I made this doll house a while ago with a pattern from one yard wonders. Later, I found the same pattern in a free online tutorial, so – you can enjoy it without buying the book (though I am a fan). Personally, I would modify the pattern not to include so much hand sewing, but otherwise, it’s an excellent idea and the result is really sweet.
I had big plans for the interior – dolls and furniture and more, but I never got around to it, You know how it is… Finally, I decided that the doll house must be put into use one way or another, and started to think about what would be the easiest way for me to make dolls. I decided on finding a cute doll design and printing on fabric. The first part turned out to be much harder than I thought, whereas the second part much easier…
Finally I found this design on Sweet Clip Art, I modified it a little bit because I wanted a little boy and girl, but not holding hands (and I added the smiley face and flower’s to the boy’s shirt and girl’s dress). I chose the colors for the first set (on the left), and then my son decided he wanted a pair as well, so he got to choose the colors for the second pair (on the right). I was a little afraid of printing on fabric, but I found instructions for a simple technique which worked surprisingly well and it worked out fine: All you have to do is cut your fabric a size that your printer accepts, take some cardstock the same size and stick the edge slightly inset from the card’s edge with scotch tape. The edge will slide into the printer easily and the card will provide the necessary stiffness for printing. Easy as pie!
Because the fabric was quite see through, I ironed on some white interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric, and then cut out the doll shapes with a 1.5 cm seam allowance. Then I traced those shapes on a contrasting fabric (don’t forget to put the doll shapes face down…) and cut them out. I sewed them together right sides together, leaving a gap for turning right side out, stuffed them, sewed the gap closed and hey – 4 dolls!
Interestingly enough, my daughter showed no interest in the doll house before it had dolls, or the first doll before it was in the doll house, but together – she loves them!
