doll bassinet tutorial: part 2

Welcome to part two of the doll bassinet tutorial! 

I need to make my usual disclaimer to remind you that I am NOT a professional.  I truly make this stuff up, so if you are an amazing sewer, you will probably read this tutorial and cringe like crazy over all the things I do technically wrong.  I learned a lot from this first bassinet, and I actually made the second one very differently.  However, if I made another bassinet, I would probably go back to this method.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Hop over to part one for a complete materials' list and instructions for the lining.

Here's what you do for the outside body of the bassinet:
1) Pin quilt batting to the wrong side of the outside body fabric.

2)  Quilt these batting and fabric pieces together however you want.  You could do diagonal crossing lines to make a diamond pattern or you could do fancy squiggly lines OR you could be like me . . . lazy and also very unskilled with a sewing machine which means you will just sew straight parallel lines every inch. ;)

3)  For a little pop of color I added a ribbon about a 1/2 from the top edge of the body piece.  You could sew it on with a fancy stitch or you could go my route: FABRIC GLUE . . . the best friend of a lazy crafter who happens to also have difficulty sewing narrow things. 

4)  Pin bottom of body piece (piece with ribbon attached at top) right sides together all around the bottom body piece.

5)  Sew around the edge where the body and the bottom meet.  Then pin and sew the opening where the two ends of the body piece meet up.  (In the picture below, you see the seem of where the two ends meet up on the right hand side of the picture.)  When you are done sewing, the piece will look like this:

6) Moving on to the outside of the hood . . . use the arch of the lining piece as a guide for the arch on the outside hood piece and the quilt batting for the hood.  Pin the batting to the wrong side of the hood fabric. 

7)  Quilt the hood and batting in the same way you did the body quilting.  I just did straight lines every inch.

8)  Make the hood for the outside the same way you made the hood for the lining.  Fold arch piece in half and pin the side opposite the arch. Pin along that edge about five inches.  Sew.

9) Take the opening between the last stitch of the 5 inch section and the fold and open it. Then flatten it so it is perpindicular (or makes a T) to the five inch section.  Pin and sew along edge. 

10)  Flip the outside hood piece right side out.  The back will look like this.

11)  Take the hood lining and place the hood lining over the outside hood piece MAKING SURE RIGHT SIDES ARE TOGETHER.

12)  Pin together along arched edge and sew.

13)  Flip right sides out.  I ended up putting a matching ribbon on the hood edge as well which I put on at this step (not pictured).

14)  Now comes the fun . . . seeing it all come together!  There are a few steps here that I don't have pics for because I got too excited to take pics.  I just wanted to get it done!

16)  Make sure outside body piece is right side out now, and insert lining into body piece so that the wrong sides of both piece are together.

17)  Tuck in and pin top edges of body piece and lining all around inserting and pinning straps and hood as you go.

18)  Top stitch all the way around the edge of the bassinet body.

Done! 

As I mentioned above, I finished number two bassinet, and I'm on to the blanket and pillow next which means that I . . .

craft on!

I may link to these great sites throughout the week!  Go check them out!
Weekend - along for the ride, a little lovely, Craft Envy, Under the Table and Dreaming, Be Different Act Normal, A Vision to Remember, 504 Main - Tickled Pink, Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots and Jello, I heart naptime 

Monday - Keeping it Simple, Craft-O-Maniac, The Girl Creative, The Trendy Treehouse, CRAFT, Making the World Cuter, Mad in Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Between Naps on the Porch, Tools Are For Women,  It's So Very Cheri, Skip to My Lou

Tuesday - All Thingz Related, Sugar Bee, New Nostalgia, Creative Itch, Lucky Star Lane, Hope Studios, These Creative Juices, My Delicious Ambiguity, Today's Creative Blog-Get Your Craft On!

Wednesday - It's So Very Cheri, Beyond the Picket Fence, Blue Cricket Design, Trendy Treehouse, Tea Rose Home, Someday Crafts, My Backyard Eden, Sew Much Ado, Night Owl Crafting

Thursday -  Fireflies and Jellybeans, Life As Lori, House of Hepworths, Somewhat Simple, Seven Thirty Three, The Train to Crazy, PonyTails and FishScales, Black Kat's Design

Friday - The Sabby Nest, A Little Knick Knack, Fingerprints on the Fridge, It's Fun to Craft!, It's a Hodgepodge Life, Kojo Designs, Amy Lou Who, A Few of My Favorite Things, Simply Sweet Home, Frou Frou Decor, Remodelaholic

doll bassinet tutorial - part 1

Have you ever heard that phrase, "History is the study of the past to learn for the future"?  Well, I'm pretty sure whoever said that wasn't expecting it to apply to blogging, but I like grossly misapplying things. ;)  I learned two things from my pillow buddy craft and tutorial that spanned the length of two months:

1. I need to start my crafts till Christmas before the last week of the month.
2. I need to make the tutorials more manageable in length so that I'm motivated to get them done.

