American Girl doll hair styling capes

I managed to get some sewing done over the weekend. Anything to keep me from looking out the windows was very welcome. The whiteness just can't seem to stop, and we are in for another 3-4" of it today. ACK!!

American Girl dolls' hair can be styled, but it needs to be done carefully, and directions say to spritz a little water on the hair to help with the brushing. So to protect a doll's clothing, she needs a hair styling cape, right? Of course! So I made two of them... one for Courtney's Marie Grace, and one for my own Kit.

Courtney has told me a number of times that you can tell an American Girl doll is "real" if she has the teeth showing. Of course, ours are both real. A real AG doll should also have a "real" hair styling cape, too, right? Well, these are both "real", in other words, authentic hairstyling capes... or at least made from one. One that I, in fact, begged from my very own hairstylist! She was very generous in giving me one of her older ones!

I made the first cape from this tutorial. I dressed it up a little bit and made it more colorful, just for fun. I happened to have some appropriate ribbon, designed by none other than Jessica Jones, so I added a little of that on the front.

This one is for Courtney's doll, since hers has much longer hair, and this cape covers more. I also decided it was much more convenient for the ties to be in the front. It seems to me the brush would get caught in the ties if they were in the back, not to mention being harder to tie under the hair.

I'll keep this next cape for my own doll, Kit, who happens to be my model for both capes. Since she has short hair, she doesn't need all the coverage of the other cape. Where the above cape is a circle, this one is made from a rectangle. The tutorial for it came from here.

It is also decorated with one of Jess's ribbons.

It's open down both sides, although it doesn't really look like it in these pics. It's only tacked together under the arms.

They were very simple and fun to make. What took the longest, of course, was deciding how I was going to trim them. I went with what ribbons and bias tape I had on hand, fortunately colors that went together well. Courtney hasn't seen them yet. I sure hope she likes hers best!

Thanks so much for the "real" cape, Lori!! If Natalie ever needs one for her doll, just let me know. I have enough left for at least one more of the smaller cape!