Adorable Coats, Jackets and Skirts for 18 Inch Dolls Made From Mini-Christmas Tree Skirts

For all you American Girl and other 18" doll fans (and moms of fans) out there, here is something to keep your eyes out for as you do your post-Christmas shopping. Several Christmases ago, my sister and I realized that mini-tree skirts can be easily converted into a variety of darling doll clothes. I won't take time in this blog to give you the how-to instructions. I'm just going to post some pictures so that if you are interested in making some of your own during the coming year, you can pick up a variety of skirts at clearance prices. They are available at Hobby Lobby and other craft stores and in the holiday sections of other stores as well.

So here are a few things we have made in the past to give you some inspiration and to help you know what to look for:

My sister turned a simple red felt tree skirt into this Bavarian style jacket simply by creating sleeves (I can post about how to do this later) and adding trim to the front edges.

Using a similar technique with a slightly larger tree skirt, I made this faux fur jacket. I was able to create a matching hat by salvaging the scraps I cut off to shorten the sleeves. The skirt came with the buttons already in place, and in most cases, they come with velcro that makes fastening in front easy.

Many of the tree skirts have sports themes. The top jacket is obviously football. The white and red one was a baseball that I transformed into a more formal look by simply adding a couple of 

red felt flowers.

Soft fur tree skirts make lovely capes and jackets for party dresses. See the tutorial here!

A larger size mini-tree skirt can be transformed into a darling winter coat. Again, extra fabric that we gained from shortening the sleeves made it possible to create the matching hat, purse 

and trim for the boots.

And finally, we turned appliqued tree skirts into whimsical ice skating skirts.

So, if these look like something you might like to make in the coming months, pick up a few tree skirts during your after Christmas shopping, and I will post tutorials about how to turn them into clothes for your dolls.

Happy New Year!