We make furniture for dolls ourselves: armchair, fireplace, ottoman

In a cozy dollhouse, everything should be beautiful and definitely comfortable for the beloved dolls who live in it.
In this article, the News Portal “Vtemu.by” has prepared several more photos and videos of master classes on a puppet theme especially for the youngest readers of our portal.

It is not always possible to purchase a variety of doll supplies, furniture and accessories in toy stores. Some people don’t have enough money to make this kind of purchase, while others fundamentally don’t consider it necessary to buy ready-made doll items if, if desired, they can be made independently from scrap materials.

The news portal “Vtemu.by” fully supports those who love and know how to create amazing things with their own hands from ordinary scrap materials, which are found in large quantities in each of our homes.

So let's get started...

DIY real armchair for Barbie

In the toy market, the most valued are working miniature models of real human everyday objects: cars, airplanes, clothes, etc. The smaller the models, the more difficult they are to make. Let's try to create such an exclusive piece of furniture with our own hands.

To make doll upholstered furniture, you need to prepare:

thick cardboard 1-1.5 mm thick;
plain paper;
foam cardboard (0.5 cm thick) or corrugated cardboard (0.3 cm thick);
tube with a diameter of 1.5-2.5 cm from any material. You can use an old marker or a cardboard thread tube;
fleece or thin foam rubber 0.3-0.8 cm thick;
upholstery fabric. It is better to choose calico or staple, so that it is better saturated with glue;
PVA glue and “moment”;
scissors, knife;
ruler, pencil.

Making a real chair step by step

Make drawings of the parts on paper and cut them out.

Cut out the details of the chair according to the drawings. Glue four rectangles of foam board or six of corrugated cardboard together. This will be the base of the chair, the seat. Then glue the back and front of the chair, cut out of thick cardboard, with your own hands. Secure the armrest tubes. Then, after pasting them with paper, they will hold up well, but for now they can be lightly “basted” with pieces of tape.

Cut out several strips of corrugated cardboard, 1 cm wide and equal to the length of the tubes, and place them in a stack under the roller, covering the layers with glue. Determine the number of layers according to location. Cover the armrest first with thin paper and then with fleece or foam rubber.

Cover the chair with fabric. To do this, cut out pieces of material according to the same drawings, but adding a little (1-1.5 cm) in length and width for the hem.

Cover the back (removable) for the chair with your own hands, first with foam rubber on one side, and then with fabric on all sides.

Install the backrest in the chair. It can be glued to a stationary backrest, or it can be left collapsible.

Make the cushion for the chair in the same way as the backrest.

This is how the royal chair turned out, made with your own hands for your favorite doll.

Chair from a box

The technique for making this upholstered furniture with your own hands is similar to the diagram described above, only this chair is not a model of the real one, and therefore the base for it is easier to make. It consists of a piece of foam rubber, cut according to patterns, 1-2 cm thick and a small box. These parts also need to be covered with a beautiful fabric and then connected.

From a rectangular piece of foam rubber that matches the dimensions of the box, we cut out a pillow with our own hands and drape it with fabric. If you can find a long enough and narrow box, you can get a chic sofa for a doll.

What will you need?

Scheme of a soft ottoman

To make a bean bag chair for a child, you will need to purchase the following materials:

two types of fabric for covers;
zippers;
filler.

As a rule, homemade children's furniture is made bright and colorful, because this is the option that the baby will like. It is also important that the chairs are in harmony with the interior of the room. As for the material itself, it is important that it can withstand active children's fun. You can use leatherette, furniture or upholstery fabric. If you want, you can even take the skin.

The material for the inner cover should be light, breathable and smooth.

Some needlewomen have found a simple option - old unnecessary duvet covers. Regarding zippers, it is worth saying that it is undesirable to use metal ones, because a child can easily get hurt by them. They must match the color of the outer case.

Filler for an upholstered chair

Expanded polystyrene, or rather, balls made from it, is perfect as a filler. They are light, soft, non-toxic and fill the inside of the bag well. Thus, sitting in the chair will be very comfortable.

Chair made from a plastic bottle

The desire to make furniture for a dollhouse is often stopped by a lack of materials. Of course, few people have furniture boards, wooden blocks and springs in their apartment. However, miniature furniture does not require such real details. Half-liter plastic bottles are found in every home and can be used not only as containers..

If they are cut in a certain way, they can turn out to be extremely original chairs. In order to give them a presentable look, you can sheathe or cover the edges of the plastic with a beautiful braid. Next, you need to sew two pillows with your own hands and fill them with some kind of filler. One of them will be the seat, and the other the back.

Wicker chair

You will need the following materials for work:

Cardboard.
Needle.
Wire.
Twine (can be replaced with regular yarn).
Sponge for washing dishes.

In order to make such a cozy wicker chair for a dollhouse, you need to follow the given algorithm:

Cut the back of the chair from a piece of cardboard.
Make a hole along the edge using a needle.
Arm yourself with pieces of wire, insert them into the holes, first folding them in half.
Using twine or yarn, weave the top.
When everything is ready, secure the thread by bending the wire.
Weave the bottom, also securing it with wire to the end.

Important! Make sure that the chair does not wobble.

