Category Archives: Kids

Doll’s bed

Posted in Kids, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

My daughter got a new American Girl doll for Christmas, so a new bed was needed for the dormitory. A free weekend, a sturdy box, and some left over fabric, and Eve soon had a cozy bed of her own. We started with box from a new pair of boots, and added some foam-core board to the top to make it the right length. (Bonus: the bed opens up to store dolls’ shoes, socks, accessories, and a few musical instruments.)

My daughter chose the fabrics she wanted to use from my scrap box. To make the bed skirt, I attached three panels of red cotton/linen to a rectangle of muslin in a simple box shape. I made a mattress out of plain white cotton with cotton batting.  Same for the pillow, but I tore up the batting to make it more fluffy. Then, my daughter, who was given an embroidery kit from my granny, embroidered the pillow case–all by herself!

Finally, the quilt was really quick to make. My daughter wanted one fabric for the top, so I pieced together a few scraps to make a rectangle, and then used white for the backing. Rather than binding the quilt, I sewed regular seams and just turned it inside out. I also tried quilter’s knots to quilt the layers together, for the first time. All around, we’re pretty pleased with how this turned out–without spending a penny!

Have you made anything for American Girls? We’d love to hear about your excuses to play with your kids’ toys!

Darling Clementine, Part 1

Posted in Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

With winter, come clementines.  With clementines, come crates–those somewhat sturdy, little boxes, so handy for stashing screwdrivers and stowing socks. They are perfect as they are, but this year, I’m dreaming up new incarnations for them. So consider this Part 1 of the Darling Clementine Project.

My first idea was to make a miniature school desk for my friend’s daughter Addie, who has set up an entire educational system for her American Girl dolls in her attic. And a desk made from a crate is the kind of Depression Era utility that Kit Kittredge would approve of!

I cut a piece of cardboard to fit the bottom of the crate and covered the cardboard with wood grain contact paper. I adhered it with wood glue and let it sit overnight under the weight of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past (meaning the emotional weight of my guilt in having never read it, plus its actual weight–but really, any heavy book will do). Then I cut a section out of the crate with an X-acto knife, to make room for Kit to sit. I added a couple of props (fake apple, mini composition book).

     

I like how the crate markings show on the ends. And here you can see the cut I made in one side.

Please share what you do with your clementine crates. Photos welcome!

postscript: Addie in her Doll School!

Wee folk

Posted in Kids, Stuff to make by

Doesn’t this wee creation remind you of Fisher Price Little People? And I’m not talking about those bulbous plastic guys the toy company makes today–I mean the old-school wooden peg people that unfortunately were small enough to be choking hazards. (I never once thought of chewing Little People myself, but my brother and I did routinely place them in the Habitrail where our gerbils nibbled off their little heads.)

I spotted this beret-sporting Lilliputian at a kids’ craft fair at my local library. My friend’s 12-year-old daughter Grace made it out of Sculpey clay. She even fashioned French accessories to go with it: a baguette & a slab of fromage!

Of course, my kids had to try it at home: so we rolled some Fimo (Sculpey, or any polymer clay will do), poked eyes with toothpicks, and baked (per instructions, 30 minutes @ 230 F). We made miniatures of each member of our extended family with eensy IPads, skis, and pets to go with them. 

Aunt Julie with her cat named Little Head

Bugs from recycled bits

Posted in Kids, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

Here’s a mantra to repeat to yourself when doing crafts with kids: process, not product. It will turn you into the craft whisperer. Especially if your child (like mine) swirls paints and blends play dough until each art work takes on the brackish hue and glurpy consistency of a murky bog.

Making bugs from bits collected from the recycling bin ended up to be a good project for everyone in my house, plus some friends. And the end results (not that I would be so superficial as to care, dear craft whisperer) were kind of cute. Plastic milk caps, bread tags, paper clips, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, ribbon, and scraps of paper turned into an pleasant infestation of creepy crawlies.

Pajamas recycled into soft blocks

Posted in Free Tutorials, Kids, Recycled materials, Sewing, Stuff to make by

You may be able to throw away your old, favorite polka-dot p.j.s. Or use them as a dust rag. But I don’t have that kind of resolve. Plus, I don’t dust that often. So, I stashed them away.

Conveniently, my friend Megan decided to get pregnant. Babies are the best excuse for making things that are not really useful but are pleasing. Like soft blocks. And old p.j.s offer the perfect fabric for them: cotton softened by sleep.

For complete instructions on how to make soft blocks, a downloadable pdf is available here: How to Make Soft Blocks

Here is the end result: chubby cotton blocks!