Skip to easy instructions on how to sew a doll's dress.

The Doll’s Dress

by Julia Parker, from the February 2004 Newsletter

Fourteen years ago, when I was just 22, a co-worker with fake fingernails, a curly perm and a thick paste of make-up called me “earth mother” when I brought a homemade loaf of wheat bread to share at work. That moniker must have struck home because I have remembered it for so many years and have decided to use it for this column. I hesitate to write anything about mothering or environmentalism because I cannot claim to be the most earth-loving, most wonderful mother on the Palouse. But, at least, my goals tend in those directions.

Today, at 36, I have two children – 16 year-old Joshua and 3 year-old Simone. (And, yes I would highly recommend this age range for children because it gives you the chance to see how the first one is turning out before you venture into parenthood a second time.) So, now with these two children, I am constantly trying to balance my preferences for a sustainable, low-commercial, peaceful existence with the preferences and culture of the rest of America. There are many days when I say to my partner, “That’s it! I’m taking the children to live in a cave away from all these crazy people.” But, I don’t. Somewhere there has to be a balance between blue-frosted-cupcake-Barbie-birthday parties, Nintendo wielding, car-obsessed, Internet-porn-exposed teenagers, and homemade wheat bread loving, television-hating, politically active, vegetarian mothers, right?

Although the modern industry of child entertainment upsets me, I admit that my home sometimes appears to be developing rather high levels of plastic junk, Disney characters, toys, and, yes, one Nintendo Game Boy. In an attempt to combat this accumulation, I’ve begun to secretly remove toys, focus more on homemade crafts and making do with a little imagination and a bottle of glue.

This column is my attempt to explore some of those attempts at a sustainable life-style with kids in tow and more importantly, a column in which I’ll share specific ideas about activities, projects, foods and other goodies to have fun with for parents and kids (or grandparents, or babysitters…). Each month I’ll bring the Co-op newsletter a project that is low impact on you, your kids and the planet. I’ll pledge to stay away from plastic stuff, glue guns, and hopefully the co-modification of childhood as brought to us by Disney, Nintendo, Mattel and the rest. My goal is to keep us from wandering the malls in search of plastic stuff for our kids and to give kids and adults a fun thing to do together that is cheap and earth-friendly. Of course I am always open to suggestions!

The project I want to share this month can be adapted for kids from 3 to 8 or so. It involves minimal hand-sewing skills, and the involvement of your child can be adjusted to what he or she can do.

How to Make an EASY Hand-Sewn Doll Dress with Your Child

• Cut out a rectangle of material about as wide as the doll with outstretched arms and twice the length of the doll shoulder to knee (or ankle or whatever length you think appropriate) + 2 inches.
• Fold material in half.
• Cut a hole for her head on the fold.
• Cut in from the edge about where the doll's waist would be.
• Turn wrong side out.
• Sew the bottom sleeve edges.
• Sew the sides of the skirt.
• Make small folds in the top of the skirt (under the sleeves) and put a few stitches in to keep in place.
• Use a wide piece of ribbon or an extra piece of cloth to make a belt.
• Tack down a piece of lace, rickrack, whatever’s handy to finish the outside of the neck.
• Hem the sleeves and the skirt or finish the same as the neck.

Voila! A doll’s dress. (And an afternoon project that keeps you from wandering in the mall)

Copyright: Copyright on articles and recipes are jointly held by the Moscow Food Co-op and the respective authors, except were otherwise noted.

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