Weave a twine or wool braid of the same color and cover the curved wire with it to decorate it.
Make them with the same wire for the chair legs.
Arm yourself with a thin piece of dishwashing sponge, cover or cover it with a fabric of a suitable color and place it on a wicker chair.

Your DIY wicker chair for a doll is ready!

Important! In a similar way, you can make a table, bench and other pieces of furniture for dolls.

Toilet paper chair

To do this job, we need a cardboard tube that remains from a roll of toilet paper. The manufacturing scheme is the same as in the previous version, only in this case we will not be able to make armrests. Therefore, miniature furniture will be more like an ottoman with a back.

Cut the tube into the desired shape and cover it with fabric. Make a bag, fill it with filling and put it inside the tube to make a seat.

Crib for doll baby

Barbie or Monster High are grown-up girls, so it makes sense that they could have a small child. It also requires some kind of hand-made furniture. For example, a crib.

There is a very simple option for making a cradle for little Baby - a crib made from matchboxes. You can use popsicle sticks for the backs. Glue two boxes together at the ends and cover them with colored paper. Glue the sticks and paint them. The crib is ready.

Materials and tools for work

There is no need to weld or nail anything. You will need a minimum of materials and not much time.

Three pairs of Japanese chopsticks – if you have them, you don’t need to buy them specially; you can replace them with barbecue skewers or just even twigs;
Good sharp knife.
Thick threads and “Moment” type superglue.
Cardboard, maybe colored.
Shreds for decorating the seat.

That's all, actually. This is an approximate option; you can use everything that dad has on the mezzanine, balcony or garage - and, of course, your imagination.

Busy dads can, of course, if they have the time and desire, build for their beloved daughter a structure that fully corresponds to an adult swing, but in miniature. You shouldn't interfere with them. But for the time being, you can make a more simplified version from what is at hand.

Kitchen set

Matchboxes are an excellent building material for doll furniture. These are ready-made drawers. You can make an entire kitchen set out of them.

Take 9 boxes and fold them in three rows, gluing them together.
Cover the perimeter with colored paper tape.
Use a stapler to make staples at the ends of the “boxes”. These will be the handles.
Make wall cabinets with your own hands from three boxes.
Glue two parts of each box together.
Paint or cover them with colored paper.
Cut the top of the box down the middle. These will be the doors. Handles on them can be drawn with a felt-tip pen or glued onto a grain of rice.

Ways to decorate a bed

Playing with dolls often turns into a real performance when your beloved Barbie is already a mother herself, and her little child needs a crib. Matchboxes with cardboard are an affordable and free material to make a doll bed. The whole process consists of three steps:

glue 2 boxes;
backs are cut out of cardboard;
For beauty, doll furniture is covered with colored paper.

Instead of cardboard, the legs can be made from popsicle sticks.

It's not much more difficult to make a bed with drawers. To do this, matchboxes are glued in 2 layers. On the side that will be used as a box, beads are glued or secured with wire. After connecting with the backs, the furniture is decorated with paper. Additionally, it is advisable to sew bedding.

A small bed can be made from cardboard sheets:

Initially, print out the proposed drawing or draw it yourself.
The parts are cut out of paper, then transferred to cardboard or plywood.
They assemble an interesting design of doll furniture.

Comment! If plywood is used in the work, the edges of the workpieces are carefully sanded so that the child does not get hurt during play.

Dresser

You can use matchboxes to construct a wonderful chest of drawers with your own hands. For this we need:

4 matchboxes;
4 beads for legs and 4 for arms;
thin fabric or colored paper;
beautiful braid;
glue, paints.

Paint all boxes inside and out with a single color paint. Glue them together and wrap them in cloth or paper. Glue the braid along the contour, 4 bead legs on the bottom, and bead handles on each drawer.

Desk

Just 4 matchboxes, three beads, thick cardboard and colored paper are needed to make a stationery table or desk with your own hands. Take 3 boxes and glue them together with their flat sides. Cover them around the perimeter with colored paper.

Cover the fourth box with the same paper, which will serve as a second support for the tabletop. The width of a matchbox is exactly equal to the height of a stack of three identical boxes. Decorate drawers by sewing beads as handles.

All that remains is to glue the cardboard tabletop on top and the desk for the doll schoolchild is ready.

Manufacturing instructions

Children's ottoman
How to sew a children's ottoman in the shape of a bag with your own hands?

Pouf patterns

The procedure is as follows:

Make two patterns on paper: one for the inner cover, the other for the outer one.
Lay out the templates on the material and secure with sewing pins, adding one and a half centimeters to the seams.
Place the shapes on top of each other and sweep them away.
Zigzag the edges using a machine and sew the two parts together.
Secure the zippers.
Make a funnel out of paper and pour foam balls through it.

It’s better to make two or three outer covers at once so that they can be changed for washing and updating the interior. This variety will surely be appreciated by your children.

Additional removable covers can be made

It is not necessary to sew a zipper on the inner cover. After filling in the filler, you can simply sew up the hole. But the outer cover must have a clasp so that it can be removed.

The chair should not be tightly filled. It is better to fill the balls to about 70% of the volume. Then it will be soft to sit in, and the pouf will take the shape of your body.

You can make a bag from a plain fabric and attach (sew/glue) a colorful applique of some cartoon character on top. A chair with a hanger (top handle) can be easily moved to other rooms or stored if it is not needed now.