Weekend Project: "Home" Decor

The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart in old age.

~ Kahlil Gibran

I must be reliving my childhood or something...  First I'm buying a doll and sewing clothes for her.  Now ... I'm making doll houses.  

I never thought of myself as being into crafting, but a pattern in the One Yard Wonder book for a doll house caught my attention and just had to be made.  ;)

(I said it's for the daughters of my friends at work, but I think the argument is weak, considering that it is appropriate for a 3-5 year old and they are still pregnant!)  

The inside is made by wrapping craft-weight fleece around piece cut out of plastic.  Here are the 6 basic pieces laid out in the way they will be assembled.  (The top & bottom "roof" rectangles are a bit smaller than the middle 3 "wall" rectangles.)  

Here is the plastic that is cut and encased in fleece:  

Man, I love cutting that stuff!  It's so easy to cut in a straight line!  ;)

Once the individual plastic pieces are encased in flee...  Oops, I may be missing pictures of the middle steps in the process - sorry about that.  :(

But it's pretty straightforward - you insert all the plastic pieces between two long pieces of fashion fabric and create the body of the house.  Then you hand stitch the back closed and decorate with felt inside and out.  Buttons and elastic loops hold the front closed and 2 ribbons serve as handles.  

I'm not done, but here are some shots of my doll house so far:  

Above: Front and side view

Above: Back and side view

Above: Inside view

Above: Close up of front yard

Above: Close up of house interior (with easy chair, television and light fixture)

I'm thinking to add a bed on one interior side wall and a table & chairs on the other interior side wall.  

I also purchased some little fabric dolls from JoellesDolls on Etsy to populate my doll house.  It was hard finding dolls small enough, but I think these will be perfect.  

As you can see, a little girl could carry this around like a purse or lunch box, with her dolls inside, and then open it up and play with them whenever she wanted.  Isn't it an adorable idea?  

Ana loves it and she wants to make 3 of them to give to her young nieces.  We picked out the fabric today at Joann's.  Hopefully I can get the next ones to fit together a little better...  

Let's see - I know I still owe you all a "Talk Back Thursday" and a "Friday Confession".  I'm sorry last week got away from me.  :(  

I'll catch up next week.  In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a wonderful sewing weekend!  :)