Saturday, January 29, 2011

How to make a Sofa for your dolls from a Shoe Box

I originally posted this on the American Girl Fan Message Board today.
How to make a Shoe box Sofa:
You can make a sofa for your dolls: The back will be one long side of the shoe box. The seat will be the bottom of the shoe box. The ends of the shoe box will be the arm rests or high sides.
Here's how you do it:
  1.  Get some fabric glue. and an adult size shoe box.
  2.  Get some scraps of fabric: 4 rectangles. Read step 7 and 8. Get some stuffing like from an old pillow.
  3.  Take off the top of the box [if it has a top] and set it aside.
  4.  Cut one long side of the box completely off. You will now have a back attached to a seat and sides.
  5. Measure the seat area of the box (That is the original bottom of the box.) Make a cloth bag by hand from a 2  rectangle pieces of material that are 3 inches longer and 2 inches wider than the size of the seat area .Sew the bag as follows;
  6. With right sides of the materials facing each other, sew one short side and two long sides up. Leave one short side open . Now, turn bag right side out..
  7.   Measure the side that you didn't cut off. (the back of the sofa) Make another cloth bag from 2  rectangle pieces of material that is 2 inches longer and wider than that side which is now the back of the sofa. Make the bag the same way you did for the back.
  8.   Stuff the bags. Check to see if each little bag has too much or too little stuffing to make a nice seat bottom and back. Then hand stitch up the end.
  9. Put the bottom seat cushion in the sofa first, then the back.
  10. It should start to really look like a sofa now. The remainder of the instructions are IDEAS and aren't necessary.

  • Using fabric glue, cover the back of the seat and arm rests on both side. Or you could use contact paper or paint or anything.  Felt works well if it co-ordinates with your little seat cushions. You don't have to cover the seat bottom because the seat cushion will be over it.
  • You can raise the sofa off the floor by making legs out of  4 thread spools and glueing them to the bottom of the sofa. Or if the top of the shoe box that you set aside is sturdy, you can glue the outside of the old top to the outside of the bottom of the box which is now the seat.  This will raise the seat up a bit.
  • Make little throw pillows by hand out of  4 or 5 in squares of  2 pieces of material sewn right sides together then turned so right side is out.  Just like you did the big cushions. Stuff. and  hand stitch closed.
This sofa will be either sitting on the floor with no legs or close to the floor with spool legs. The dolls will love it because their legs don't bend and they can sit well in it without a foot stool.

Enjoy, Have fun.

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