help with doll quilt & sewing with 8 yr old granddaughter
 

Help please! I've never made a doll quilt but am assuming that it will just be a mini version of the ones I already do. My 8 yr old granddaughter will be with us for the weekend & wants to make a doll quilt. She's never sewn before & I know she'll want to take it with her.
My thought was to already have squares cut, backing & batting cut. Also to sew it using Nancy Zieman's column technique.
But what size should it be? She has an Amer. Girl doll & I thought that would be good to make one for her.
But what size is that?
Is there anything else "special" to do making a doll quilt that will be used?
Thanks for any help :)

An American girl doll is 18 inches high so a quilt about 24 X 24 would be perfect. I would just cut 4 1/2 inch squares and let her sew them together. Any doll quilt I have made for my granddaughters, I made just like a regular quilt but I used a thin, lightweight batting in them. The kids loved to chose their own fabrics and help sew them together. She will enjoy the time you spent with her.

I make my doll quilts 18" x 24". That seems to fit their beds pretty well. I'm not a very experienced quilter but, I cut 4" squares so they finish out at 3/5". Just sew them together and you're done. You can also sew 2" strips together and cut 2" strips from that. Just be sure to have an uneven number of strips.

Thank you Mary & April. I had also seen a tip about putting in a layer of foil to make the quilt hold it's shape when they position it over their baby. What do you think of that? And would you put it in & sew through it?

the doll quilt can be customized, size-wise, to the doll. So, if your granddaughter's doll "likes" a large quilt, make it 24x24. Your granddaughter is 8 and can cut the batting with scissors. she may be young for the rotary cutter, so I would suggest you cut the fabric. A rail fence is an easy pattern for a child. Simple strip piecing, to practice the size of her seams. Don't expect perfect, let her do as much as possible and then "fudge" it to quilt it if it isn't 100% square. She will love it even more if she does a lot of the work.

Batting should be *extremely* light (split the batting, if necessary, or use a layer or two of double-washed flannel); otherwise the doll quilt will be stiffer than you may want. If you were doing regular quilting, I would also recommend using a finer thread and not over-quilting. Stippling with regular thread, for example, will stiffen the quilt way too much.

I hadn't heard of the foil idea. I would whip up a sample quilt in the desired size with foil in it and stitch through the foil to see how the quilt turns out. I think you would need to stitch through the foil as a layer in order for that idea to work. Seems to me, though, there could be drawbacks such as noisiness and eventual wearing out of the foil into fragments. Also I would think that machine washing would be hard on the foil (lots of flexing), so it would be more for show quilts than for play quilts.

My girls have American girl dolls and the quilts we made are about 20x24.

I think enveloping the quilt would be good.

Thank you for all the suggestions. Right now my thoughts are to cut 4 1/2 inch squares to end with quilt size 20x24" or 24"x24". The idea to envelope it is good & that way if Rosie gets her stitching off it won't show.
Rather then heavy quilting, etc. I think we'll "birth" it & let her use a decorative stitch to tie it. On my machine she can choose to do a single decorative character.
Think I will whip up an even smaller one tomorrow & try it & put a piece of heavy duty foil in with the batting just to see how it comes out.

8 years old is young for hand coordination if she hasn't sewn before. Simple is good.

Sewing a one piece blanket out of fleece with pinked edges is a simple place to start. She could applique hearts or other simple shapes onto it.

Another simple project my mom did with her granddaughters when they started was makiing Barbie sleeping bags. That can be really simple and might be something their Barbie doesn't already have. They were really more like envelopes or large scissors holders -- open on one end and part way down the side; certainly no zipper.

Be prepared for a possible short attention span calling for breaks in the sewing session.

Whatever project you choose, you and she will both have fun and be making memories!

Dayle

Dayle