Doll Bed & Bedding

I've probably mentioned it before, but for the sake of any newcomers to my blog, I'm a member of the Tulsa Smocking and Heirloom Sewing Guild.  We meet once a month and our goal is education of our members and to perform a service project each year.  To be able to afford bringing in a nationally known heirloom educator, we purchase the current year's American Girl doll, make a wardrobe for her and raffle the whole thing off.  The money we make from it usually allows us to bring in an educator and subsidize our members fees.  Some years we even open up the class to non-guild members if there is room.  So, to make a long story short, enough clothes are made for the doll that I wanted to do something a little different and to add a little something extra to the raffle.  So I made a twin 18" doll bed with all the bedding to go with it.  I found the ideas for the bed at http://www.dollclothespatterns.net/

There you'll find lots of 18" clothing patterns with some free stuff.  Also I'm not associated with the site, I'm just another satisfied customer.

What follows is a pictorial of my spin on her doll bed idea. 

This is garden edging from JoAnn's.  I think it cost $2.50.  I paint it white.

This is a wicker basket 19"L X 15"W from Michaels.  I wish I could have found one just a bit longer but it just wasn't to be had.  This picture also shows how I stuck the garden edging into the end of the basket and hot glued it for stability.

Another view of the basket (also painted white) with the garden edging stuck into the end of the basket.

Here it is completely put together.  As you can see, it's just a basket turned over so the bottom is the top.

This is the beginnings of the dust ruffle. 

I found some 2 inch eyelet to apply all the way around the bottom of the dust ruffle.

Showing the 2 layers of eyelet pinned into place and ready to sew down.

I forgot to take pictures of the little mattress I made.  But it just consists of 1 inch foam cut to fit and sewn into a white muslin mattress cover.

Last year I found some embroidered poplin (very thin) on the sale rack at Hancock's.  I got several yards and it's the perfect scale to use as sheets for the doll bed.

At JoAnn's I found a couple of cute, girly matching flannel prints and bought all I could find.  So I made a reversible kitty quilt for the bed.  The other side is polka dots which you'll see better in a later picture.

Next I made a pillow out of the matching polka dot flannel and a throw out of some really soft minky; which, btw, shed all over everything!  LOL.

Last but not least, I made a cute little throw pillow with an embroidered kitty on it.  The original design was over 6 inches high.  I had to reduce it to 2 inches and change the density to get the look I wanted.

I think it turned out very real looking.  Some lucky little girl will get a cute bed, American Girl doll and wardrobe.  Cool, eh?


Later!