Slumber Shirt (1996 Version)
- Jan 13
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 17
As I alluded to in the post about the AG Boxer PJ's and Robe, there's one '90's pajama set that I have wanted for decades. The moment I saw the 1996 Slumber Shirt outfit from the A Girl of Today line, I was head over heels. I don't know if it was my love of teal at the time or the fact that I exclusively wore nightshirts to sleep in, but I thought it was the most incredible sleep shirt I'd ever seen. I wanted the girl's version so badly. I'm pretty sure by this time I had learned that Pleasant Company outfits were a pretty baggy fit on my Magic Attic Club Megan doll (my only 18" doll when I was a kid), so I didn't save up to get one for her, either.
Many years later, now with actual American Girl dolls and also armed with the knowledge of how to hunt for good secondhand pieces, clean them, and restore them, I decided it was finally time to find a good Slumber Shirt. I'd been successful in finding a First Day Outfit (as modeled by April) in excellent condition, so I felt pretty confident that I could find a good slumber shirt as well.
I found one listing that claimed to be brand new in package, but I wasn't sure if I could justify the hefty price tag for such a simple piece. I eventually settled on one that was a third of the price and seemed to be in pretty good condition. When it arrived, though, it was definitely a little dustier and had a few more fabric pills than it had seemed to in the photos.
I set to work cleaning and disinfecting the sleep shirt and headband, and was pleasantly surprised to find that unlike many of the '90's pieces I've washed in the past, it did not seem to bleed at all! Incredible!
I could've just left good enough alone, but I really wanted to see if I could make the fabric look as brand new as possible. There's a trick I've used before on a much-loved Disneyland sweatshirt where you carefully use a shaving razor to remove pilly areas of fabric and make it look smooth again. The fabric of the slumber shirt is basically thin sweatshirt material, so I decided to take a risk and see if the trick would work for me again.
I worked slowly, with a very light hand, and in time created a small pile of teal fuzz. I think shaving helped? Some areas look a little smoother while others kind of look the same. To make sure I wouldn't end up with fuzz-covered dolls, I used some painter's tape to carefully "lint roll" the entire piece, then shook it out for good measure.
I decided to try the slumber shirt out on Marina, the new Lila Monetti doll my husband gifted me for Christmas (more on her soon). As I went to put the sleep shirt on her, for the first time, I realized it didn't have any Velcro in the back and I would need to pull it on over her head. I somehow hadn't noticed the entire time I was cleaning the shirt!
I'm not a huge fan of pull over outfits because I find that one of two things happens. Either the doll's hairstyle gets messed up as the fabric pulls past it, or you have to pull the opening of the clothes wide enough to miss the hair and run the risk of stretching it out too much. In this case, despite how careful I was trying to be, Marina's little pigtails did get messed up. I was already planning on taking them out eventually, so in the end it wasn't a big deal, but now it definitely limits who will be wearing this outfit in the future. I've also learned from the Gap hoodie, another pull over outfit, that I should avoid such pieces on any dolls with stick on lashes, too.
But, slight issues aside, I am really glad I finally have this slumber shirt in my collection. The color is really nice in person (it's a little more teal than how it photographs) and it does look really cute on the dolls. It's also nice to have another of my favorite outfits from the '90's catalogs in my collection. All that said, though, I'm really hoping this year American Girl will introduce some outfits I'll want to add to my collection. Washing doll clothes isn't terrible, but it would be nice to just open something and start using it right away. Here's hoping!
Edit 1/17/26: I had to try the outfit on my most '90's-looking doll, April, before putting it away. Of course, I had this idea after the sun had already set, so I had to make the best of some bad lighting, but she looks pretty cute! Still, it was a bit of a struggle to get the shirt on and off of April, too, so I'm not sure how often I'll really use this piece. But again, still nice to have in my collection.
