Thursday, October 08, 2009

our first mother/daughter sewing project

It's funny how a child's interest in certain toys ebbs and flows, isn't it? Daughter has had a beautiful doll cradle, handmade almost 30 years ago by Hubs' grandfather, sitting in her room gathering dust for months. Yesterday she asked Hubs to bring it downstairs so she could put her baby to bed. (Interestingly, this baby has been at the bottom of the stuffed animal bin for ages as well.)

Hubs brought it down and it looked pretty sad and empty sitting there. Daughter looked at me and said, "it doesn't look very comfortable like that, does it?"

She was right. It did not.

So we set to work remedying the situation for babydoll. Daughter chose an old fat quarter and we cut 2 rectangles to size (18"X8"). She sat on my lap and guided the fabric as I pushed the sewing machine pedal. We stuffed it with two layers of cotton batting, and topstitched all the way around the edges. Then I cut two rectangles about 8"X6" to make the pillow, sewed them right sides together, turned it out into a little bag, and had Daughter stuff it full of polyfil. We stitched it closed together. Now we had a mattress and pillow! But wait, what about a blanket?

Off to the bag of leftover yarns! Daughter chose a soft pink wool-ease left over from a winter hat I made her several years ago. I chose this pattern (yes, it is for a dishtowel, but it is crocheted which means it is fast for me to do), and worked on it throughout the day. I finished up at 11:00 last night.



Voila! Doll bedding!


My understanding is that baby is resting quite comfortably. Bunny has also taken a nap in the cradle, but not Daughter's Beaker doll, because "Beaker doesn't care for cradles."

I love that kid.

3 comments:

Liz said...

That is awesome - she will never forget that you took the time to care for her doll like you cared for her.

Unknown said...

Tell Daughter that I'm impressed by what a good mommy she is!

"Beaker doesn't prefer the cradle." Awesome.

Staci said...

That is adorable! What a fantastic story.