Second Annual American Girls Tea Party

Molly in her party dress, ready for tea

Last year, my darling daughter-in-law hosted a tea party for her very own American girl, Laurel, , and some little misses in the neighborhood.  She even provided gloves and hats for dress up before tea.

This is last year’s party, the first AG doll tea party. After plundering through the dress up box, they were ready for tea.

This week, by popular demand, the event will be repeated and likely will be remembered as  the Second Annual American Girls Tea Party.  Shelly and Laurel will entertain eight little girls and their dolls.

When I asked Laurel what I could do for the occasion, she requested that I make these hats for party favors.  Of course, I jumped at the opportunity and tackled the task with the enthusiasm and delight that comes only from meeting a grandchild’s request.  I declare that child could ask for the moon and I would try my best to arrange for delivery, probably through Amazon.

The hoop was accidentally bumped while stitching this one so it was a reject. But you can see the simplicity of the design.

The hats are from the 18″ Doll Parties collection from Sisters in Stitches.  It comes with two precious party sets, one for birthdays and one for tea parties.    Laurel loved the birthday hats so that’s what we made.  We added the text Laurel’s AG Tea Party 8-11.

The hats stitch out quickly and construction is nothing more than a seam and the addition of an elastic strap.

Together, we selected the fabrics and threads and Laurel took great pleasure in embroidering these in-the-hoop cuties on my Brother Duetta 4500D.  Her own sweet little Brother 300S embroidery/sewing machine combo has only a 4 x 4 hoop, so she enjoyed the temporary upgrade to the larger hoop and all the amazing additional features.

I did add a few of my own  touches. A pompom was stitched to the top of each hat.  Buttons, ribbon rosebuds or bows were stitched in place to cover the bar tack stitches that attached the elastic to the hat.

There will be two tea tables for the girls, each  using one of the matching porcelain tea sets  and tea linens I made a few years ago, in hopes that some day I would have a granddaughter.  Honestly, with almost every stitch, I  imagined having tea parties with her.    And we have shared tea many, many times on my back porch.  An earlier post, Tea Party Time,  gave details of this set.

The porcelain tea set and linen cloth that we use at my house will make its real party debut at Laurel’s event.

Laurel is looking forward to using the pink rose set for the tea party because it has candles-yippee!  Of course, they cannot be lighted, but she is pleased at yet another upgrade.

The dolls will be seated around a floor pillow covered with a linen cloth.  Doll sized tea service will be used. Molly will be wearing her heirloom lace tape dress and Kit will wear her novelty bishop smocked dress.

What fun grandchildren are!  I’d have a hard time justifying the time and effort spent making of party hats and tea cloths without them.

Tell me about some fun you’ve had recently with your child or grandchild.  I would love to hear about it.