AG doll sleeping bag/backpack

As long as I've sidetracked you away from the Cincinnati/Newport subject, I'll hold off on getting back to it for one more day. I want to show you a sewing completion.

Remember the little pile of fleece scraps I showed you here? Well, I finally got my little project finished! It was no easy task. I found the tutorial for it here, but I found it to be a very poorly written, confusing tutorial. The original item was made for a child, and then the instructions were rewritten for a doll size. However, some of the instructions talked about child size, and some were for the doll size, so I was never sure which was which. The photos were also confusing and not much help. I even left a comment asking a question of the author, but I got no response. So if you decide to try this, do it at your own risk, and consider yourself forewarned. But if you do make one, and you found it easy and it turned out great, do let me know!!

Courtney chose which fleece squares she wanted to use, and she also figured out most of the placement for them, with just a little guidance from me. I think she did very well! Here's the base of the sleeping bag (that's the backpack it fits into attached at the top):

I hope you quilters won't be too hard on me. The fleece pieces were just uneven rectangles, and I wasn't about to take the time to square each one up, so I just sewed them together in whatever way worked. :) Of course the whole thing would've been simpler if I'd just used whole pieces of fabric instead of sewing all the little bits together, but I wanted to make use of the scraps.

Here's the blanket part:

I didn't realize until I got it all finished and put Kit inside it, that it's actually too short. Grrr. Courtney noticed it right away, too, that the blanket wouldn't cover the whole doll. Oh well, it's just a doll, right?

To get it into the pack, you fold it lengthwise into thirds,

roll it up,

and tuck it inside the pack:

It even has little pockets for the doll to put her extra 'things' into... not that a doll has that many extra 'things'. :)

This is what it looks like all closed up,

and here's the other side, showing the shoulder straps:

Kit is modeling it for you here,

and here:

Another problem with it is that the straps are a bit too short, making it really hard to get onto the doll's arms. If I ever make another one, I'd make the straps each maybe an inch longer. But I won't be making another one!

Courtney was very happy with it, though, so it was worth my efforts. :) She was also able to fold it up, get it into the pack, and get it onto Marie Grace's shoulders all by herself, so that was a success!