Putting Together a Doll House

Today I'm very happy to introduce you to my sister, Julie. We've had our up and downs in our relationship, but are closer today than we have ever been in our lives. We both homeschool. She has five children with one graduated already. She doesn't currently have a nursing baby, but she is as passionate about breastfeeding as I am. We both play the piano and love to sew. We Skype, chat on Facebook,  or call each other on the phone almost every day. She made an absolutely adorable doll house for her youngest daughter with the help of her two oldest daughters. I asked her to share with us about how they did this.

I love my big sister's blog on Healthy Simplicity.  My sister has inspired me over the years to dig deep into my creative being and start making more and more homemade gifts.  I think she would agree with me that it is certainly a dying art nowadays, and I'd love my children to take hold of it and keep it alive.

Since we have 6 out of 7 birthdays between September 24th and January 11th (never mind Christmas in between there too), I have started through the years to come up with "unique" gifts whether for their birthday or Christmas.

This year for my daughter's 6th birthday, we decided to buy her a used American Girl doll and then make her a play house and accessories to go along with her doll.

I went on Pinterest, and, boy, did I have fun thinking of accessories to make for her.

My two older daughters and I started with making a cut out of a house from cardboard.  We had some paper (thanks to work throwing it out) that served as the "wallpaper".  Emilie did a great job at cutting out the door and windows and covering it all with the pink plaid (the door is now covered, too).

Then, we went hunting for things around our house to use as well as clearance items at Joann Fabrics. Here's what we found.

Emilie started by taking the candelabra and broke off the wire sticking out. Then she hot glued the wooden frame to it for a table.  Next, she took fabric and hot glued it to the table top (we figured easier for Stef if it was in place).  Genevieve made a chair out of an empty tube, and they hot glued the legs on.  After this Emilie padded it with batting and covered the chair with some minky fabric.  She also sewed the curtains and took apart hangers to use as the curtain rods.  The tie backs are actually made with buttons.  Emilie came up with most of this, and she sewed the curtains, too.

For the fireplace, Emilie used cardboard, scrapebooking paper, a black garbage bag and other scrapes for the fire. I think she did a fabulous job!

I found these clip on miniature chalkboards at Joann Fabrics and Crafts in their dollar section and as you can see, she turned one into a picture on the mantel.  Genevieve made a bouquet of flowers and they put a pretty "necklace" on the mantel for her doll to wear. In browsing Pinterest for ideas, we saw someone had used a glass jar with fabric and batting glued on top for a storage/ottoman.  Sorry, I can't find the link again but it is quite simple - your items listed above and hot glue and voila you're done.

Genevieve made these flowers using pretty scrapbooking paper, pipe cleaners and buttons.  It was her idea and I think she did well.  Emilie took some tiny pots I had bought on clearance for 8 cents each and covered them with glitter.  Let's hope they stay on the pot!

Next, we found this jewellery holder (another item that was thrown out at work), and Emilie just added some shelving to it and Stef's doll now has a place to store her journals, her pens, her pots and anything else she wants.

 

We took another wooden frame and turned it around for a shelf. Emilie hot glued a mirror inside, and we found miniature toothbrushes at the dollar store.  She cut off the end and made a handle out of a pipe cleaner so the doll can hold it on her own.  We wanted to hang it on the wall but we weren't sure it would hold (the wall being cardboard).  I think Stef will have fun rearranging her furniture in her doll house.

Lastly, we made a journal for Stef's doll because every doll needs a journal to write her thoughts in.  We used a post-it note pad and covered it again with scrapbooking paper and made a flower pen. 

Emilie has gone over and above with these accessories, and she had so much fun. I'm sure we will be adding to it as time goes on.  For more ideas, you can go to my Pinterest boards - http://www.pinterest.com/gemsjewel/crafts/.  I have hopes to do a few more things for Stef, like plastic canvas hangers!

Now, as my sister knows, no dollhouse is complete without clothes for the doll to wear.  I made a coat, a couple of skirts, a blouse and a blanket for Stef's doll and doll bed.

 

 

All of these items including the clothes cost me less than $30!  Now THAT'S a deal! What girl wouldn't love this?  Can't wait for her to start playing with it and for us to play with her! Hope this has given you a few ideas of what YOU can do when you put your mind to it!

Simple Giving

This post is longer than normal. It doesn't happen often so I hope you don't mind. ☺

It's that time of year when a lot of gifts are given and received. Our family even has three birthdays between the end of December and beginning of January. I really encourage our children to make as many of their gifts as possible. There really is nothing that can beat a handmade gift. I thought I would put together a list with a bit of instructions of some of our gifts this year. 

