Dolly nappy made from a flannel

For her first birthday last year we bought Mia her first doll. To our surprise, she showed an interest almost straightaway, and now at 18 months she is often to be seen lugging her about and plonking her in the pushchair. She even gives her a cuddle and a kiss, which is really sweet. She has lots of clothes for her, but one thing that she is missing is some nappies, so I decided that I'd have a go at making some.

I saw these simple dolly nappies made from old face flannels at Made by Tamsin a few months back.

I knew that these nappies would be a perfect make. I have lots of old white flannels around as we stocked up when my son was a baby - we used them to prevent an unwanted shower when changing his nappy. They are also really cheap to buy new. Mia has a My First Baby Annabell doll which is quite a small doll, but I hope that these nappies will also fit a larger doll, as I'm sure that she will end up with more than one!

I don't have a sewing machine and I'm not much of a sewer so I cheated a bit. I cut out the shape from one piece of flannel and just roughly hemmed the edges before sewing on the velcro. Here is my version:

I modified the shape slightly as our doll is a bit smaller, and I found that cutting away part of the T shape made it fit a bit better. This doll has a sleep suit which is very difficult to remove so I expect that the nappy will end up being worn on the outside for the time being!

I found that when I showed the nappy to Harry (3) he was desperate to put it on the doll, but had some trouble working out which way round it should go. To help him I sewed a bit of ribbon to the front to make it clear. I found a scrap of lovely vintage baby ribbon, probably purloined from one of my Grandmas. Mia was delighted with the nappy, although she seemed to think that it was some sort of hat for dolly.

Now I am inspired to make some simple clothes for her doll. Bearing in mind that I've never done anything like this before and I'm not really gifted when it comes to sewing, it's going to be a bit of a challenge!