No Sew Bedding

How to make dollhouse bedding without a sewing machine

You will need:-

- Good Quality Craft Glue or Fabric Glue (See my post on glue options here)
- Different fabric scraps to use as your bedding
- thick cardboard or poster board

Cut your fabric slightly larger than the size of the bed you require it to fit.

To give the effect of a sheet folded over a blanket/duvet cover, you can fold a plain white strip of fabric over the top of your chosen patterned bed cover.

You can simply glue the edges together with fabric glue so that you do not need to use a sewing machine.

 Fold the white 'sheet' over the top edge of your patterned fabric to create the look of a turned down bed.

I placed a small amount of quilting filling between my sheet and the poster board so that the bed looks nice and comfy, but you could also just fold some more fabric under the top cover to make it look a little more 'plump' as well.





Cut a piece of cardboard to fit your bed like a mattress, (so that it sits neatly on the top of the bed).

Fold your fabric over the cardboard and tuck the ends in similar to wrapping a gift.  You do not need to make the underneath all too tidy as you can stick it directly onto your bed base as shown in the diagram below.

You can also make some cushions using fabric glue.  The black and white cushion below is just a length of fabric rolled in a cylinder shape and glued along one edge.

Dollhouse Buyers Guide

So you want to buy (your child) a dollhouse.

You literally just walked through the door with your brand new baby girl, take a seat on the couch to research instagram for the latest and greatest baby products and you come across the modern dollhouse revival.

Firstly, YES of course you need a dollhouse in your life, (your two week old daughter may take a little more convincing) but hey, lets be honest this dollhouse business is not all entirely for the kids!

Where to start?

Serious consideration should be taken as to the type of house vs the age of your child.

Factors to consider:-
- Will the child actually play with the house
- Is the furniture and accessories safe and/or durable
- Are you going to paint/modify the house (re painting a house can be a lengthy process)
- How much money do you plan to spend

Also note that when buying these houses they are childrens toys and although I mention the scale as 1:12 they are a bit all over the place.  What I mean is that you will find that the ceiling height maybe very high and you only have a small amount of floor space.  The only dollhouse which is true to scale is the Lundby and their accessories.

I have given a brief run down on 4 options which are all available in Australia as I have owned all of theses houses so find it easier to give a review of them.  There are numerous other brands available which you should also research, not to mention local Instagram and Etsy stores.

The Kmart Dollhouse
A great starting point for very young children would be the Kmart dollhouse.  It is well priced for the quality, it includes some furniture and most of all it is pretty indestructible.  Should you wish to pretty it up a bit read my blog on The $100 Kmart Dollhouse Hack.  The Kmart house would suit 1:12 scale furniture, although the rooms are very small so you will not be able to fit too much into it.  Stick to buying the wooden furniture packs (i.e.; Le Toy Van, Hape or Saint Germaine).






Adairs Kids Heidi House
Next best option for beginners is the Adairs Heidi House, and you can buy a set of wooden furniture that goes with it.  This option is much larger than the Kmart house, the rooms can fit considerably more furniture into them.  Again for smaller children stick to the wooden furniture packs, but this house will easily accommodate any 1:12 scale dollhouse furniture.

IKEA Dollhouse Shelf
For some reason IKEA designed this as a bookshelf but it works brilliantly as a dollhouse.  Again this house is on the smaller side as it only has 4 rooms, and it is not very deep.  Will suit either wooden furniture packs or 1:12 scale furniture.  The advantage of this house is that it can be easily painted as it has a wood finish.  The other houses will need to be sanded and primed before they can be painted.





Lundy Smaland or Stockholm

I have owned both the Smaland and the Stockholm and loved both of them for different reasons.  The Smaland has plenty of rooms, and realistic opening doors and windows.  On the other hand the Stockholm has that amazing draw which hides a swimming pool (capable of holding water!!) and the trendy modern layout with rooftop verandah.  The only downside to the Lundby is that because of the 1:16 scale you are a little more restricted as to your furniture options and are best to stick with buying original Lundby products.  As the 1:16 scale is slightly smaller the Lundby (in my opinion) would be better suited to older children (say 4 years onwards) only because the Lundby furniture has far more detail and would be more practical for older kids.









Filling your house with modern minis
Once you have decided on the type of house you think will best suit your needs, you can finally move on to decorating it.  As I mentioned before, these houses are toys so scale can play up a bit when trying to figure out whether furniture is going to fit into your rooms.

First of all if you want to paint your house decide this first as it is fair easier to paint a house while it is deconstructed.  If it is already painted you will need to sand it first, prime and then paint.  This is a huge task so really take this into consideration when buying a house.

Start with deciding on whether you want to change the wall paper, try to use scrap booking paper and a good quality craft glue for the best results.  Flooring can be laid using balsa wood and I have a 'how to' on my blog.

Even if you buy all your major furniture pieces in packs, seek out local makers for all the pieces that really give it the modern twist, like miniature plants, floor rugs, wall art and of course bedding, cushions and throw rugs.

There are so many amazing mini makers on Instagram and Etsy so make sure you shop around and support your local mini makers!!!

Dollhouse comparison table

	Scale	Furniture included	Age	Can it easily be renovated	Stairs
KMART	1:12	Yes	2+	Yes	Yes
IKEA	1:12	No	2+	Yes	No
ADAIRS	1:12	Extra	2+	Yes	Yes
LUNDBY	1:16	Extra	4+	Wallpaper only	Yes

Kmart Dollhouse Hack

How to make over the Australian Kmart Dollhouse for under $100

BEFORE                                             AFTER

The Budget :
Kmart Dollhouse $49
Wooden eBay kitchen $14.00
Sandpaper (180 grit) / cork block $5.70
White Knight Tester Paint Pot $7.25
Bedding Material $10.00
Box cutter/knife
or mini Stanley Handsaw $10.00
Spotlight Craft Glue $3.70

Total $99.65

The list above will give you everything you need assuming you have none of the above laying around the garage - you can always ask family members if they have some of the tools etc which you could borrow as this is a fairly small and simple project.  All the men in my family are metal workers and we still had most of this stuff laying around the house!

Firstly the best thing about the Kmart house is that it comes with furniture! and the wooden furniture is pretty indestructible for little hands.  I added the option of a full kitchen for my dollhouse, and made 2 small beds from balsa wood.

I brought my kitchen from Kidstuff at my local Westfield shopping centre (brand was called Saint Germaine) and was definitely a splurge item considering I sanded and repainted it anyway.  However you can buy a perfectly good wooden kitchen from Ebay.  I have brought the pink wooden kitchen from eBay and used both '9amfree' and 'aclmart' in China and they cost about $14 with free shipping.  The only other piece you may want to add is another bedroom/nursery set.

The other item you will need to decide on is wether you buy a handsaw or a box cutter.  A handsaw will easily chew through the wooden furniture if you are wanting to modify a few pieces.  I use my Stanley box cutter for everything!!  It is a great tool to use with balsa wood.  However the wooden furniture in this set may be a little too thick and strong for the box cutter and I don't want anyone chopping off a finger.

HOW TO RENOVATE THE FURNITURE

BEFORE

This is a flat lay of the furniture which comes with the house.  There is about 1 piece of furniture to each room so it does leave the house looking a little barren, which is why I decided to purchase a wooden kitchen.  I did made 2 small wooden beds as my daughter insisted there be a bed for her and her brother!




AFTER

Choose a colour scheme for the house and try to stick with it throughout, most commonly used colours in these renovations are white, grey, pink and black (try to stick to 3 colours if you are wanting the crisp Scandi look).  I kept my makeover simple by using white paint on the furniture as this tied in with the colours of the house as it is already mostly white.      





The first thing you need to do if you want to change the colour of this furniture is sand it.  Im not going to lie, this is hands down the most time consuming, boring part of the job.  I used a fairly aggressive sand paper (180 grit) and try and use a cork block so as not to dig trenches in the wood.  I suggest you grab a glass of wine and watch the kids run around the backyard for this part... you will probably need to set aside 2 hours for sanding.  I did cheat as I hate sanding and didn't sand the back, bottom or inside of any of these pieces  (naughty!)  but in all honesty if you do not sand off the original paint, it will leech though and the new paint will also scratch off.

Once you have given the old furniture a decent sand you can paint it.  Bunnings sell small test pots of paint (near the spray paint section) for under $10.00.  Make sure you buy a water based paint so it is kid friendly and also go for a 'gloss' finish.  Matt finishes feel chalky, will scratch and mark very easily.  You will most likely need to coats of paint on the furniture, but there is so little to paint that a test pot will easily see you through this project.

BEFORE and AFTER of the Saint Germaine kitchen set.







This is an after photo of the pink wooden eBay kitchen which I used in one of my previous houses.  For $14 this is an easy addition to your dollhouse, and the pink isn't that bad (considering it is a girls dollhouse!).

This is the large red set of draws which came with the dollhouse.  I used my handsaw to cut just under the first draw.

I turned the bottom half up the other way and cut out the back of where the 'middle' draw would have been.  This made another 2 sets of draws which I found to be a better fit in the house.  I used one in the very top room where the roof is slanting and hard to fit furniture into.



Next is to make over your little bed and couch.
Spotlight will let you buy as little as a 10cm strip of fabric (assuming you get a nice shop assistant.... sometimes they get a bit annoyed....)  The other option is picking out some quilting squares or 'Flat Fats' which are only about $4 each (pre cut fabric which measures approx 50cm x 50cm).   The swan pattern on my bed above was one of these precut quilting squares.  Another option is to cut up an old pillow case or buy a Kmart pillow case for as little as $5.

I recovered the couch using a strip of fabric and a good quality craft glue.  Both Bunnings and Spotlight sell craft glue suitable for sticking fabric to wood.  The Bunnings glue is called Boyle craft glue and is found near the balsa wood/craft/paint section or the Spotlight Crafters Choice 60ml clear craft glue.

Fill the remainder of the rooms with bits and pieces, swabs of fabric cut to make floor rugs, $2 shop fake flower/succulent arrangements make great indoor plants.  Cut pictures from childrens books or magazines to make wall art or search google images for great wall art finds.  Use scrap booking paper (available from Kmart, Reject Store, Big W etc) to add more colour to floor and walls.  Ensure you use a good quality craft glue (like the 2 brands mentioned above) to fix wall paper and flooring.  Childrens paper glue will not hold wall paper to the dollhouse.

Make up compacts make great bathroom mirrors!

I removed the middle walls in the bottom 2 rooms to add more space.