Portable Dolls House

Lottie Doll Dress Pattern

I recently came across the Lottie dolls by Arklu. Miss 3 is just hitting the barbie phase, and I was a bit shocked to really look at a barbie again for the first time since I was a child, and be confronted with THAT body shape. Not that I think I was psychologically damaged by playing with Barbies as a kid, but the Lottie doll seemed like a very nice alternative. So I got her one. 

She liked it, but to be honest it wasn't pink enough (I got the one with the dress sense I wish Miss 3 liked, not the ultra pink dress sense she has). I could see she would be much more loved if she had some pink changes of clothes.

But I can't find clothes for her without buying a whole extra doll!

So I made this pattern. It's my first go at pattern making, and so I'm very pleased it worked.

Click HERE to download the free pattern. It's designed to print to A4.

The steps I used to sew it together:
1. Sew shoulders (A and B) together using a stitch that stops the fraying.
2. Turn over and hem the arm holes (where the dotted lines are)
3. Hem the neck and bottom edge of dress, and also the seams down the back of the dress.
4. Sew sides of dress together, stopping at arm holes, using a stitch that stops the fraying.
5. Sew on a rectangle of velcro (hook and loop) to the middle of the two back flaps to keep the dress closed.

That's it!

The dress should slip on over the front of the doll a bit like a painting smock and be fastened with the velcro at the back. This way it's easy enough for Miss 3 to dress Lottie by herself.

Lottie Doll Dress Pattern

Dorothy Dinosaur Tail

I just wish I'd taken a photo of the 2y/o girl's face when she opened her birthday present. It was worth every minute of making time and then some.

Felt Super Hero Armbands

I wanted to make a present for Mr 5's teacher who is going on maternity leave. I had planned to make a taggy toy, but then I saw her receive a half a dozen soft toys from other people in the class, and decided that something for her 3y/o son would be more useful. These were super simple to make. In total designing, cutting and sewing took 45 minutes.

 I measured around Miss 3's wrist and left a gap of about 3cm for the elastic. This gave me a fabric size of approx. 12cm x 8cm.

I cut two rectangles, one of felt, and the other of fleece. The fleece square was half a cm bigger on each side, this meant that when it got a bit misaligned due to stretching when sewing, I could just trim the fleece and it looked neat again. The fleece should be nice and soft on little arms.

I cut a few other felt shapes to make them look interesting and then sewed everything together. The elastic (about 5cm long) was a little fiddly to sew on the second end, but I just pinned it in place and took extra care I wasn't sewing bits together that weren't meant to be sewed together.

Here's hoping the little boy likes them!

Airplane Activity Tray, Take 2

So I thought I'd have a second go at the airplane activity tray to go on the tray table of the plane. This should help the kids keep occupied on our upcoming long haul flights, and help to stop toys, pens, pages, forks etc. making a dash for the floor.

I had been eying off the vinyl table cloth in the shop with roads on it, but it was so expensive, and I already had perfectly good plastic at home... so I decided to turn the trays over and draw my own road. My own? Well, a bit of a co-operative effort with the kids.

Here's how I did it:

A piece of vinyl (I used an old kids splash mat) 32cm x 50cm.

4 pieces of something more firm (I used some laminated paper). 2 need to be 3cm x 24.8cm, and the second 2 are 3cm x 21cm.

Some elastic and some velcro.

Measure 2 cm from the corners, draw a triangle and cut it off. This makes the corner less bulky when folded.

Turn the plastic over, measure half way along the long edge. Place the two shorter strips of laminated paper 1cm from the edge and close to the centre line (but not overlapping so you can fold the tray in half to store/carry). Use sticky tape to hold it in place.

Sew it down, folding over the plastic as you go.

Position the longer laminated paper strips on the short side of the plastic. They should be about 1cm from the edge, but take care that they are corner to corner with the strips you've already sewed on, without overlapping. See the fine read lines in the picture above for my attempt to show this. If they overlap, you won't be able to neatly fold up the sides of the tray.

To make the front edge of the tray, take a small left over strip of plastic (about 3cm x 21cm) and roll it into a small roll (or something else soft, on my first version I used wadding, but it was a bit messy). Tape it in place on the front edge, again leaving a gap at the centre line for folding. Fold over the front edge about 1.5cm and sew it down.

Cut small strip of elastic about 5cm long. Sew one end on the inside of the tray, close to the end of laminated paper strip. I did it on the side wall, but it would also work on the back wall. Sew the other end to the back of the tray at the other edge of the laminated paper strip.

When you assemble the tray, pinch the corner into a triangle and tuck it under the elastic. 

On the front side of the tray, fold over the corner and sew down (it would have been slightly better to sew right down to the corner like I did first time). Sew a 3cm strip of elastic across the end of the laminated paper strip.

When you fold this corner it, it makes a little triangle that can be slipped under the elastic.

To attach the tray to the plane tray table, I sewed on 4 strips of elastic to the back side. I sewed them slightly inside the laminated paper strips. This makes them on slightly inside the edge of the bottom area of the tray when assembled. (This means if the plane tray table is slightly smaller than expected the activity tray should still sit nicely.) Sew the elastic strips so they are pointing outwards. Sew a rectangle of velcro (hook and loop) to the other end of each piece of elastic.

I decided this would be best because:

1. it seemed simple to do, 

2. it gave me two ends so I could adjust the length of the straps a bit to cater for different sized tables, 

3. I can open them up and twist them around the back arms to the tray table if needed and 

4. I can open them up and push them to the side if I want to use the activity tray on a train or table.

Finished the sewing, now to decorate.

