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Maddie's Christmas-Tree Dress | Ragdoll Outfit Sewing Pattern

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Maddie can play dress-up all year round with this fun, festive party frock, designed to imitate the tiers of a Christmas tree, complete with tree decorations.

Maddie is getting ready for the Christmas parties with her fabulous decorated tree outfit! I’ve used Christmas-themed cotton fabric, but green voile would look fabulous too, and there’s no reason why you can’t make it in other colours if you like! The dress is made by joining a long skirt to a bodice and then adding the frills to the skirt section. This means that the dress can also be made without the frills, if you’d like a lovely summer dress for Maddie, frills or no frills! You can even make a pared-down version by adding just a frill or two to the bottom edge of the skirt, giving you even more options for Maddie’s wardrobe.

I’ve decorated Maddie’s Christmas-tree dress with small shop-bought bows and pom-poms to suggest Christmas-tree baubles, but feel free to add ricrac, beads, or any other decoration you like! Although I’ve used different prints of green fabric, the same print all over would also work well.

If you haven’t made Maddie already, you’ll find a link to her here. There are also other outfits to make, such as the “Fleece Onesies/Maddie and Robyn Rag Dolly Outfit Pattern,” her “Scallop Summer Dress/Maddie Rag Dolly Outfit Pattern,” “Maddie’s Summer Pinafore Dress,” “Maddie’s Day Dress & Shoes,” “Maddie’s Spring PJs” and more. She even has her very own teddy: “FREE Teddy Bear Sewing Pattern/Maddie and Roby Rag Dolly Toy.” What’s more, from my book, Sew Maddie, you could make Mo the dog and some other fun clothes and accessories.

By the end of this project, you’ll have:

1. Made a really lovely dress for Maddie.
2. Become an expert in making and adding frills.
3. Improved your dressmaking skills – this dress may be small, but the construction is the same as for a full-sized dress.

Note: use a ¼in (5mm) seam allowance.

For more toy-making inspo, why not check out my Pinterest?

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You will need:

Equipment

• Sewing machine with a standard needle 
• Dressmaking shears
• Pins and/or fabric clips
• Erasable fabric marker pen
• Fabric glue: I use Gutermann HT2

Materials

• 18 x 5in (45.75 x 13cm) of outer fabric for the bodice
• 40 x 12in (101.6 x 30.5cm) of lining fabric 
• Two 32 x 4in (81 x 10cm) strips of fabric for frill 5 (the bottom frill)
• Two 30 x 4in (76 x 10cm) strips of fabric for frill 4 (the frill second from the bottom of the dress)
• Two 28 x 4in (71 x 10cm) strips of fabric for frill 3 (the centre frill)
• Two 26 x 4in (66 x 10cm) strips of fabric for frill 2 (the frill second from the top of the dress)
• Two 24 x 4in (61 x 10cm) strips of fabric for frill 1 (the top frill)
• 24in (61cm) of ½in (1.25cm) wide ribbon, cut into four pieces for the shoulder ties
• 22in (56cm) of ½in (1.25cm) wide ribbon to tie around the bodice: you can use more of the ribbon you are using for the ties
• Pom-poms, small bows, or any decorations you’d like to use: I had some small bows that matched the ribbon I was using
• Two 6in (15cm) squares of gold or yellow felt for the star headband
• 16in (40.5cm) of ¾in (2cm) wide elastic for the star headband: I used black to blend in with my Maddie’s hair colour
• A little toy filler for the star headband

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