We'll start with my soon-to-be-six year old. He made notebooks for all of his siblings. Well, I made the notebooks and he decorated them. First I cut paper in half and then trimmed off a quarter inch from the length and height. I sewed the pages together on my sewing machine. He could have helped with that part, but I was rushing. Then I cut a piece of cardstock in half for the cover and with a sharp needle and then cotton yarn sewed the cover to the pages. Now my little guy picked fabrics and decorations according to the tastes of each of his siblings and sewed them on.

My younger daughters made fleece pouches for each other. The idea came from here. We sewed ours on the sewing machine and made them more "finished".

My youngest daughter made laundry bags for her two oldest brothers. She sewed a casing into the top of a pillowcase and we threaded cord through - easy peasy.

My middle daughter made a French cockade for her oldest sister which was the piece de resistance. When she first told me this is what she wanted to make for her sister I went online to research patterns. Nothing I found appealed to me so for weeks I pondered how to do it. Finally with one day to go I came up with a plan. Thankfully I had bought the ribbon in faith that I would figure something out. I overlapped the white ribbon onto the blue and using white thread sewed them together. Then I overlapped the red ribbon onto the white and using red thread sewed it. We then ran a basting stitch through the red ribbon and pulled it into a circle, tucked the ends under and sewed them down. Then my daughter sewed the circle onto a piece of felt and sewed a button onto the middle of the circle to hide the felt and stitching. I attached  a clip to the back and we were done. My oldest daughter was beyond thrilled. I think I can safely say that this was her favourite gift. Well, it could also have been the dvd about the French Revolution that her grandpa gave her. She's our resident expert on all things Les Mis and the various revolutions the French have lived through.

My two oldest boys with some help from their dad made a lego table for their little brothers. They painted an old smallish end table black. Then they glued a couple of base plates on top. Simple and useful.

My oldest son made a fleece ear warmer for his sister. The idea came from here and is super easy to make. I'm thinking about making one for myself.

My oldest daughter made clothes peg dolls for her sisters which they love already. We found the idea here.

For our toddler his sisters made him a fishing game. We used old ties. We cut off a four to five inch length of tie (the skinny end) and turned it inside out and took out the lining. We sewed one end shut and serged the other end. They then turned the "fish" right side out and dropped a magnet in. They stuffed it about 80% and tied the end shut with string letting the fabric fan out like a tail. Then they glued eyes and felt fins on the outside. They made three of these. For the rod their oldest brother cut the sharp end off a bamboo skewer. We attached a piece of yarn for the line which had a knitted worm tied to it. The worm had a magnet glued to it, and now their little brother can go fishing. He loves this game and wants me to take his picture every time he catches a fish. ☺

We also did a set of "Sharpie" dishes for their grandparents. There are a lot of great tips here for doing this kind of craft. My five-year-old (with a lot of help because he didn't like the mess) made a puzzle piece bracelet for his grandma. I saw the picture on Pinterest but no instructions. We cut a toilet paper tube lengthwise. Then we cut off a width and glued the pieces on. If I did another one I would modge podge the width before gluing the pieces on to give the base more stability. All in all it turned out quite nicely.

The two gifts that I'm most pleased with that I made were a mai tei carrier for her doll with a matching diaper bag for my youngest daughter and an embellished notebook cover for my slightly-notebook-obsessed oldest daughter. I thought a long time about the design for the mai tei carrier. I knew it didn't need as many ties as mine. I finally made the back a shrunk-down version of mine and added straps to the waist that cross her chest and button to the shoulders. The diaper bag pattern came from here and was super easy to make. She was so happy and has been carrying her baby everywhere on her back.

For my oldest daughter I followed the pattern I did for sewing a cover for a binder but did it for a notebook instead. She's not a frou-frou kind of girl so I just added some simple embellishments. She loves wearing denim so I used that for the fabric - it's actually from a skirt that she wore out. I also added a button and elastic to close it.

Finally, I made something for myself - a shawl to wear over my coat and baby when we go for walks. I worry about him being warm enough because he's not exercising (believe me, I am with him on my back). That's one reason I made leg warmers for him. I wanted something more though and found this pattern. I made mine in red with a black serged edge. It was so simple to make and works great.

So we managed to get everything done and have fun at the same time. Check out my Pinterest boards where I store a lot of ideas of things I want to make.

What have you made lately that you're pleased with?