For Christmas I made my Niece a suitcase dolls house; you can find the tutorial for it here. It went down really well so I decided to make her a dressing room and some extra clothes for her bunny for her Birthday.
I had great fun making a quilt and a couple of doorstops from Stewart Hillards new Rainbow Etchings range and have lots of little left overs. I decided they would be the perfect fabrics to use for bunny outfits.
The bunny rabbit was made by a lovely lady at Cloud Tree Crafts. I also got her to make George a Three Little Pigs set, so I borrowed one of his pigs to do some modelling for me.
YOU WILL NEED
Storage suitcase box
Decoupage paper
Decoupage glue
Cardboard
Silver paper
Buttons, ribbons and gems
Pegs
Craft glue
KAM snap and tool
METHOD
Collect your materials - the instructions I give for this will be quite loose because I made use of what I had around me. I think this is part of the beauty and shows how you can make something from nothing; get creative and see what you come up with.
The suitcase I got in a set of three from The Works. I used the largest one for the bed and have used the medium sized one for this dressing room. I recently had to buy a new iron and still had the packaging; some of the cardboard it was packed in looked like a great wardrobe, so I tested it out for size. I folded another piece of cardboard as a little seat in the dressing room.
When I knew I had my furniture that fitted I applied decoupage glue and used decoupage paper for my wallpaper and carpet.
I cut down the wardrobe box and covered that in decoupage paper along with the bench. I used ribbons and buttons to decorate the wardrobe. I tried various glue for the pegs, but the most successful was gorilla glue. It does require a delicate hand to use them to hang the clothes.
I had these little wooden picture frames in my craft stash, so I printed a picture of all the cousins and glued it onto the wall.
The mirror was another piece of cardboard decorated with decoupage paper and then a piece of shiny silver card cut out and stuck on. I used some pearls from my craft stash to decorate the edges, a strip of card with one end glued to the floor and the other on the back of the mirror. It was just long enough so that it allowed the mirror to fold down.
This was how I simply furnished my dressing room, but it was mainly about the clothes. I made a few skirts and dresses and a little bag. The measurements are based around the cuddly toy I used so you may need to compare the measurements against whoever will be living in your suitcase.
Skirt
Cut strips 10" x 5". Press the two long edges over by just under half and inch and then again by half and inch. Sew a straight stitch on the bottom edge to hem.
Sew close to the overturned edge on the top to allow yourself a big enough casing for your elastic.
Using 6" elastic 1/4" wide, thread it through the top cashing using a safety pin or loop turner. Pin it at the end so you don't end up pulling it all the way through. Baste the elastic in place.
With right sides together sew the two short edges together and zigzag to finish.
Dress
Cut two pieces 5" wide 6" tall. Zigzag stitch down each side. hem the bottom edge like with the skirt. Press the sides in by 1/4" and then form the casing on the edge.
With right sides together, sew the two sides together but stop 1.5" from the top, top stitch at the start and end.
Cut two pieces of ribbon 13" long. I have used the rainbow ribbon again. Thread them through each casing and tie.
You will need to untie one side to get the dress on and off. To stop the ribbon from fraying you can run a small flame over the ends but be careful and have water standing by.
Bag
The bag was really simple. Cut two 2.5" x 6" pieces of fabric and 7" of ribbon. I used the rainbow ribbon that the fat quarters came in. Place the ribbon an inch below the top on either side and sew right sides together leaving a gap to turn it out.
Turn it out and press. Fold the bottom up so it is just over the ribbon and a smaller flap over the top. Press a crease so you can work out where to put your KAMS.
I used KAM snaps as the fastenings. Apply these next.
Fold the bottom up again and sew down each side, backstitch at the start and end. Your bag is done. This can be made in any shape and size andis a great way to use up little left overs from other projects.
One happy little lady got her bunny dressed as soon as she got home.
I hope I have helped give some inspiration for your own homemade gift. Make sure you have subscribed for more free tutorials, fabric arrivals and special offers.
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