January 1, 2013

Accessorizing Babydolls


Posted by Ethne~

Ok, I am NOT preggers, and I am not gonna get preggers, TRUST ME.  Two rascals are more than enough for this mama.  I’ve pretty much always been one to know my limits, you know, don’t want a chip diamond engagement ring, don’t need to drink tequila too many times to know it’s bad news; my maternal instinct is telling me that I will be the best possible mother if I stick with mothering two young.  I shall heed this.

My two lovies
My wise arse face

But my kiddos are into babies right now.  They tell me, each other, Grandpa Paul – basically everyone, that we’re pregnant.  If I eat too much for dinner, I look pregnant.  Thanks sweetums.  Fortunately, this craze can be alleviated with their babydolls.  They have several and Grandma and Grandpa D also gave them each a new babydoll for Christmas (which turned out being fortuitous because KD’s ‘son’ ended up losing his head this past weekend, which was the last injury he could sustain because he had already lost an arm).

KD and as-yet-unnamed babydoll
Easy Mac and Nina

I don’t make doll clothes, thanks, but Target’s always helpful there.  I’m totally into doll accessories though.

This past weekend I made a baby station in the girls' playroom downstairs because we were rather tired of tripping over the sleeping babies all over the house.  They needed one spot to change, bathe, sleep and so on.  Done.  The station doesn’t have beds so there isn’t much to show yet (I have a hunch that is the Christmas gift from Uncle Rich and Aunt Lissa, but we haven’t gotten together yet), but I did think there were a few other necessitites.

I have smallish-medium clear storage tub that can hold the baby clothes, rattles, bottles and diapers; the best part is that it doubles as the perfect height for being a baby-changing table when the top is on.  But how can one wipe baby butts without butt wipes?  Impossible. 

Also, without beds, the babies were laying ALL OVER the floor covered with small blankets.  I thought that a little napping mat would be nice, so I added that to my sewing list for New Year’s Eve weekend.

The wipes were cut to fit into the little plastic doll wipes case that, as it happens, contains no wipes.  I didn’t make them foldable, just strips to lay in the container – 3”x5”.  (I sewed the edges with my mom’s serger sewing machine hem stitch – if you want to make these with your sewing machine, you will need to turn the edges down for stitching, so cut about ½” bigger all the way around.  Or cut around with a pinking shears at 3”x5” and you won’t need a machine at all!!)




I cut the baby napping mats out of a piece of fabric into a rectangle of approximately 22”x16”.  It doesn’t have to be exact – you can eyeball this to go with the size of your babydoll.  Since I had the serger out, I also used the hem stitch to sew these, right sides out.


I sewed the fabric rectangle, wrong sides together, making a long rectangle, leaving one of the small ends open, for stuffing.  I stuffed the mat with fiberfill batting, not too full, but with every section filled, then hem-stitched the end shut.  To finish, I divided the mat into quarters and sewed three lines to divide sections of the mat.  This will keep the batting from shifting, and it makes the mat pillow-like.

I made the babydoll Christmas blanket a few years back.
I used a swirly stitch on my sewing machine.

So those are the additions to the baby station.  The girls are pretty excited for their new accessories…and I’m excited that it’s all for pretend.
And while we're on the subject of make-believe, this babydoll was on the trailer hitch of some man's truck in big city this summer.  Weird.

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