Summer dress for American Girl doll

What you need:

• 24" x 11" lightweight fabric
• matching thread
• elastic thread

Use a lightweight fabric and cut (or better rip, that will make it perfectly straight and square) three squares with the following dimensions

        24" x 9"  (dress)

        2 pieces of 5 1/2" x 7/8" (straps)

Sewing instructions
1. Double hem the two long sides (3/8" wide)
2. Then comes the elastic shirring (see below for info)
3. Go in rows about a 1/4" apart, start 1/4" from the top

  
4. Make about 9-10 rows ( until you are about 2 1/4" down from the first shirring row)
5. Sew back together being careful to line up the rows as good as possible
Don't be surprised if it is still a little too wide. Hold an iron with steam over it and the fabric will loosen and with that it will pull it tighter.

6. Take the 2 pieces of fabric (5 1/2" x 7/8") to make the straps
7. Create the shoulder straps like double folded bias tape 1/4" wide
(fold both sides half way in then fold in the center)
8. Sew on shoulder straps
       Find center front, mark, measure about 1 1/4" from either side of the mark, sew on
       Measure about 1 1/4" from either side of the back seam and sew on

You are done !!!

Shown abbreviation:
Make a 22" bias tape fold in half and attach in center front and tie behind the neck. That way it will be like a V.


Info on elastic shirring
you can find a lot of info on elastic shirring on the web. One good tutorial is here
Elastic Shirring tutorial