I have two girls, so we have a rather large collection of American Girl dolls, Waldorf dolls, and lots of other dolls. Buying clothing and accessories for them can get rather expensive, so I prefer to make a lot of it. Making clothes for doll is so much fun! You can let your imagination go wild and make almost anything. I love to make fantasy play wear for my girls’ dolls like mermaid tails, fairy dress, tutus, and fairy wings.
This tutorial will show you an easy way to make fairy wings! These fit perfectly on an American Girl doll or other 18-inch dolls. They are also fit well on 15-20 inch sized Waldorf dolls as well. I recommend using cotton wovens for the easiest wings to make. But, if you feel adventurous and aren’t a novice, go with something fun! Since it is important to go with natural fibers for Waldorf dolls, I love to use hemp silk or dupioni silk to make wings. They come out really lovely!
These instructions explain how to make custom fit wings by measuring and drawing your own wings. This way you can make wings for any size doll. I have also included a pattern template at the bottom of this tutorial to fit American Girl dolls and other 18 inch dolls. You can skip step 1 if you are simply using the pattern. More after the jump…
Materials:
Pattern – get it here
2 fat quarters of same fabric
1 18 x 21 size HeatnBond lite
1 18 x 21 size of Peltex or Timtex
1/8 inch ribbon or 1/4 inch elastic for attachment to doll
Ribbons/flowers, etc. for decorating
Thread that closely matches the 2 fat quarters
Glue gun
2. Take the 2 fat quarters and open them up flat with wrong side up. Take the fat quarter size of your fusible webbing (Heat n Bond Lite) and iron it to one of the fabrics. Then take the fat quarter size of Peltex/Timtex and iron it to the other fabric piece. Remove the backing for the fusible webbing and put the two fabrics with the fusible webbing facing the Peltex together and iron the fusible webbing to the it.
**You don’t have to use the webbing, but I like to because it makes a better bond to together than just using the fleece.
If you are using the pattern below for your American Girl size doll, then print it and cut it out. Then, take the paper backing you just removed from the fusible webbing, fold it in half and trace and cut out your full set of wings.
4. Take your new full set of wings and lightly trace it with a pencil or tailor’s chalk, or invisible marker on one side of the fabric. If you feel lucky, you can attempt using a small rotary cutter without tracing. I find this to be hard because of the tight curves.
5. Cut the wings out, leaving a small 1/4 inch sewing allowance on the edge. We will cut this off later.
6. Try to use a thread as close to the color of the wings, it makes for a more professional look. Using a zigzag stitch, sew a satin stitch around the entire wings, just inside your tracing.
My sewing machine is a Bernina, and I put my stitch width on 0.5 and stitch length on 2. You might need to adjust yours if you have a different machine.
Also, this is a fairly small stitch. Like applique, you do not want a wide zigzag stitch, it will show flaws.
7. Slowly cut around the entire wings to just at the zigzag. Be very careful not to cut threads. Applique scissors make it easy to get very close.
8. I did not take a picture of sewing the ribbon straps on. Here is a picture of the elastic straps. I have found through making a lot of these, I prefer the elastic because it requires no ties. Below method A is the ribbon ties and method B is elastic.
9. The fun part! Now take the glue gun and attach fun stuff to the back of the wings – flowers, ribbons, pretty little felt things, button, etc. Go wild and make them your own!
You can get the pattern to print out HERE on my blog.
amy mayen says