Cozy Couture from Recycled Fleece for AG Dolls

These adorable American Girl doll outfits were made from altered women's
fleece tops. It costs me far less money to alter clothing than it does to
purchase notions and fabric new these days.

 

        These two fleecy coat and hat sets in both blue and pink were sewn from altered women's XXL fleece sweat shirts. Only the cuffs and collars of the fleece caps and coats are trimmed with a faux fluffy white fur trim. Each doll wears a pair of leggings and swede boots with fur trim to match or blend.

Here you can see that I used a faux fur trim to accent the cuffs on the hat and sleeves.
I also lined just the collar beneath the doll's neck and above the zipper. Zippers are
so expensive that I try to recycle these from old garments whenever possible.

       I find that the best way to alter a garment to fit a doll is to lay that doll on top of the shirt and draw around it with chalk. Before cutting out the coat, make sure that the cuts are equal in length and width on both the left and right sides of the cuts. I measured from the central zipper in order to do this on the front side of the coat. Then after cutting this front side out, I cut around this piece on top of the backside of the original top to make the back half of my doll's coat. You may be tempted to cut this little jacket out all at once, both front and back once you gain confidence in altering garments for dolls, but I do not recommend it. If you cut into both front and back sides at the same time you could risk not matching your prints, stripes etc... and fleece also has a tendency to shift on you if it is doubled up while cutting, making the two sides uneven in the end.

The doll coat turned inside out to show how it was cut
from the original garment.

       This little 18" doll coat has a simple "T" shape cut. There are no seams at the shoulders at all. This is because fleece is a very forgiving material to work with. It does not need to be tailored in order for it's fit to conform to a doll body. (Or even a human one for that matter...) I also decided to leave the zipper in tact rather than trying to open it at the bottom as I would have done for a doll's coat when sewing from scratch. The opening around the bottom of the fleece coat is wide enough to slip the 18" doll through while dressing it anyway.

I removed the lining of the original collar
so that I could replace it with fake fur.

       The doll's coat would have been too bulky/stiff if I had not removed the lining of the original garment. I needed to restore some of the fleeces' flexibility. Which is also way I chose to only line the cuffs and collar with a small clipping of faux fur.

Here you can see that the fur cuffs were sewn on backwards to
the sleeves so that they may be turned up after the coat is
turned right sides out. This also gives the
sleeves a nice finished edge.

       It is a bit confusing to first time sewers but in order to make a proper cuff, these must be sewn in backwards so that they may be turned up over the openings of the sleeves after a doll has been dressed. If you don't want to trouble yourself with it, I think that this little coat would look just as cute with unadorned sleeves. In the future I have two more coats that I will post that have been altered with different trim and hats, so that you can see how I cut an alternative design trimming with velvet and including front, decorative pockets.

• See also how I altered fleece footed pajamas to sew the same for our dolls