Little Doll For The Take Along Fabric Doll House

Today I worked more on the little doll I made for the doll house.  I made her 2 dresses and some pjs.  It was all a bit difficult for me because it is miniature and i had to do hand sewing which as I've said before isn't my forte.  I did use one pattern I found for the pink dress I made.  I got it from here, Aux Petits Bonheurs de Sophie.  She's got a good tutorial with pictures on there.  The other dress and the pjs I just made it up as I went.  Tomorrow I want to put the rest of the house together and then I'll be done with house number one :)  Here are some pictures of what I got done today.

Christmas Gifts Progress

Well as I said on my Christmas in July post, I was going to continue with my diaper bags today.  I made 3 wipes cases with 2 wipes in them, 3 changing mats and 3 baby bottles :)  I still need to embellish each thing with embroidered words and some appliques I'll make with my trusty BIGkick machine.  The baby bottles were fun to make and easier than I thought as well.  They are made of felt and stuffed with polyester stuffing.  I sewed a tube out of white felt and stuffed it.  I then cut out 2 circles out of white felt for the top and bottom of the tube and hand sewed them on.  I made a template for the nipple and cut it out of light brown felt.  I hand sewed that together and stuffed it.  After that I used my glue gun to glue the nipple to one end of the white tube.  I then cut a strip of pink felt and glued it around the top part of the white tube covering a bit of the tube and a bit of the nipple.  That's how I made my 3 bottles.

Tomorrow I will embellish the accessories I've made so far :)  I still need to make 3 bibs, sew the dresses and bloomers I cut out, make a baby toy of some sort and decide what else to put in my diaper bags :)

Christmas in July

Today I decided to start making Christmas presents.  Last year I made Christmas presents for most of our nephews and nieces in Texas :)  I decided to do the same this year :) I'll share pictures of the things I made last year.  I'll also post about the stuff I'm making this year :)

This is what I did today.  I cut out 3 doll dresses and bloomers I got from my Simplicity patterns and I also cut out 3 diaper bags.  I made up the diaper bag pattern myself.  

Only things I sewed up today were the 3 diaper bags.

They are not finished though.  I need to add some flower appliques and make the accessories.  I think I want to make a wipes container with a few wipes, a changing mat, bib, a little felt bear and I want to make a baby bottle.  I'm not sure if I can do it but I'm going to give it a go.  I'm also going to add a diaper not sure if I'll make it or put in an actual newborn diaper as I have a few of those to hand.  They will each also have one of the dresses I'm going to make.  I'll add the appliques tomorrow and start making some of the accessories :)  I'll share what I get done.  

Little Fabric Doll House

After I had made the dolls I've showed you I decided to try something different.  I wanted to make something like what I'd found here Pretty Prudent.  I absolutely am in love with the idea of a dollhouse in a vintage suitcase :)  I don't have a vintage suitcase though :D So as it often happens when my mind is full to the brim with crafty ideas I couldn't sleep one night and an idea was born :D
I decided to go ahead and make my own flat doll house and put it together like a book :) It was massive fun to make :D  I used my sewing machine, my handy glue gun, my trusty BIGkick machine, a lot of felt squares and fabric, plus that sturdy interfacing stuff I don't know the name of sorry.  I'll put a picture of it here see if you can get an idea of what it is.

Each panel of my flat house was made with a felt square for one side, fabric for the other side and the sturdy interfacing in the middle to make it stiff.  I made a living room, kitchen, dance room, bedroom and a backyard.  The outside of the flat house I made to look like the front and back of a house and I made it some handles to make it easy to carry around.  I also made a Waldorf inspired mini doll named Molly :) and a little boy doll.  The house is decorated mostly with felt pieces either glued or sewn on.  Molly was 5 1/2 in. tall and made with my own pattern.  She had 4 outfits and the house accessories were 3 floor mats, a teddy bear, a picnic blanket, 2 plates, 2 pb&j sandwiches and 2 glasses of milk.  I'll share some pictures with you. :)

Molly's House

 This is Molly.

Front of Molly's house.

 Back of Molly's house.

Pouch I made for all the little accessories and the doll.

The first scene was the living room :)

2nd scene was the kitchen.

3rd was a ballet dance room.  I used shiny card to make the mirror :)

4th scene was the bedroom.  The wardrobe opens and it had a pouch for Molly's clothes and the little bear can be removed from its basket :)

Molly and bear tucked in bed :)

The last scene was the backyard.  This is Molly and her friend having a picnic :)

 I made plates, pb&j sandwiches and glasses of milk for their picnic :)

I loved making this house and plan to make another one :) There is no tutorial to link you to because this was my idea and I did not write one.  I don't know that I would know how really :) It was fun sharing it here.

© Copyright 2013-2015 by Sew Adorable Dolls. All rights reserved.

