Britta's Bounty: Doll Sized Quilts

My girls still LOVE their dolls! Yes. They're 14 and 11 years old and they love to dress them up and do their hair and role play with them pretending all sorts of stories. I love it! I love that no matter what their "middle school world" says, they still love to do that sort of thing together. It keeps them young and innocent AND when they are playing together they're not fighting. Seriously! They're the best of friends when they play together because they share that common interest and it doesn't matter that they're "too old" to play with dolls. Personally, I think you're never too old to play with dolls. Anyway, the longer they stay that way the better. Next year Elsa's going into high school and I have a feeling that it's all going to change so quickly, so fast. I don't think I'm ready for it. Aaah, why does life have to fly by so fast!

Anyway, for now let me just have my little girls as they are. (For at least one more year).

This is Elsa (14)

This is Abby (11)

One thing we especially love is making clothes and accessories for their dolls. It's also a great way to learn how to sew and follow a pattern because the dolls are a lot smaller, so it is not so overwhelming for them while they learn. We use patterns from Liberty Jane and others I find online or I make my own. I made some cute summer shorts for Abby last summer and thought they would be cute in doll size.

I will share them with you in another post,but today...

I'm going to share the doll sized quilt that Abby and I made. It was a fun, quick project.

So first, you want to start out with 2.5 inch squares. Then, start laying them out in the pattern that you want for you doll quilt. Abby's doll "helped" as you can see.

Then, once you have your quilt top pieced together, then gather up each row and start to sew them together like the picture below.

Then, press the seam allowances to one side.

Then, lay them out like so...

Then, when you get them all sewn together, sew each row together...

I think she likes it already!

Then onto putting it all together! The best thing I've used is basting spray. It keeps all the layers together until you can bind it and tie it (if you want to tie it). You don't have to tie it as it is such a small quilt, but if you want that effect then by all means, tie it. :)

So, next you'll lay down the back of the quilt, then the batting, which you may use anything that is fluffy such as cotton batting, a blanket or anything to make it soft and warm. Then lay down the quilt top.
Then, pull up and fold over half the batting and quilt top and spray the basting spray on the wrong side of the bottom layer, then carefully lay the half of the batting down on the basted layer, then spray the batting and lay the folded half of quilt top down on the sprayed batting. Then repeat on the other side. If you mess up and need to pull part of it apart, no problem, the basting spray in NOT permanent. It is very forgiving.

Make sure you don't make the same mistake as I did here. Make sure you have enough fabric on the bottom two layers for the binding. I made it work but it would've been easier with more fabric to work with.

First, fold and press about a 1/4 inch, then again over the quilt top edge all around. Then, when you get to the corners fold over the corner first, press, then fold the edges as explained earlier. It should look like the picture below.

This is what it should look like when all layers are basted together except to make it easier to bind make sure to have plenty of fabric all sides. :) I trimmed a little too close. So when you trim make sure you leave enough bottom fabric and batting to bind. About an inch or two. DON'T CUT THE QUILT TOP!

I just machine stitched around the binding since it was only for a doll and my girls would be handling it a lot, but you can hand stitch it around if you want to.