American Girl Doll Smocking Dress with Elastic Thread Tutorial AG008

In my last AG post, I used basting thread to do my gathering; today I will use elastic thread.  Myagdollcraft site has a free pattern for this.  As usual, I have altered the pattern to suit Kanani.

American Girl Doll Smocking Dress with Elastic Thread AG008

I cut my eyelet fabric 9” long by 20” wide, serged and pressed under ½” on all four sides.  Start shirring ¼” from top fold.  There is lots of info on the net on how to shirr fabric if you don’t understand mine.

Lighter fabrics work best for this technique.  The elastic is not strong enough to gather heavy weight fabrics.   Use regular thread at the top of your machine and elastic thread in your bobbin.  Wind your elastic by hand - don’t wind it too loose but don’t pull it too tight either.  Just pull ever so slightly as you wind the bobbin then put it into the machine.  Pull it up through the bottom, just like a normal bobbin.  I increased my stitch length a wee bit and changed nothing else.

Starting at ¼” from the fold on the right side of the fabric, begin sewing like you would normally, and you will see the fabric beginning to pull from behind.   I used my presser foot as a guide to keep my rows straight and equal distant apart.  Make sure the fabric is flat going under your needle. Once you are done shirring 6 rows, press the iron down lightly over the shirred section, lift up and place on a new section.  The moisture and the heat will shrivel up the elastic from below and will pull in the fabric nicely.

I used velcro for the back closure and ribbon to make straps instead of ties.

 

American Girl Doll Cotton Panties Tutorial AG008a

 

I chose Molly’s Panties pattern to make these cotton undies.

I cut the front down about  1/4“ and the back down about  1“.  I also scooped the front at the waist.  Because I was only using the serger at the leg openings, I cut them back a bit too.  I needed to add about 1.25 “on to the side seams since I was using a cotton fabric.  I used 9” of ¼” elastic at the waist.