I am so excited to finally share this blog post with you. This post is long over due, and I have had lots of questions in regards to our Pregnancy announcement post about the doll bed & dresses. Without further adieu, here are all the details.
I was on the search all summer for a vintage doll bed for Emery's baby doll. I was so excited when we found this vintage doll bed on our Montana trip. It was only $10! I had great visions for giving it a makeover, especially since the paint was chipping (probably lead paint), the mattress was lumpy and the board underneath was stained.
Obviously, I had to find the perfect fabric to make a new mattress with. Enter Thread Count Fabrics. If you live in Edmonton you know our fabric store selection is pitiful, or really most places in Canada. I was so excited to find Thread Count Fabrics. They have an amazing selection of modern fabrics, including fabrics by my favourite illustrator Anna Rifle. The Rifle Paper Co. Fabrics are so beautiful and the creations you can make with them are endless!
Another thing I really love about Thread Count Fabrics is that it's run by a Mama who has two little girls. She started sewing Halloween costumes for them, and saw the void there was online for Modern Fabrics in Canada. There Thread Count Fabrics was born. I love following her on Instagram to see the latest fabrics and inspiration. I can't recommend her site and fabrics enough!
I was drawn to the Les Fleurs Collection in particular. Besides creating a new little mattress for her doll bed, I thought it would be fun to make matching dresses for Emery and her doll. The clothes those dolls come with are not cute, haha!
A little background on me for a second, I actually went to school for Fashion Design & Apparel. So I have a pretty good background in sewing but it had been many, many years since I had worked on any serious projects.
Knowing it had been awhile since my last sewing project, I wanted to keep things simple. My friend from Kneesocksandgoldilocks is always raving about Heidi & Finn patterns, so I took her advice and tried out one of them. I picked out the Pumpkin Spice dress & tunic pattern, and it was very straightforward and easy. Also very cute!
To create the doll dress, I just shrunk the pattern pieces using my photocopier to the appropriate size. It took me a couple of tries to get it right. Let me tell you, I have mad respect for all those Etsy shop owners who make dolls and doll clothes. It is hard sewing that small! I did most of it on the machine and it took a lot of trial and error. I used a velcro closure on the back so it would be easier for Emery to take the dress off if she wanted.
For the mattress, I just used a very simple and easy tutorial I found on Pinterest. You basically cut out a few rectangle pieces of fabric. I just traced my board (which my husband just cut me out a new piece of plywood to replace that gross board as shown above) to determine the size, plus added extra for some seam allowance. It's really just some basic stitching with some trimming. It does show options for adding buttons if you wanted. I started to add them but didn't like the look since I made my mattress quite thick. Depending on how thick you want your mattress to be, will determine if the buttons will work or not.
For the rest of the bed, we just sanded it down and repainted it using a basic white paint from Home Depot. It just turned out so darn cute, and I love that it will be a Heirloom piece that my daughter can hopefully pass down to her kids.
This project definitely got my creative juices flowing again. I'm already dreaming of new projects with all the new pretty fabrics Thread Count has been getting in. I mean look at this Alice in Wonderland collection from Rilfe Paper Co.?!
Are you a sewer, or DIYer? What fun projects are you working on these days?
<3 Kastles
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