The kids recently decided that their dolls were suffering from a severe clothing shortage, so we threw together some instant gratification felt
 outfits using a technique I remember using as a child.
How to Make No-Sew Doll Clothes
The top is a single rectangle of felt, with a hold in the middle for the neck and a line extending down from it until it is large enough to fit over the doll’s head. Felt
stretches slightly (as you can tell by the puckering in the above photo), so it can be quite a snug fit.
The skirt is a circle, once again with a circle cut out of the middle. Like a poodle skirt, minus the sewing =)
Johnny added a rubber band to make his doll a Robin Hood outfit. You could achieve a more polished result by using hair bands instead of rubber bands.
You can also add little appliques using a glue gun
. If you want sections to stick together, stick on adhesive-backed velcro
.
Not fancy, but possible for any child to make, so long as they have the scissor skills! I did most of the cutting for these, but once the kids get a little older they’ll make outfits on their own, limited only by their own imaginations and the colors of felt we have on hand!
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Do you have ones for Barbies?
Adorable! I love the rubber band! That is something my 4 year old would think is super cool! :)
(stopping by from weteach)
Great,not only for kids but also for people like me who can’t sew :)
Hey, even I can pull it off – thanks for the idea!
Well, I don’t know about any child making them, this one is for me :-). This is a great idea!
LOVE the last picture of Johnny.
My girls are going to be in heaven!
I remember doing this as a kid too! Thanks for the reminder!
So clever and simple. We bought a doll for Vi as a big sister gift, which came without clothes. We’ll have to do this when Vi realises her doll might want to get dressed. :)
That may be a while, if she’s anything like Lily =)
Love this idea! We are Groovy Girl fans here. This would be perfect for the girls. My girls Luke to bedazzle everything so I could cut out the clothes and they could embellish them. Thanks so much for another great idea!
These would be really fun to bedazzle!
thank you so much! my daughter always wants to “design” her own clothes for her dolls, but I cannot sew a lick. This is perfect
I love it. My girls have been asking for new doll clothes, but I think would much rather help make their own.
I love this! Fast and easy for older kids to make. I also love Johnny’s Robin Hood outfit. So creative!
Excellent! Emily has been bemoaning her dolls’ miserable wardrobes. She keeps asking me to sew clothes for them. I can’t even keep my actual children clothed for the season without running out of basic essentials (and that’s just store-bought; let’s not even discuss handmade), let alone their dolls. This is the solution! Must stock up on felt and show Emily this post. Thank you!
Very cute! I made no-sew clothes for my dolls when I was little, but it involved using a lot of transparent adhesive tape.
Hmmmm…….. My kids might be able to do this……….
I love this idea!! It is brilliant, thank you so much for sharing! My girls are going to love this!
Perfect! I am going to show this to my girls…they are often fashioning bits of clothing for stuffed animals and small dolls from felt scraps. This idea will help them out :)
Brilliant! I love how easy this is.