From Kim
I had been wanting to buy a doll armoire for awhile, but I haven't seen the
perfect one or it's been too expensive.
So, one day I bought a white pre-fab bookshelf at Home Depot that measures
about 30 inches wide and 2 feet high. It has one shelf in the middle. We
assembled it like normal, but before I nailed the back cardboard on, I used
fusible web and covered the cardboard with a happy heart fabric. After it
was all together, I hot glued lace on the middle shelf, and added a flower
trim around the frame of he bookshelf and on top of the lace. It was quite
pretty.
It was my intention to modge podge some cutouts of flowers all over the side,
but you know how it goes with that....
Now, to hang the clothes - I bought an extension rod that I placed in the
upper shelf area. It's perfect for hanging the doll clothes. And, best of
all, it holds a lot of clothes.
In the bottom area, I put some of those small shoe size plastic bins in a
happy pink color. It went over very well here.
I hope that inspires you.
From Jennifer
Each of Target's Collector Lane outfits comes in a very sturdy box. I had
purchased three recently and was trying to figure out a way to recycle their
boxes and I hit on the idea of combining them to make three long drawers.
You simply cut off the outer box flap on one side only, along the fold line
exposing the inner sleeve on each box. Slide the inner sleeves out and with
see through packaging tape, tape the boxes together at the edges. The inner
sleeves then become the drawers. To make them even sturdier, tape up the
corners for re-inforcement, outer and inner sleeve too. For drawer handles -
take a large single hole punch and punch two holes about three inches apart
and centered in the middle of the end of the sleeve, horizontally (like holes
for screws in a regular drawer). Cut slender cotton rope (or what you would
use for piping in a regular size pillow), about five or six inches. Thread
the cotton rope through the punch holes in the sleeve, knotting both ends on
the inside of the sleeve, so the rope won't come through the holes when you
pull on the 'drawer' to open. You can make the handles has loose or as tight
as you want. Stacked on top of each other, these drawers hold alot of AG
clothes and you can label the sleeves if you want to help you know what is
what. The top drawer, of course, has the see through window where the
cellophane is - so that makes it really easy to see what is in that drawer.
Theoretically, you can stack and attach as many as you want - to make a 'doll
cabinet'. It is attractive, practical and doesn't take up much space. Just
thought you'd like to have another option for doll clothes storage. You
could probably do this with other doll boxes as well.
From Gerry
I had a great idea today for storing dolly things, because the only bad thing
about dollies is where to keep all your goodies :)! I had a large container
filled with all kinds of doll clothes that couldn't go on hangers. But this
container was kind of clunky and took up a lot of space. DD didn't want in
her bedroom and I like to keep things where she can get at them to play with.
Then this morning I got to thinking about an idea my neighbor told me about to
make a 2 drawer file cabinet less obvious. Get a piece of plywood and cut
into a circle larger than the top of your cabinet and cover with a floor
length table cloth. It looks just like one of those round accent tables you
can buy inexpensivly(if you can't get a piece of wood cut buy the table and
just dont use the legs). Well I remember a long time ago seeing someone on
doing this, but they used a garbage can(new of course) and used it to store
blankets and such. Well this a.m. I thought I have the top(bought one of
those tables and DD broke off the leg) I can get the can, now where to put it.
AH HA! in the family room to replace the yucking end table. So off to Home
Depot for the can. I purchased a 20 gal garbage can(yes the kind for outside)
and a round flannel backed vinyl tablecloth(far more practical for my family
room). It felt a little light so a put some ankle weights in the bottom and
dumped in the doll clothes. Put the lid on and tablecloth. Worked like a
charm. My next project is to sew up some cloth bags to sort the clothes into.
So when we want a slip or whatever it will be easier to find. I'm thinking
about doing one for my living room., but my neighbor thinks it would be very
strange to have a garbage can in your living room. I don't see the problem it
will be new and you won't be able to see it is a garbage can. What do you
ladies think.
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