More Dolls

Today I decided to keep going with my doll show and tell :) I thought I'd shared all the jointed dolls I wanted to share here, but nope I forgot one.
Her name is Natalie and she's a birthday girl :) My wife and I went fabric shopping for her dress and we chose a birthday balloon fabric :)  I used an old simplicity pattern I already had for her dress and bloomers.  I googled for a template for a birthday hat.  You can find one here first palette.  I didn't know how to make a pom pom so my wifey took care of that for me.  Here are some instructions on how to make pom poms Pintriedit.  She's got a good tutorial and has several ways of making pom poms there.  I've got a pom pom maker tool now :D It's like this Hobby Craft.  I got mine from my local fabric shop though. She also has a birthday bag made of felt with a ballerina bear inside which is also made of felt.  The bag I just made up.  I cut 5 pieces of felt and made a basket, then added the strap.  The bear is made of felt and I got the pattern from a simplicity pattern I already had.  The little bear is wearing a no sew tutu :) I made her socks out of little kids' socks.  I just resized them and added some lace.  I made her some felt Mary Jane shoes.  I always say to google Mary Jane shoes for dolls but this time I thought I would put some links down for you.  Here are some links for doll shoes.
duitang - Cute bunny shoes tutorial.  It's in another language but it's a picture tutorial so it's ok.
craftbits - Cute felt shoe pattern and tutorial :)
Bella Online - Little slipper shoes tutorial and pattern.
iLovetoCreate - Cute Christmas shoes pattern and tutorial. They are for ornaments but can be used as a doll's shoes and they don't have to be Christmas themed either.
Wanted a new project - A very good tutorial on how to make ballet slippers :)
konfetki - Good tutorial and pattern for cute booties.
Serpentina - She's got several shoe patterns there.
Antique Lilac - She has a tutorial and pattern for making Mary Jane shoes.  Her way of making them is different to mine but I used some of her technique for making the shoes for my newer dolls. I do not glue them on my dolls' feet like she did and her dolls are small and a different kind.  So you just have to take what you can from what she's showing you.

Anyways :) here is Natalie.

Natalie

 

On my searches for inspiration or for instruction I saw cute dolls that were not jointed dolls but could sit on their own.  I read about how some dolls are weighted.  So I decided to make one of my own.  I made me a pattern for what I called a floppy baby :D and found this link on how to weight your dolls sarahsdolls.  There are several ways to weight a doll though. Emma was fun to make and she was cuddly.  I want to make another one of these :)  

Emma

This is a swaddled baby doll. I made her for a giveaway on my FB page.  I liked the tutorial on this page sarahsdolls.  I made her out of soft material, I think it's diaper material maybe. Then I covered her in the pink spotty one.  I googled how to swaddle a baby to cover her the right way :) then I sewed it up and I sewed a little cap on her head. Here is a video on how to swaddle a baby :) youtube and here is a tutorial and pattern for baby caps Make Sew Baby.  The flower applique was made with my lovely BIGkick machine.    

Olivia

These little girls were 12 inches tall.  Julia was my 500 likes giveaway doll on my FB page.  They were made with my own pattern.  When I posted my give away doll, a lady custom ordered one like Julia :)  The little dress was made with this tutorial and pattern quaint-and-quirky  I just resized it to fit my dolls.  I made them some felt shoes and used newborn mittens for their socks :D

Julia

 custom ordered doll

It was fun sharing these with you all :) I have more to show you in other posts.

A Cradle for Lilah

Yesterday I went cardboard hunting because I decided Lilah needed a cradle for her baby :) I'd seen a cardboard crib on google someone made a while back, so I decided to try and make one of my own.  I googled for a template for the cradle but only found posts of people showing the cribs they had made and some tutorials.  I liked this one Baby Cradle.  I didn't find a template so I made one of my own and set off making Lilah's doll cradle.
First I got my tools together :D  I got my cardboard, cutting mat, scissors, knife, glue gun & glue sticks, measuring tape, doll, template, pencil and sharpie.

Then I traced my headboard and footboard templates on the cardboard and cut 2 of each.  After they were cut I glued the 2 headboard pieces together and did the same with the footboard pieces.  This makes them stronger.  I then measured the doll to see how long and wide the bottom piece of the cradle had to be cut.  I measured it out and cut it 2 inches longer so I could cut out the tabs at each end that slot into the headboard and footboard pieces.  I cut 2 bottom pieces and glued them together to make that piece stronger as well.  I then cut 4 pieces the same length as the bottom piece and you cut them as high as you want your sides to be.  I glued 2 pieces together to make one side and did the same for the other side.  I then cut the slots out on the headboard and footboard. I forgot to take a picture of the cradle pieces when I had them cut out so I can't show you that.  

It was kind of like this :D sorry for my rubbish drawing.

These are the side bits 

 These are the headboard and the bottom bit.  You can see the slots where the tabs on the side bits go.

After you get the pieces all cut you can decorate the pieces.  You can spray paint it, paint it with acrylic paints, use decorative papers like I did or any way you choose. You then put it together by putting the tabs in the bottom and side pieces into the slots in the headboard and footboard.  

This is what mine looked like :)  

I then made it a pillow and a pad I made with some batting and a little blanket.

Here it is!

Lilah-Mai approved :)

This was very fun to make :)  Good luck to whoever makes one of their own.