DIY doll crafts

Every girl had her favorite toys as a child. A special place was usually given to dolls. They made houses for them, sewed various outfits, and created accessories.

Making crafts for dolls with your own hands allows you not only to save on toys, but also to develop creative thinking. To make doll furniture, clothes and accessories you will need available materials that can be found in any home and a little imagination.

What is suitable for crafts?

Depending on the desired result, there are many ways to make mini furniture and accessories. You can use a variety of available tools that everyone can find at home:

Old CDs.
Carton boxes.
Foam sponges and more.

If the upcoming work requires a large number of details, it is better to create a sketch or drawing of the future work in advance.

Rules for sewing clothing items

Sewing clothes for dolls is not at all difficult; it takes little time and requires only fabric, a needle and thread and a little patience. In most cases, it is easiest to sew such small things by hand, especially if you are just learning this simple skill. To sew miniature clothes for Barbie, you should start by taking measurements. They are needed to make the dress or skirt easy to put on. Before you start making beautiful clothes, it’s worth remembering a few rules:

Any doll is created in the likeness of a human body, so things need to be sewn taking this factor into account.
Before work, take measurements, think about a comfortable neck so that the child can easily put on and take off the item without damaging anything.
Choose comfortable clasps, especially if small children play with the doll.
You don't have to buy new fabric from the store. Most projects require very little material, so just rummage through your closets to find old unwanted items that you can use to create doll clothes.

Knowing these rules, you can easily create beautiful accessories for Barbie with your own hands and delight little princesses with the addition of a doll’s wardrobe.

Crafts for Barbie

The Barbie doll differs from others in that she is a very kind and sympathetic girl. She has many friends, loves the color pink, has a big house and has different talents.

First you need to decide what temperament the doll will have and what its goals in life are. She can be a ballerina, a traveler, a housewife, a doctor, and so on.

Then you need to come up with clothes, furniture and accessories suitable for this profession.

If the doll is a future traveler, then she will need an umbrella, comfortable clothes, a backpack or a suitcase. These items are easy to make yourself. You can make a suitcase out of cardboard, for clothes you need thick fabric, and for an umbrella, take the one that is sold with a cocktail.

Beads, sparkles or stickers are suitable for decoration.

Crafts made from cardboard and cardboard boxes

Ready-made boxes, as well as cardboard and thick paper will be a good basis for crafts intended for dolls. Using these materials you can make various items for the game.

Most often this is furniture and various large household items. To decide, just look around you. Anything that has a clear square or rectangular shape and also does not require load during the game will be a suitable solution.

For work we use materials that are safe for children's games.

Laptop

It is impossible to imagine modern children's games without invented digital technology. Children, looking at their parents, introduce mobile phones, tablets, and laptops into their play routine. This technique is easy to make from thick paper or cardboard.

To do this, you can use a ready-made diagram, which you just need to print on a sheet of cardboard or thick paper:

All that remains is to cut out the outlines, make the necessary folds, and glue the parts in the right places.
If you used a color printer for printing, then no further action is required. The resulting item is immediately ready for play.
If necessary, a picture on the screen or an image of the keyboard can be drawn or printed and pasted additionally.

A laptop for a doll can also be made from matchboxes. A pair of empty elements are held together by gluing with a wide strip of flexible cardboard. This element will allow you to open and close the computer lid. After this, the game item is decorated as desired.

Plate

Girls are often interested in everything related to the kitchen. Therefore, they strive to make this room with equipment that copies the real thing on a par with the popular beds and sofas:

First of all, girls usually ask for a stove for their doll kitchen. It won't be difficult to do this thing. The easiest way is to prepare a ready-made box of suitable shape and size for work.
Then all that remains is to create decor that reliably imitates the appearance of the real object.
For decoration you can use foil and plasticine.
Burners are made in the upper part.
You can cut out the oven door in the center of the box.
You can make a shelf inside.
If it is difficult to create all this, then you can simply use pictures, preferably in a modern three-dimensional manner.

If you can’t find a suitable box for the base, you can make it yourself from cardboard. You can follow the logic of making a similar item or use a product template of suitable sizes.

Fridge

By analogy with a stove or computer, you can make a refrigerator. It is appropriate to use a ready-made box for the base of the item. Tea packaging or another version of a similar format is suitable. The lid is turned into a refrigerator door. The door can be cut to reveal the freezer compartment.

Inside, shelves are installed using strips of cardboard. The outside of the doll refrigerator can be painted with white gouache and covered with printer paper or foil.

To make the design more convincing and decorative, it is permissible to use a film with an adhesive layer, which is used to decorate real refrigerators. You can make a handle from cardboard or a match.

DIY clothes for Barbie

In addition to pink, Barbie loves turquoise and purple shades. To create a dress you will need knitted fabric, satin ribbon for straps, threads, beads, Velcro, a needle, a thimble, pins, old soap and a measuring tape.

First you need to take measurements from the doll: chest and waist circumference and measure the length of the skirt.
Make a pattern of two rectangles. One from the chest to the waist, the second from the waist to the knees.
On the wrong side, use soap or chalk to mark the seam allowances, approximately 0.5 cm.
Cut out rectangles.
Place the bodice on the doll from the wrong side, mark the darts with pins and stitch.
From the wrong side, assemble the dome of the skirt with pins.
Sew the top and bottom together.
Sew Velcro on the back.
Measure the satin ribbon straps and sew them on.

