Rag Doll Dress

My sweet friend gave my girls some rag dolls she found at the thrift store. This lil' doll was in a little red dress that didn't really match. It has bothered me ever since we got the cute dolls (over a year ago). I have been toying with the idea of making my own little rag dolls when I remembered this lil' doll and decided to make her a new dress instead.

Her tights and shoes are sewn on, so it was obvious the red christmasy dress she had on didn't go (sorry, I forgot to take a picture before I ripped it apart to use as my pattern). 

The fluffy white trim was so fun I decided to keep it and add it to this dress. 

I also made a lil flower and sewed it to a bobby pin to stick in her hair.

This costume sateen moved a lot, and could be tricky to work with...BUT because it was just a dress for a doll I wasn't too particular in my accuracy and I melted the edges to keep it from fraying (instead of serging...which is hard to do without a serger). 

It was awesome and saved so much time!

It was a quick project to get my craft fix for the day.

I'm pretty sure the dollie is much, much happier. 

Doesn't she look so?

Have a lil' doll that needs a fashion update?

Craft. Me. This.

Baby Walker Redo

While I was visiting my Mother in Law in Minnesota, she had some friends give her random baby items to make our visit more enjoyable. 

One of them was this old walker.

 My lil' man loved it (and they just don't make the new ones the same), so we took it home with us (it folds flat... so nice for storing).

Well, my lil' fella is learning to eat and of course he is getting lil' puffs and rice rusk goo all over the cover. I didn't really mind the dated look, but when I took it off to wash it I realized how gross it was. And it was falling apart.

No Bueno!

Can you see all the gunk (mold?!!) down at the bottom by the grommets? Yuck! 

So I pulled the old thing off, took a seam ripper to it, 

and took it apart to use the old pieces to make a pattern.

I was hoping to reuse the old foam padding...

but it was so well-loved that it was disintegrating. 

Once I got the old trim off it came pouring out all over the table. 

I tried taking outside to shake it all out, but it was never-ending.

So much for reusing the old padding...

However, I was able to selvage the trim. It was actually in really good condition.

I had a grommet kit in the house, some old fleece fabric (to use as my padding/batting), and fabric. 

It was nice to just use up some thing I had on hand (even nicer not draggin my kiddos to the craft store).

A few hours later and it was done!

I was surprised how quick it all came together.

My client was quite satisfied!

I decided that I wanted to use vinyl this time so I could wipe up the gooey messes the lil' mister made. I didn't have any vinyl fabrics on hand, but I did have some iron-on vinyl on hand so I just ironed it on to this cute dino fabric and it was perfect. Added an extra step, but it was well worth it.

Mr. Z thinks it is much more fun to play in.

Slime on lil' man, slime on!

So do you have a hand-me-down that you want to give new life to?

Craft. Me. This.