American Doll clothes for pennies

Sophie is one admittedly unstylish American Girl knock-off.

Since she joined our family two years ago, she's gotten not one name-brand outfit.

Sure, Santa's bought her an outfit or two, and she got a Girl Scout sweatshirt for a birthday. But largely she's been spared of high-priced duds.

Lately my daughter has been begging for more clothes for Sophie. Admittedly these can quickly break the bank. But I found a simple solution: hand-sewn clothes for pennies.

Liberty Jane offers a small selection of free doll clothes patterns on its website. I downloaded the pants and tank top patterns and used some worn khaki shorts of mine to make a pair of pants and a pair of khaki shorts. Sophie also got several tank tops and T-shirts cut from a layered shirt she'd taken a pair of fabric scissors too, and she'll also be getting a swimsuit this Christmas season too.

The patterns are fairly easy for a rusty sewer to work with; in fact, I hand-sewed mine while catching up on Revolution. The only out-of-pocket costs were for elastic.

So if you have an hour to spare and an old piece of clothing, you might consider reinventing it as a Christmas present for your favorite American Girl-type doll.