I am an art teacher and have a group of 4th and 5th grade girls who stay in during recess once a week to make doll crafts. I am lucky enough to get to craft at work and crazy enough to give up my prep time to do it with kids! They call it 'American Girls Club' and it is a time for the girls to just be girls, working together, talking, sharing and helping each other out.  Not all the girls have dolls, but that hasn't mattered.  One girl said she was going to put a stuffed animal on her chair and another decided to make a pillow instead.  I am glad that they have fun and that they are staying young  and enjoying being girls! 

The idea for the chairs we made came from the My Froggy Stuff channel on YouTube.  My Froggy Stuff has clear video directions that are kid-friendly and easy to follow!  Check her out if you haven't already- I love her!

We began with an oatmeal container, removed the paper and cut it into the desired shape.  We used paper towel to fill the seat. Simply tuck in the fabric of your choice.

Then you can add a second coordinating fabric seat - just tuck it in around the edges.

 Some girls made tall chairs!

Others made the seat very low!

You can see that they even made no-sew pillows, also from My Froggy Stuff, to go with the chairs.

Here, two girls work carefully to glue the edge of the fabric to make a pillow.  Be careful when using hot glue and fabric!

It is always more fun when you can share your hobbies with friends! Thanks for sharing mine! 

Making Valentine's Day Socks, Leg-Warmers and Hairbands From a Pair of Socks!

After making our Valentine's day dresses, I knew just what the dolls needed to complete the outfits!  Gracie, my 8 year old, loves myfroggystuff on YouTube and found a tutorial to make doll socks.  This was our inspiration for today's project.  I found two pairs of knee-high Valentine socks at Walmart for under 3$. 

Remember, I am not a seamstress, and am not one to actually measure when I craft- so I laid the sock under the doll foot to see how long to make it. I then cut off the top of the sock.

I turned the sock inside-out, and sewed 2 parallel lines down the center-close together. 

You can see the first seam is already on the sock and I am adding the second line.  I then cut between the 2 seams, and then sewed the toe shut. Or leave the toe open and you have leg warmers!  I found that the leg warmers needed to be a little shorter then the sock. 

The leg warmers on Kit are made from further down on the knee-high sock, so the top and bottom I just left unfinished and tucked under when I put them on her.  The headband was even easier! Just cut  a strip from the leg of the sock- look how cute Samantha is with her socks and headband!  You can also tie a little scrap onto the headband for a little extra cuteness!  If you come up with any cute Valentine socks, leg warmers, or headbands be sure to share them with us on facebook!

Craft Link : Make a Hermit Crab for Your Dolls

The other day I was scrolling through Pinterest and found a link to make a Hermit Crab for a pet for your dolls and it was too cute to not try and attempt it.  I found some little clear plastic boxes at the dollar store (2 for $1) and we had some shells at home already as well as the googly eyes.  We shredded paper and were set!  The wood-like top is actually some patterned paper that I found and cut to the same size as the top of the lid to the boxes we used.

One hermit crab was made for a friend and the other one is ours to keep and has been named Hermie.

We hope you like your new home Hermie!