First I roughed out the outline using lead pencil. I only had a black and a red permanent marker in house, so I used them (Mr 5 insisted the roads should be red on his). I then used an eraser to remove any unwanted pencil lines.

We then found (after trying all the felt tipped pens and finding they all rubbed off) that pencil coloured in beautifully, and wouldn't wipe off with a wet cloth (although can mostly be rubbed off with an eraser), and so the kids could add some extra colour to the pictures.

Busy Roll Tutorial

I made a couple more busy rolls recently, and I'm really quite chuffed with how they turned out. These are an idea I came up with, sort of like a busy book or a quiet book, but only one page that can be rolled up and put in your handbag and then used when you're out for coffee or doing your groceries. You could put any activity you like on them, or have a couple of different rolls that you rotate through to keep your toddler interested. I filled the pockets with finger puppets, but you could put anything in that you think would interest your child; little cars, animals, dolls etc.

** Please note that there are small items on this, if they were to come loose, they could be a choking hazard.

So here's the tutorial:

1. Collect together some fabric scraps. 

I've used: 

a 20cm zip, 

2 larger rectangles of fabric, approx. 24cm x 30cm for the main body, 

2 smaller pieces of fabric approx. 24cm x 10cm for pockets, 

a strip of felt approx 24cm long and an inch wide, 

2 small pieces of felt to use at pocket flaps, maybe 3 x 1.5 inches. 

about 60cm of ribbon, 

3 buttons,

some velcro,

some string,

and some beads.

2. Lay the bits and pieces out and sort them until you're happy with the layout. Sew hems on the top of the pockets, and fold the bottom of the top pocket under and iron a crease into it.

3. Sew the zip to the top of the pocket.

4. Thread the beads onto the string and tie a firm knot in the string, making a loop long enough to go twice across your main fabric.

5. Cut slits on your long strip of felt. They need to be wide enough for your button to fit through, and should be spaced approx. 1 inch apart.

6. Sew a seam down the middle of you bottom pocket, fixing it to your large piece of fabric.

7. Sew a square of velcro/ hook and loop onto one side of the bottom pocket, and a matching square onto one of the felt pocket flaps.

8. Sew the two pocket flaps in place.

9. Sew a button onto the other side of the bottom pocket, and cut a slit through the pocket flap large enough for the button to fit through.

10. Sew a strip of ribbon on, sewing it down every inch or so. 

11. Sew the string firmly to the fabric, such that one half of the string winds its way back and forth under the ribbon, and the other half forms a straight line to the other side of the fabric.

12. Sew the top side of the zip down, and the bottom side of the zip pocket.

13. Sew a button firmly onto a piece of ribbon which is approx 30cm (i.e. longer than your fabric is wide).

14. Sew the ribbon and felt strip in place.

15. Sew a small strip of ribbon to the top of your fabric, with the loop pointing down (I forgot to do this before the next step, hence the shot looking inside the inverted busy roll).

16. Place your backing material over your fabric with all the activities on it, right sides facing in. Pin and sew together. leaving a hand sized gap at the bottom.

16. Turn right sides out, and roll it up to find the right spot to sew a large button on the backing fabric. The top loop will hook over this button to keep the roll closed.

17. Sew the bottom of the fabric together.

18. Finished!

If you make your own, I'd love to hear about it.

Restaurant Bag/ Travel Activity Bag

We are planning on doing some travelling this year, including a long haul flight or two, and a wedding, and a few more trips of 6+ hours, with a 3 and 5 year old. 

I previously made a tray to go on a plane tray table, and I'd been planning on making a bag that would hang on the back side of the tray. In the end I decided not to go with that for a few reasons: I think that doing a bit of bending and stretching for a bag under a seat every few hours would probably do our circulation some good, I don't think the passenger in the seat in front of us wants a bag full of books banging against the back of their chair, the chair is too far away for kids to easily reach, and I want something a bit more versatile that can be used as a restaurant bag as well.

What I did want:

A zip! So I can be sure that nothing precious is going to escape from the bag while it's under a seat.

A bag big enough to fit a large activity book or colouring book easily.

Potentially a bag that's big enough to quickly stuff every loose animal, car, and pack of tissues into it at the end of a flight.

A shoulder strap which can also be used to hook the bag over the corner of a restaurant chair.

I'm not an amazing sewer, in fact I'm very new to zips and they tend to scare me a bit. But here's what I did. If you've got a suggestion for how it can be done better, just add a comment. :)

1. Cut a piece of material a couple of inches bigger on all sides than the book or folder you want to fit in there. The zip in the picture is 30cm. Cut a strip about 10cm x 70cm for the shoulder strap.

2. Fold over the top seam and iron in place.

3. Fold over the side seam (both front and back fabric together) and iron.

 4. Fold the two sides in for the shoulder strap, and then fold it in half along the length. Iron.

5. Pin the zip to one side of the top and sew in place. Make sure the outside of the zip faces the outside of your fabric. 

6. Sew only up to where you earlier ironed in the side seam crease (mark this spot with a pin if it's a bit tricky to see)

7. Sew the other side of the zip on.

8. Sew up the side seams to the top

9. Sew the handle together on the open side, and then sew the handle onto the back side of the bag.

10. Admire your work!

In the end I couldn't resist adding a little pocket. It's just big enough for a little pencil box, but mostly I just did it for looks.