4 sleeping bags for 4 little dollies

Nature has been for me, for as long as I remember, a source of solace, inspiration, adventure, and delight; a home, a teacher, a companion.

                         ~Lorraine Anderson

Gentle friends, this is the 3rd time I have written this post.  I have no idea what I have done wrong, but both times it has disappeared!  We will see what this morning brings.  I have been sewing so much these days and have a hard time getting my projects written for Bibi Sews.

My 4 girlies love to play with their American Girl dolls, so
I thought it would be fun to make 4 sleeping bags for their spend the nights and pretend camp outs.  I decided to used flannels, minkeys and cottons from my stash, and  to try to match colors to the girls' tastes.

After I had chosen the fabrics for each girl I embroidered the doll's name on the front of the sleeping bag.  The font I used was Sunshine Poppy.  I was able to choose a font, put it into the fonts folder in my laptop, then bring it into the Bernina Designer Plus software and stitch it out!

I lined up the four bags on the banister, Kit, Julie, Castle and Addy.  I see a few puckers on Castle, but using 2 layers of cutaway stabilizer kept the others nice and smooth.









Next I made my sandwiches...soft backing, either flannel or minkey, Warm and Natural    batting, and the embroidered cover.  I trimmed them up using my dreaded rotary cutter, but the   results were quick and  neat.  I usually use my trusty Ginghers, and still have a slight aversion to the rotary cutter, but the end result is so much neater and easier on my granny hands.






Now it was time to practice my not so good free motion skills.  I did squiggles and loops on three of the bags,  and on the 4th chevron I just followed the lines.  The quilting was a nice touch and made the fabric sandwiches look more like sleeping bags than just fabric envelopes!




There are many, many tutorials showing how moms and grandmas make these bags.  I know I looked at Riley Blake and Peas in a Pod.

Yards and yards of bias binding were cut next.  I cut them on the bias, 2.5 inches wide, pressed them wrong sides together lengthwise, and sewed them to the rectangles matching the raw edges.  After looking at MANY examples online, and a hands on tutorial from my quilting guru, Kathy, I believe I have finally mastered the mitered corner with all these layers.

Bows made the sleeping bags complete, and Katelyn made her Addy a pillow from a scrap on turquoise chevron!

Good night Dollies!