My latest crochet project...

On a regular basis my daughter complains that her dolls don't have enough clothes. Besides, her dolls don't like to share clothes, which makes it all much more difficult.

Last year she asked me to make some winter hats and scarfs for a couple of dolls and, because I wanted to re-start knitting, I complied. Actually, the hats turned out so well that I created a tutorial on how to make easy winter knit hats of any size. 

This time, her request was a bit more difficult (at least for me). She wanted a coat for one of her babies. I stalled for a couple of days, wondering how was I going to fit that into my always busy schedule, and even browsed a few patterns online. 

In the end? I winged it!

I didn't bother with a pattern, just crocheted rectangles in the right sizes (taking measurements directly from the doll): one large rectangle for the back (almost a square, really), two smaller ones (but large enough to overlap) for the front and a couple more for the sleeves. 

I was using bits of leftover yarn (from my son's fluffy owl pillow) and the yellow ended halfway through the sleeves, so I had to add a bit of green.

While sewing it all together my daughter passed me the message that I wasn't doing it right, because that's not how grandma does it (my mother knits a lot and the kids are used to seeing her making lots of sweaters and coats for all of us). I considered myself duly informed, but since I only had a small time slot available, it was the best I could do. 

I let her pick the buttons from my stash, and she decided to add the pink bear button too as decoration. 

In the end, I don't think it turned out too bad for less than an hour's work.

And now my daughter can take her baby for a stroll without worrying about her getting sick... :).

For the knit winter hat tutorial, check below: 

Happy Thursday!

DIY Play Food: Felt Christmas Cookies

Welcome to the latest addition to the DIY Play Food Series!

This time I'm back to sweets, but with a Holidays theme. Because Christmas is to be celebrated in play kitchens too, and dolls, stuffed animals and even imaginary friends are more than entitled to celebrate with season appropriate treats.

Most of us have been busy baking Christmas cookies lately, and with this tutorial you can "bake" some lovely cookies for your kids to play with too!

Ribbon covered doll hair clips

This is a project than has been finished for while but that I never got round to share before. Years ago, long before my daughter was even born, I found a couple of cute wood and yarn dolls at the craft store. And because I can't resist cute craft supplies when I see them, I brought them home. I never used them, though, and they ended up stored at the bottom of a box on one of the shelves of my craft closet.

In one of my recent decluttering missions I found them again and decided it was more than time to put them to use. And so the doll hair clips were born.

I started by covering two hair clips with a large piece of ribbon. I didn't take a lot of pictures of the process, but you can see below how it tuned out. Basically the ribbon is folded over and secured with fabric glue:

Then I just glued the dolls over the hair clips.

(because I'm naturally distrustful of glue, I added a few stitches securing the dolls' dresses to the ribbon, but you really don't need to).

The dolls don't match exactly, since when I bought them I did not mean for them to be a pair, but my daughter loves them anyway.

A few less items cluttering my closet + cute hair accessories? It's win-win all the way!

Enjoy,

Knitted Hats & Scarf...Doll Sized

My daughter is a very concerned "mother" to all her dolls. Whenever she receives a new one, the first thing she needs is to find a bed for the doll to sleep in.

Recently, because we've been having a very cold winter, she has been worried that her dolls don't have enough clothes and accessories to keep them warm. Since I've also been trying to get back into the habit of knitting, I searched my craft closet for some year leftovers and offered to make the dolls some winter hats.

The hats are very simple to make, just a piece of straight knitting, sewn at the sides and the top (pulling towards the center to create the pointed edge), and with a matching pom-pom on top. I made two because she has two similar sized dolls. Then, because I still had a bit of yarn left, I added a matching scarf.

And here are the happy dolls. Since the brunette was already the lucky owner of a fluffy scarf, the just got one hat:

The blond one got the other hat and the scarf (though if you ask me, she's bound to be still cold in those clothes, but I preferred not to remind my daughter of that because I was out of time to make anything else...).

It was a quick project but I think it turned out cute. Actually, my daughter loved the hats so much that she decided she wanted one for her too, in pink and purple, her favorite colors. I'm currently knitting it and I will probably post a small tutorial as soon as it is finished.

