Baby Dolls

I had no idea what to get Bella for Christmas. Two and a half year olds are hard to shop for especially when they are, shall we say, less then gentle. At the very last minute (very, very last) it hit me that a doll bed would be perfect.... Then I remembered, we now live in the land of no good retail stores (Jacksonville what is this?! I actually miss you!?) Last minute shopping brought no help until I happened to come across Danamadeit's baby doll basket pattern on pinterest. It was a life saver! Do you love instant download patterns as much as I do?  I bought it, and was able to find most everything  else in my stash. One quick trip to Joann's and I was good to go.

I made some slight modifications- one being heavier interfacing, because I wanted it to be very rigid. 

If you are want to make one I think the pattern is worth getting but I personally would not define this as a beginner pattern- even though I felt it should be. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't as exact as I felt it should be for being a pattern you pay for. She over/under explains some parts of the process to the point of confusion. This is just my opinion. And as I stated, I would purchase it again because it took some of the guess work out of making a cute doll bed and I LOVE how it turned out!  (I just want to be clear if you go to grab it to make) 

These poor babies have been mostly naked for two years. It is impossible to find clothing for the tiny cabbage patches. I finally decided to bust out some additional clothing for them (what is it that makes you not want to do these projects and then when you finally break down and tackle them, they are so easy you wonder why you didn't do them sooner?) The left is a from scratch little peasant style dress. I just winged it and it worked out. The right one is one of Bellas baby dresses cut up and reused to created the same dress at 40% the size. 

She loved the gift when she finally stopped asking where the babies mommy was. It was funny and sweet how concerned she was opening up the box, she was more worried the babies mom left had them, then realizing they were her dolls.... she was very happy when she found out she was their mommy.... now if she would just take care of them and put their clothes back on! 

Playing Dolls

I was despairing over finding Bella a decent baby doll. Of the non creepy sort. Baby Dolls are incredibly personal so I am sure that some of you might disagree with me on what I find acceptable. I had a cabbage patch doll that unfortunately had a tragic death when Brinkley chewed her face off, I loved her. She was bald and blue eyed. 

Unfortunately those dolls have been redone and are kind of ugly now. Luckily I have an awesome Mum who went on a hunt for Isabella's Christmas present and found this version (and let me just say I was creeped out searching for them because the ones with hair are soooo very not right) and she did a little recon to make sure neither of them had hair and they even have blue eyes. The only down side is that they are mini.... and they were dressed hideously... as in so bad I had naked dolls for a while. So I whipped them up some clothing the other day. 

I used stash fabric left over from previous baby shower gifts and made little diapers. 

And for size reference this was a newborn onesie that I took apart and remade in miniature. Also it just dawned on me that you can see the inch marks behind the doll... duh...

I still need to make at least one more outfit- though why I feel the need to have clothed dolls when my kids are half naked most of the time I will never know.

I'm not planning to go all doll clothes making crazy on you guys- promise! But is this even interesting? Or should I just keep this to myself?