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Challenge! Let’s use recycled fabric to make doll clothes this coming week! #EarthDay #Sustainability #TextileWaste

Please read the article below to learn more about FabScrap, and the good things they’re doing to help our planet, as well as Chelly Wood’s sewing challenge for Earth Day 2024!

I’m not sure where I first heard about FabScrap. It could have been from my sister, who is super conscientious about being good to our beautiful planet earth.

In any case, I wasn’t sure whether or not FabScrap would be a good investment, but a couple of years ago, I decided to dive in and see what they had to offer.

When my package arrived, boy oh boy was I surprised!

Here we see the Chelly Wood doll (a Spin Master Liv doll that has been re-wigged and re-painted to look like the real doll clothing designer, Chelly Wood) sitting in her sewing room. To her right is a tiny window, a cabinet with glass doors, behind which we see gobs of tiny fabric swatches, and her sewing table with sewing machine, fabric, miniature pin cushion, etc. To the doll's left, we see a dress form with measuring tape and an ironing board. Chelly wears her blue apron that says "Chellywood.com" on the front, and she holds a tiny cardboard box in her lap, as she sits with feet together (rather lady-like) in the rolling office chair that normally sits beside her sewing table.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

I paid only $15 (plus one additional dollar in general donation money) to get a full box of goodies from FabScrap, and I was immediately inspired to start sewing stuff! Heck, the swimsuit fabric alone would have cost me $15 a yard!

And the fifteen bucks I paid included the shipping cost. I got swatches of lace, satin, a piece of fabric covered in tiny sequins, and plenty of jersey fabrics, which as you know, can run pretty high by the yard.

In this image, we see three swatches of fabric from the FabScrap unboxing video: upper left is a piece of deep purple satin with large spots of darker embossed satin. Below that is a swirl of purple swimsuit fabric with a barely-visible wave pattern in tiny print upon the fabric. Then to the right of both of these fabrics is white cotton jersey with a lavender stripe running through it, and dancing all across these stripes are pastel colored donuts covered in frosting. Yum!
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

The coolest thing about FabScrap is that you can request a grab bag/box of just one color, if you want to. They even have grab bags/boxes of just lace!

I asked for a “scrap pack” of fabrics in shades of purple, and I sent them a message with my order, specially requesting small prints. The donut fabric was my first inspiration, and the swimsuit fabric was next.

If you want to learn how I made the swimsuit for Tall Barbie that appears in today’s video, click here for that blog post.

This segmented image shows three shots of Mattel's modern Tall Barbie, modeling a handmade fashion doll swimsuit or bodysuit made of purple stretchy fabric. On the left, she is seen from the side. There's a dart under her arm. the swimsuit or body suit fits her torso quite well, but there's a slight lip of fabric around the back of her leg. In the center image, the back of the swimsuit has no wrinkled or irregular areas, but the neckline drops nicely down her back. In the far right image, she wears the swimsuit with a near-perfect fit. If you zoom in, you can see that the swimsuit or bodysuit's purple fabric has a slight wavy line running across it horizontally, and the seam brings these lines together in a way that lets the waves meet in the middle, where the seam runs from the doll's bust to the doll's crotch.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

If you’d like to make the jersey-fabric leggings for 18 inch dolls, you can learn more about that outfit on this page.

Here we see the items in a Halloween costume designed to fit 18 inch dolls, with each piece laid out on a table. On the left, the sandwich board of the donut shape lays flat, so we can easily see both donut "pillow" shapes attached by felt straps. On the right, at the top, we see a felt crop top with snaps as a closure. It's a sleeveless felt crop top in a light purple color. The leggings are just below the crop top. They are white with an elastic waist, and the jersey fabric of this pair of leggings has a light purple stripe running vertically through it. Dotted over the top of the white and light purple stripes are multicolored donuts painted on, with the images of boxes of donuts and coffee cups mixed among all the donuts. The ChellyWood.com logo appears in one corner of this image.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Monday is Earth Day, so I wanted to offer up a fun challenge. During the week of April 21st through April 27th, let’s only use recycled fabrics to make our doll clothes. Can you do it? I think you can!

After you’ve  made something, come back to today’s blog post and type into the comments a description of the items you made and how you sourced your recycled fabrics.

The image shows a doll being fitted for a pair of denim shorts. Beside her lies a pair of sewing scissors, a rotund holder for straight pins, some blue thread, and a pair of jeans with some fabric cut out. The text reads, "Earth Day Challenge!" Click here to learn more about the Earth Day Challenge for sewing doll clothes during the week of April 20th through the 27th in 2024, for Earth Day.
Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable sewing patterns for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

I’ve posted about FabScrap before, but with Earth Day coming up on Monday, April 22nd, I really wanted to blog about this amazing opportunity to do the right thing for Mother Earth once again. I hope you don’t mind hearing about FabScrap one more time.

I’ve been very impressed by the quality of fabrics I received from them, as the video at the top probably demonstrates.

If you’re new to my website, or to sewing doll clothes, these are some videos you may find helpful:

For more of my free tutorials, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1.

This image of a turquoise blue sewing needle pulling purple thread away from a line of cross-stitching is used as a divider between sections of a blog post.

To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.

The free printable PDF sewing patterns offered here on this website are the designs of Chelly Wood, and each one is marked with a Creative Commons Attribution mark. Any similarity to other companies’ or other crafters’ projects of a similar nature is unintended.

Are you lovin’ all this free stuff from ChellyWood.com? Please show your support by telling people about ChellyWood.com. That’s what the “Creative Commons Attribution” mark on my patterns means: if you use my free patterns and tutorials, you should tell people where you got all this great free stuff!

If you enjoy my free videos, you might also enjoy my pattern design classes on the Creative Spark online learning platform.

2 thoughts on “Challenge! Let’s use recycled fabric to make doll clothes this coming week! #EarthDay #Sustainability #TextileWaste”

  1. I usually use recycled/scraps for doll clothes. The last example was panties from a pair of my panties that were way to big after weight loss. 😜 I just got a top at Goodwill that is a tiny sunflower print that will be several dresses for dolls. I’ve also turned infant tutus into elegant skirts. The best fabric, in my opinion, is men’s shirts, and baby clothes. Our Salvation Army is having a 1/2 off sale this weekend. I love the FabScrap idea and will look into it!

    Reply

    1. I agree about men’s shirts and baby clothes! I’ve taken some video footage from Goodwill shopping, and eventually I want to make a video showing how I shop for recyclable fabrics at second-hand stores. Baby clothes are nice because they have such small prints. Men’s shirts are often made of cotton or a cotton/poly blend, so they’re easy to sew and often come in solid colors.

      Reply

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