Fabric Doll House!

Photo from UK Lass in US

I have been wanting to make a fabric doll house for Bug ever since I came across this tutorial on UK Lass in US.  I decided I was going to make Bug one for her birthday with some clothespin or wooden doll people to go with it too. I haven't ordered the materials for the people yet, but as soon as I do and get them all done I'll be sure to post some pictures of that too. Now some of you might think of me as being crazy for making this for Bug being that her birthday is 2 months away, but I KNOW that once I go back to work in less than two weeks (lets not even talk about THAT) that my time to create will be drastically cut, not to mention that grad classes start back up on the 30th of this month (another thing we won't talk about).

Overall the tutorial was easy to follow. Now having said that let me explain that I was too impatient to read through the directions fully and just started going, going, going. WHY DO I DO THIS!?! I should really know better by now, but I obviously don't. You see, I do this a lot and then pay for it one way or another in the end. In this case...it was by hand sewing WAY more than NECESSARY!

Let me explain the problem so that you don't fall into the same carpel tunnel mess I did.

Here's the problem: I cut out EACH PIECE!!! You are only supposed to cut out the two "house-looking" pieces.

Why does it matter? Because instead of following directions and sewing that whole middle pannel as one piece I had to sew ALL of those pannels like this:

1. Sew three sides together (right sides facing)
2. Turn right sides out
3. Tuck and HAND SEW shut. (FOR EACH ONE, REMEMBER!!)  **Plus I had to do this with the house-shaped sides because I did follow directions AGAIN!**
4. Assemble house by HAND SEWING each piece to it's side piece.

It really doesn't seem like that bad, BUT when I think of how much easier and faster it would have been if I had only followed the directions, THEN I get very irritated with myself.

After the pain of all the hand sewing it was time to decorate!!! I LOVED this part. The only suggestion I have is to try and decorate before you sew all your pieces up together. Decorate it while it lays flat and then sew your pieces together. It would make the ironing on SOOOOO much easier.

The front of the house.

I chose to decorate mine with fabric scraps and mostly felt. I used some wonder under to "applique" the pieces on. I'm not sewing any of them on to fully secure them though. (too lazy and too much hand sewing- Have I told you how much I HATE hand sewing?)

The side. Calla saw this and LOVES her apple tree!

The back. It's a window with a peek at the pond with rocks around it.

A small window and a tire swing. I still need to stitch the rope on. Someday when I'm over the pain of all the hand stitching already done on this.

The inside. The fridge and freezer open and close. A sink with some water in it. (Drains must be plugged!) A red couch in the living room.

Little bedroom

Top view showing the rug and the pond that you can see from the back "window"

 I'm so happy with the results of this and can't wait to order the little wooden blank slates to transform into our family. All in all it only took about 1 day to make, and I'm LOVING it. I'm actually thinking that I might make some for Christmas gifts for some little girls in the family.

What do you think?