Paper Bag Skirt for American Girl Dolls

I am excited to share with you this tutorial for making a paper bag skirt. This was McKenna’s Christmas outfit but I did not get a chance to post the tutorial last year because of the busy holiday season. Obviously, it’s not made of paper bag but it’s called that way because it’s sort of shape like one since it gets tightened or cinched at the top part usually with a belt or a bow. I used a red and shiny silk fabric that my sister sent me from the Philippines (where I am originally from). I even made a polyvore inspired, newspaper layout poster for this tutorial. So here it goes…

1) Cut your fabric according to this measurement – 7 inches in height and 20 inches in width.

2) Hem the bottom of the skirt, I did mine by folding over about 1/4 inch and then fold again another 1/4 inch. You can make it simpler just by doing zigzag stitch and then folding it at 1/4 inch to hem.

3) Fold the top part of the skirt about 1/4 inch. You can pin or iron it to keep in place.

4) Fold the top part of the skirt again about 1 3/4 inch towards the wrong side. The key is to make sure that after folding and hemming,the skirt will be at least 5 inches in height .

5) Sew about 3/4 inch as casing for the elastic.

6) Make the belt loops. Cut 6 inch long by 2 inches wide for the strip of fabric. With wrong sides together, sew it at 1/4 inch seam and then turn to the right side. Sew a straight stitch on both sides about 1/8 inch from the edge. Cut three strips measuring about 1.75 inch each.

7) Find the center of your fabric and mark that spot with a pin. Then measure about 2 inches away from the center on both sides. That is where you will sew the belt loops.

8) Feed the elastic through the casing. I like to put safety pins on both ends of the elastic.

9) Pin both ends to secure the elastic. With wrong sides together, sew the back seam with a 1/4 inch allowance.

10) Sew the last belt loops at the back of the skirt.

11) Yay, the skirt is done.

12)To make the belt, cut a strip of fabric measuring 26 inches long by 2 inches wide. With wrong sides together, sew the long sides at 1/4 inch allowance. Turn to the right side and zigzag the short ends. You can also use matching or coordinating ribbon if you wish.

All the shoes and bag that I used in this pictorial are all from AMAZON. The silver shoes and bag are made by Carpatina and the red flat shoes is from Dreamworld Collections. I highly recommend them because they are not only cute but made with attention to details and are of great quality.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE SHOES AND BAG FROM AMAZON..