How to Make a Cot for Dolly!

Elise is a lucky girl: she has lots of toys but she particularly loves her dolly, whom she has named Baby Wawa (apparently the doll cries a lot)!

Baby Wawa has everything done for her. Elise dresses her, feeds her, baths her and takes her out and about in a stroller. But Baby Wawa did not have a bed. Until today.

Here's Baby Wawa all snuggled up in the finished cot:

If you'd like to make a cot similar to this, here's what you'll need:

1. A fairly big shoebox
2. Some pretty paper (use a thickish paper so it doesn't tear)
3. Two different materials (1 for the cot base and another for the duvet and pillow case)
4. An old, cheap pillow full of foam
5. Scissors
6. Needle and thread (if you're like me)... if you're super organised, then a sewing machine!

Here are the steps:

1. Cover the inside and outside of your shoe box with the colourful, patterned paper and glue it down. Be sure to glue all the edges as well - you don't want them to tear. I chose to cover the long sides and base as well but leave a pretty scalloped edge along the shorter sides.

Step 1

2.  Tear open your cheapy pillow. I bought mine from a pound shop (here in Singapore, we have DAISO which is a Japanese shop where everything is just $2). I'm not interested in the pillow itself, but the foam that's inside it. Take that out and cut a piece to size that would make a nice mattress for the cot. 

Step 2

3. Next, take the material you want for your 'mattress'. I chose a spotty material. Turn it inside out and fold it around your 'mattress'. Pin it so that the material fits around it neatly and snugly and then sew the edges together, leaving one side open.

Step 3

4. When three edges have been sewed up, remove the foam mattress, turn the material pocket the right way round, reinsert the foam mattress and then you just have the final edge to sew up. I find hand stitching fun (albeit time consuming) but you might prefer using a sewing machine!

Step 4

4. Now, take your second piece of material and measure out a 'duvet' size piece of material (you'll need two identical pieces of material) making sure you cut out a slightly bigger piece than you need to take account of the inner hem / stitching. I used a pretty floral print with the same pink as the mattress base.

5. Turn your material inside out and pin it. Stitch up three sides leaving a longer edge open.

Steps 4-5

6. Turn the 'duvet' the right way round and insert the foam. Sew up your open edge. 

Make sure the foam is flat; you don't want it bunching up at one end after your child has played with it for the hundredth time! I actually pinned the foam to the duvet from the outside and then sewed some sequin ribbon across the duvet to a) make the duvet look prettier and b) to secure the foam inside and stop it from moving or bunching up. You can see the pins in the photo below before I sewed the sequin ribbon across. 

Step 6

7. Put it all together and then watch your child enjoy learning about putting their dolly to bed every night and waking them up every morning for breakfast!!

Step 7

Love and hugs,
Rebecca and Elise x