So this month I started on my craft - the doll bassinet - a little bit earlier.  And I'm breaking the tutorial up into two parts.  This makes it easier for me to get it done.  

In this post (part 1), I'm including:
the materials needed for the entire project
the instructions for the lining of the body
the instructions for the lining of the hood
the instructions for the straps/handles

Part 2 will include:
the instructions for the outside of the body
the instructions for the outside of the hood
the instructions for putting it all together
   

The Doll Bassinet - Part 1

Here's what you need for the whole enchilada:
1 - 36 x 6 inch piece of fabric for the outside body
1 - 36 x 6 inch piece of fabric for the inner lining of the body
1 - 36 x 6 inch piece of high loft quilt batting
1 - 36 inch strip of ribbon
1 - 13 x 7 inch piece of fabric for the outside bottom of the body*
1 - 13 x 7 inch piece of fabric for the inner bottom of the lining*
1 - 13 x 7 inch piece of high loft quilt batting*
1 - 16 x 9 inch piece of fabric for the outside of the bassinet hood
1 - 16 x 9 inch piece of fabric for the inner lining of the bassinet hood
4 - 22 x 2 inch strips of fabric for the straps

*As you can see, the bottom pieces have rounded edges.

Here's what you do for the lining and the straps:

1)  Pin one long edge of the 36 x 6 inch piece of lining fabric around the 13 x 7 inch piece of lining for the bottom.  Although it didn't really matter with my fabric, pin these piece right sides together.  Sew together about 1/4 of inch in from the pinned edge all the way around.  Then pin and sew up the seem where the ends of the long piece meets.  Put lining body aside for now.

2)  Take 16 x 9 inch piece of lining fabric for the hood and cut an arch on one long side of the fabric.  Best way to do this is fold fabric in half and cut so the arch is symmetrical.  The first pic is of the fabric folded with arch cut.  The second pic is off the fabric unfolded so you can see that the arch is pretty shallow.

3)  Fold arch piece in half and pin the side opposite the arch.  Pin along that edge about five inches (see second picture).  

4)  Sew the five inch section.

5)  Take the opening between the last stitch of the 5 inch section and the fold and open it.  Then flatten it so it is perpindicular (or makes a T) to the five inch section. 

6)  Pin and sew along edge.  You should have a T-shaped side when finished.

7)  Pin strap pieces right sides together.  Sew down each long side.  Turn and top stitch down both sides again.  You don't need to close up the two open short ends.  (For some reason, I totally spaced the turning and the top stitching photos.  Oops!)

At this point, you have the lining of the body, the lining of the hood and the strap done! 

Woo hoo!

Stay tuned for the outside of the body, the outside of the hood and assembly.

(Edited later to include . . . click here for part 2)

In the mean time . . .

craft on!

I may linke to some of these great parties!

saturday's to-do list

You may have seen the to-do list I posted on Facebook this morning.  It went something like this:

1) play

2) clean make-up brushes  (It's embarrassing how yucky these brushes were.)

3) read books about kindergarten

4) laundry

5) make a pretend mini-van out of the couch and pack it full of every single toy in the house  (And yes, my daughter is not wearing a shirt.  You're lucky she even has shorts on in this picture because for the last two hours between dinner and bed, she was running around the house in just her unders.  The kid doesn't like clothes . . . kindergarten here we come!)

6) clean bathroom drawers and change out toothbrushes

7) play hide-n-seek

8) finish first bassinet

Can you believe I finished one already?  I can't!  One more to go.  Then on to the pillows and blankets.

It was a great day!

Craft on!

I may link to these great parties.

in the beginning . . .

Beginnings are full of anticipation . . . full of questions. As I begin my experiment in crafting, I am full of questions:
Can I actually do this?
Do I have the time?
Will the things I make be recognizable?
What craft will I start with?

This last question is the one I will tackle first because I can't begin until I have something to begin with. I have decided to stick to four criteria for the first craft:
1) Easy
2) Fun
3) Easy
4) Fun

I need something easy and doable so that I have some sort of a sense of accomplishment. I need something fun because . . . well, what's the point if it's not fun.
Here are a few of the sites I've been poking around for the inspiration for my first craft till Christmas.

Cindy at Skip To My Lou made these delicious looking felt foods.

I can already imagine my youngest dragging this sweet little doll house by Dawn around the house.

These creative clothes pin dolls found at Angry Chicken would go smashingly with the doll house.

Here's an adorable little monkey from Larissa and mmmcrafts

I love just about everything from Jaime's site Nothing Fancy, but I'm especially fond of her doll bassinet. It was my goggle search for a doll bassinet pattern that led me to Jaime's site.

So . . . what craft will be my first? Any suggestions?  Craft On!