Enjoy,

DIY doll house accessories

Well, Christmas has come and gone and the year is almost over. How does time run by so fast? I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was great, spent mostly with family. The weather was cold but sunny, which made traveling easier, and the kids even managed to play outside on a few occasions.

After the handmade Christmas gifts frenzy, I took some time off from crafting and decided to just enjoy the season. But it didn't last long and I was quickly recruited to make some tiny doll house accessories (aka miniature sewing, which, let me tell you, is harder than making normal sized stuff).

You see, one of my daughter's Christmas gifts was this lovely doll house...

...which is inhabited not exactly by dolls but by this very cure family of rabbits:

My daughter's problem? The house came with very few accessories and the rabbits can not live happily without a minimum of comfort. Truth be told, poor baby bunny had a bed with not even a blanket (and is dressed only in a diaper) and apart from that there were only two couches, a small table and a tea set. Definitely not up to my daughter's standards...

So I was hard pressed to help furnish the house. I started with poor baby bunny and managed to get him a sort of sleeping bag that fits his tiny crib:

Then I continued with the baby's room and added a rug and a matching toy box.

The toy box was the one item my daughter didn't want, but I made it anyway, because I have a feeling that otherwise all those little toys are bound to get lost pretty quickly.

Next I decided to spruce up the hall with a rug, a potted plant (made with an artificial flower that I have no idea where it came from but was stored in my save-for-future-uses box, and a red plastic bottle cap) and a crochet doily in matching red for the small table that came with the house:

It took me a while to make the doily, I guess my fingers are not apt to such delicate work, and it is not perfect (it was supposed to be a flower but ended up slightly wonky), but it works anyway.

 And finally, I made some pillows for the couches, with fabric scraps and little pieces of ribbon. 

So now the rabbits can rest in their much cozier couches while enjoying an afternoon tea: 

Then, because I couldn't resist, I crocheted a small blanket for daddy rabbit, because he seemed the most inclined to spend time in the living room.

And there is the complete set:

Overall, it didn't take me that long to make these accessories. I used fabric, felt and yarn scraps for everything and the main difficulty I had was indeed the small size. Everything (other than the crocheted items) was hand sewn. My daughter is still asking for beds for the three largest rabbits, but I guess they will be sleeping in their couches for some time, with their new pillows and blankets, since mom is now planning some other crafts in regular sizes...

Enjoy,

The Handmade Christmas: DIY doll bed

Last weekend, in between the house chores, church and a birthday party, I managed to finish another of my Christmas projects: the doll bed. Yay!

Originally, this was going to be a reuse & upcycle post, since I turned this:

into this: 

We bought the small wood crate full of strawberries last spring (hence the reddish spots at the bottom). Because I thought it had potential I decided to keep it and turn it into a bed for my daughter's Barbie dolls. It had been sitting in my craft closet for several months and at the last minute I included it in the Christmas projects list since otherwise it would not be finished any time soon. Initially it was going to be done in pink (hence the pink felt in the first picture), but when I found the green fabric in my stash I changed the color scheme and then forgot to take a picture the supplies actually used. 

I covered the entire surface of the crate in felt (glued on and the sewn at the corners with a blanket stitch to make it sturdier), then added the lacy ribbon all around and the details at the corners.

The bottom is covered in a quilt-like fabric (also used for the back of the coverlet), leftover from the Ipad cover, and using some fabric scraps and the rest of the ribbon I made the three little pillows: 

So, come Christmas the Barbie dolls will have a new place to sleep, though maybe I should have made two beds instead of one...

And even if I didn't make it pink, I think the bed still matches the rest of the set perfectly:

The closet was made by me too, you can find more about it here and the little sofa and table are vintage since they came with my first - and only - Barbie. That Barbie unfortunately lost her head (literally) some thirty years ago but my mother faithfully kept the rest of the accessories, including her clothes, and now my daughter gets to use them as well.

Other posts in the Handmade Christmas projects series so far:
The happy fish felt toy

Enjoy,