepsake.  We've had a record breaking winter so even in April it was chilly and the trees were bare.  She braved the cold though and we got a few pictures outside.

You can get a better idea of the whole dress here with the satin along the bottom.  The freshwater pearls she got from her grandpa added a nice touch to the overall look too.

Anyone who knows my daughter knows how much she loves her hair in a pony tail.  She won't let anyone but her immediate family see her with her hair down.  This was the first time I curled her hair with a curing iron.  After completing the first curl her mouth hung open in awe and I had no problem convincing her to wear her hair down after that.  Sure made me smile!

I can't believe how big my little girl has gotten!  I just love these sweet pictures.