zippypops

shoe tutorial

once again, the pattern is in the right hand column, in the "patterns" category titled "doll shoes."

out of felt (or pleather or whatever) cut 2 tops, and 2 bottoms. (make sure you have a 'right' bottom and a 'left' bottom)

right top sides together, stitch the heel seam.

right sides together, carefully pin each top to it's sole. you might consider hand basting. I do that with the dolls' feet... all those pins can become cumbersome on such a tiny little surface, and it is important to achieve a nice smooth line of sewing. felt is pretty easy to work with though.

turn right side out. in order to give the shoe some definition, I usually blanket stitch around the bottom seam with either matching, or contrasting embroidery floss. and add little french knot flowers, etc., but since these are for a boy, we'll let them be!

cap tutorial

the pattern is in the right hand column, in the "patterns" category titled "doll cap."

cut 6 of cap material.
sew 3 sections together. sew the other 3 sections together. right sides together, sew halves together and there is the outside of the hat!

cut 6 of lining material and piece together the same way.

to prevent your sewing machine from "eating" the ends of your pieces, hold the string ends taught and gently pull if necessary. (I learned this trick from Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing – brilliant!)

right sides together of the lining and outside cap (forming a little bowl), line up the section seams, pin, and sew all round, leaving a small (1 1/2 inch maybe?) opening so you can turn the whole thing right side out.

press the edge flat, and ladder stitch the opening closed. (does everyone know how to ladder stitch? I geeked out last winter and borrowed a bunch of upholstery sewing tutorial videos from the library. priceless)

sew a little button on the top, going through both layers of fabric, or, if the doll is for a young child and buttons are a concern, a couple of small stitches through both layers will do.

and voila! stylish young man!