Whew! That summer vacation was a doozy! It was so hot and dry, and then it rained for about a month. That means the kids were all stuck inside driving each other - and me- crazy. But we all made it through and they kids are back in school now. As much as I love sleeping in and having unscheduled summer days, I get a lot more work done when we get back into a routine.

I did spend a lot of time working on the website this summer. It was ugly outside so the timing worked out well. My sister designs websites so she gave it a complete overhaul and we worked on a fresh, new layout. I really love how it turned out.

One of the upgrades included creating a newsletter subscription. I have been meaning to do this for awhile but there was some technical stuff holding me back. Anyway, I want to send out a newsletter once or twice a month letting people know what is new on the blog. I will add in some behind the scenes stuff as well. It will be fun and not spammy at all. Really.

I also made a pdf of my basic doll dress pattern since it was the most requested on a recent poll. I threw in a slight catch, though. To get this pattern all you have to do is subscribe to my newsletter. It will be automatically e-mailed to you. Not too hard, right?

Free basic doll dress pattern for 18" or American Girl Dolls

Make sure to check your spam folder. Also, I am new at this, so it might take a day or so to ensure everything is working correctly. Please be patient with me!

The directions for assembling this dress are exactly the same at THIS one so instead of me taking all new pictures, you can just go HERE to see how it is done. It only requires a quarter yard of fabric- a fat quarter or 9" off of the bolt will work- and a little thread and velcro.

Free pattern download for an 18" doll dress

Once you have figured out how to do this basic doll dress, there are a lot of simple changes that you can make to really alter the style of the dress.

~hand sew buttons over the velcro on the back
~cut a wider strip for the skirt to make it fuller
~cut the skirt longer to make it a midi or maxi length
~use a different type of fabric for the top and/or skirt (tulle is cute!)
~add lace, trim, or ric rac near the bottom
~add ribbon at the waist for a cute sash
~use contrasting fabric for the top and skirt

If you have any questions don't hesitate to e-mail me! I also love to see pictures of the dresses made with my free patterns.

I have a lot more free doll clothes patterns available under my tutorial menu. Here are a few of them: