Doll in a Box – My Gift to my 5yrd Old

Let me begin by saying.. yes…. I am SHOWING OFF! This post is all about me showing off to you. Because I am really rather, very and totally pleased with myself. There. I hope you don’t mind my smugness, but sometimes, I think you just have to be, right?!?! I do love a Gift to Make for Kids! (I also think this makes a great DIY Gift Box idea) A few months ago, we received a GORGEOUS book – Crafty Dolls (more on that at the below) – and from that day on Pip Squeak has been browsing it on a regular basis. She asked if I would make her a dolly. I am ALWAYS making the kids things, but I thought this would be a big project so I said – Ok, Darling, for your Birthday, ok?! And now her birthday is around the corner, I finally had to get around to making her Rag Doll. Now. My 5yrs old, gorgeous as she is, is also TERRIBLY messy. There are things all over the house. And I know that this crafty doll would be a real labour of love. She didn’t just want the doll, but she wanted outfits and tutus to go with it. I didn’t want this dolly’s right shoe landing in the front room, the coat disappearing under the bed and her tutu to go in our dressing up box.. so I pondered about how I could “contain it all”.. and contain it all NICELY. In a way that Pip Squeak would WANT to look after it all and then it came to me: A Doll in a Box Gift Set! I was going to make the doll a shoebox home. A doll’s home “on the go” – complete with “inter changeable artwork” a bed and storage for all there things.. ta daaaaaaaaaa……….. I am ridiculously pleased with the shoe box idea!

Please note – I have added relevant affiliate links for convenience and where appropriate! So. I started with the box and decorated it:

This is how Pip Squeak will receive her Doll in a Box present! I used decoupage paper and made a Fabric Flower to glue on.

(This is the one I used: UK Readers – Decoupage Paper; US Readers- Decoupage Paper)

When she opens it, she will see her dolly + a baby doll like this. You can see on the lid of the box that I added a “picture frame” detail, where Pip Squeak will be able to “hang” her own post it not artwork.

(I made a smaller box that slides INTO the show box, again decorate with decoupage paper this time I used this pattern – UK Readers, US Readers, you can see Dolly lying on it)

This is what you see when you LIFT open the box that that the doll was lying on.

Take it all out… and you have

* a bed (with ribbons to pull the box out)

* a pillow and blanket made from Daddy’s old shirt and lined with Granny’s old fleece

* a finger knitted orange scarf with pom poms and hat – the scarf made by Red Ted for her sister on her brithday (awww)

*a toy camera (more on that **soon**) also made by Red Ted for his sister

*a pink ballerina’s out fit, complete with tutu and shoes

*a pyjama set (made from Kids Chaos‘s old dress!)

Here we are ready for a day out. What will dolly find to photograph? And didn’t Red Ted do an AMAZING job with that finger knitted orange scarf? I knitted the hat for him. And that camera slides open, so you can draw the “pictures you have photographed”.

The Dress, Coat, Shoes and Wolly Hat are all patterns from the Dolly Book (see below). Though we adapted it slightly by adding a pom pom to the hat and elastic to the skirt rather than ribbons.

Now dolly is off to her ballet lessons! Have fun! The pattern for the outfit is from the dolly book, I adapted it slightly to use elastic and velcro, rather than pins and ribbons.

What a busy day! The Pyjama set is from the book, as is the little dolly. I adapted the baby dolly to have “woolly hair” (rather than felt hair) and essentially made the hair as per the mermaid here, glued it on and stitched it i place for extra safety, I also used marker pens to add the face details).

The pillow and blanket are “my pattern” (ahem, just sew around a rectangle).

And now Dolly is ready for bed. We have put all the clothes away in her bed box. Her artwork is up and she is reading a book (about box trolls that Red Ted made a while back!!!).

Night night dolly! We love you!

And here is the book – Crafty Dolls, by Jane Bull

UK Readers

US Readers

I have to say, on the whole I found all the patterns easy to do and manage. I think they are designed for a young girl (maybe 8yrs+??) to have a go herself. It is all based on hand sewing, do I did do a bit of it on the machine. And it uses a lot of pinking shears patterns – to avoid having to sew additional seams. I have to confess, that I didn’t rely on the zig zag cuts, and added some fabric glue here and there to “seal” everything. The felt patterns are super easy to make. Though I do worry a little about “wear and tear”, as I can imaging Pip Squeak tearing the odd seam her or there. But we shall see! Overall, a super cute book, with great ideas and patterns and I know I will have a v happy little girl very soon!

 More Gift Ideas to make FOR You kids.

More DIY Gift Box ideas