Doll quilts are easy and fun to make. Learn how to make a patchwork doll quilt.
Click to read also: Handmade Gifts for Children
Our Prism Light Center light table was the perfect creative tool for Emma to work out the perfect design for a patchwork quilt for her doll! The squares are from a charm pack I won ages ago from Small Town Stitcher. Emma loved all the choices, and having the pre-cut charm squares 
made this project even easier.
She swapped squares in an out and moved them around until she got this design, which I love. Somehow a few of the pieces got swapped around during the sewing process (hazards of sewing with small children helping), but it is still cute.
How to Sew a Simple Doll Quilt
First we stitched the squares into rows on my beloved Janome HD1000. You need to make sure you get the seam allowances the same, or they won’t match up when you want to sew together the rows.
Then we stitched the rows together. I should have ironed them first, but I didn’t.
If you look super closely, you can tell that we didn’t line up the row on the far right quite perfectly. You definitely need to press all the seams after this step, and we did, but I apparently didn’t take a picture.
Next, we added a layer of white fleece
and the backing fabric (a fat quarter
Emma picked out for the quilt). Fleece is easier to work with than real quilt batting, and it works perfectly for a doll quilt. We stitched the three layers together with diagonal lines, and bound it with ribbon
:
It has plenty of imperfections, but it still looks very nice, and is ready for hours of play with a doll!
I’m getting better at quilt piecing, but my quilt binding leaves a lot to be desired. If you have a tutorial you like, or any advice, I would love for you to share!
Do you make quilts? Or other doll accessories? Do you use a light table for crafting?
We received the light table featured in this post from ALEX Toys. All opinions and ideas are my own.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
What size were your squares? I am making a doll quilt and am having trouble deciding what size the squares should be. Thanks!
I used charm squares, which were pre-cut to 5×5 inches. You can use any size you like, though – good luck!
I love how it turned out! Emma is so lucky to have such a crafty Mom!
Thank you, Natalie!
Wow. The quilts are so pretty and you make it look so easy!!!
Thank you! They really are easy, once you get going. It can be confusing at the beginning, though.
I love how Emma used the light table for this and I think your quilt looks pretty perfect!
Thanks! The light table definitely added some magic to the design step!
Oh I love Emma’s design! That would be my favourite part of putting together a quilt. :)
I think that is the most fun – although it is also pretty neat to have a final product you put together yourself :)
Absolutely precious!!!
Thanks, Sherri!
The light table is such a neat tool for all kinds of activities! I bet it would be fun to do tracing work on too.
I want to try tracing on it soon.
Very cute!! When you said easy I thought you meant no sew. Ugh… when am I ever going to learn how to use my sewing machine??? Hope the little doll enjoys it!
I actually have a no-sew version – will post a tutorial for it soon!
Adorable! I actually just made a rag quilt tonight. I’ve seen them on Pinterest and they look so cute. I’m happy to say I did pretty good. I made mine with strips and not squares, as to not get too insane on my first try. Rag quilts are very forgiving AND no binding is needed!
I’ve never made a rag quilt – it’s on my to-do list. I think they look super cute!
I like the idea of using polar fleece for the batting, that’s a great idea.
The polar fleece works really well!
Ohhhh, this just rushed childhood memories to me! I LOVED making quilts for my dolls. I hand-stitched them most of the time in summers when we visited my grandma. This could be a fun project for my daughter and myself! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I want to make a hand-stitched one – I think those are so pretty!
That light table sure is proving handy! Love the quilt. I’ve always wanted to try and make one but still haven’t ventured out yet. Maybe someday…
Someday I’ll attempt a full-scale quilt. The doll-sized ones are less intimidating and good practice :)
So cute – this is on my list of things to do. I have used this tutorial here for bidning: http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com.au/2008/10/binding-tutorial.html?m=1
There are also a bunch of good ones on You tube.
That looks great – thank you, Kate! I’ll check out Youtube as well.
What a fantastic quilt I’m pinning to my sewing with kids board.
Thank you, Cerys!
How precious – and what a smart way to engage a little on in sewing and making a quilt. I love the use of the light table. We have one for animation classes and I never thought of using it this other way.
I can see a light table being a great tool for an animation class!
Emma really got into designing the quilt once we put the squares on the light table!
Oh that’s adorable. One thing I am determined to do in this lifetime is sew a quilt. I doubt I could ever do something as difficult as clothes, but straight lines I think I could manage.
In some ways I find quilts more challenging than clothes, but that’s probably because I learned to sew by making clothes.