You can add a satin belt to the dress or decorate it with beads.

For walks and cool weather, you can sew a jacket. To do this you will need dark knitted fabric for the jacket, pink fabric for finishing, threads, chalk or soap, and a pattern.

The pattern can be easily found on the Internet.
Place the fabric right side inward. It is better to place the back on the fold so as not to make unnecessary seams.
Trace the pattern twice: once along the contour, the second time with a seam allowance of 0.5 cm.
Cut out the sleeves, hood, back and shelves.
Baste two shelves and the back along the shoulder seam, sew, and zigzag the edges.
Fold the cuff in half and place it under the bottom of the sleeve with the folded edge, sweep and stitch.
Sew off the hood and finish it with a zigzag.
Baste the hood from the center to the edge and stitch it.
Turn the jacket inside out and stitch the seam from the cuffs to the bottom of the front and back.
Sew ribbons to the hood.

Below on our website https://dnevnikmastera.ru we offer you to see examples of patterns and photos of finished clothes.

Application of corrugated paper

If the doll is going to do ballet, you can make her a skirt from corrugated paper with your own hands. To avoid tearing the model, make a string tie on the belt or glue a small piece of Velcro to it. Under the improvised fastener, you need to partially glue the sheet of corrugated paper together so that you can put the skirt on the doll. Such skirts often appear in the wardrobe of Monster High dolls.

Another wardrobe item made from corrugated paper and cardboard is a hat. Its appearance will depend on your imagination. The top part should be made of cardboard, and the fields should be made of corrugated paper. If desired, you can make small flowers from other colors of this elastic paper to decorate the hat.

A variety of flowers are often made from corrugated paper. Small specimens are perfect for decorating the interior of a doll's house. They are made using the same technique as regular ones, only the size changes.

This material in combination with wire is suitable for making even a Christmas tree for a doll. Balls to decorate it can be rolled from the same paper in contrasting shades.

Accessories for Barbie

Decor and crafts for Barbie dolls can be made from scrap materials. For example, create a set of jewelry. It requires beads, beads, fishing line, copper wire, pins and wire cutters.

Place three beads on the fishing line, from largest to smallest, and secure with a knot.
Take a small cardboard circle, glue beads along the contour, and a bead in the center.
Glue the pin. There should be a semicircle above the circle. This is the bow of the decoration, and at the bottom there is a loop for hanging.
Connect the pendant to the circle.
Using this principle, make a second product.

It is better to make the necklace without a clasp, because the clasps are large enough for dolls. For it you will need beads and a Hungarian elastic band. Using the same principle, you can make a bracelet. Such crafts are also suitable for Barbie double double dolls.

Crafts for plasticine dolls

Many interesting things can be made for a plasticine doll. These are mainly gaming items.

Most often, dishes and accessories for home furnishings are made from plasticine.

There is no need to try to make decorations for the doll itself. Plasticine can stain the toy, and it can be difficult to clean some parts.

Paper dolls and accessories

Paper dolls can be a good component of exciting play. Here everything is limited either by your imagination, or on the Internet you can find a large number of samples of dolls of various shapes, hair and eye colors.

Clothes for paper dolls are very easy to make. A variety of ideas can be found on the Internet, magazines or books. Rectangular grips are used for fastening to clothing.

To work you need paper, scissors, glue, colored pencils, markers or pens. The paper doll needs to be placed on a sheet and traced along the outline. It is important to outline the shoulders, waist, hips, as well as those parts on which the outfit will be “put on”.

We create jewelry

The doll, in addition to a beautiful dress, needs decorative elements. The most popular decorations for Barbie are beautiful belts that can be embroidered with beads and beads (they are also easy to make from multi-colored beads). Let's not forget about the handbag: how will our doll go for a walk without it? To make it, you can take thick felt or artificial leather, since these materials will hold their shape well. Cut out a rectangle or oval (depending on the shape of the accessory), and sew the edges.

We sew a handle to the corners - it can be made of metal, woolen threads, decorative braid, thread with beads. A felt handbag can be easily decorated with embroidery, rhinestones, beads or simple fabric flowers. It’s very easy to create such accessories for Barbie with your own hands; you don’t even need to look for patterns.

Furniture for dolls

Matchboxes, scraps of fabric, leather, wooden and plywood blanks are suitable for furniture.

Bedroom

For a bedroom set you will need a cardboard box, foil, colored paper, glue, scissors. First, you can make a dressing table.

You need to cut the cardboard box to the height of the table.
Take a piece of foil equal to the width of the workpiece. This is the future mirror.
Cut out leg space on the front. You can cover the box with self-adhesive wood-look wallpaper or paper.
Glue the foil onto a piece of cardboard and connect the mirror and tabletop.
Draw drawers. You can glue handles made of beads.

Dresser

For the chest of drawers you will need matchboxes, cardboard, colored napkins, and beads for pens.

You need to connect the matchboxes so that the “boxes” move forward.
Paste over the workpiece.
Make a table top out of cardboard.
Connect the parts together, glue the handles.

Sofa

For the sofa you will need wooden blocks, dense material that imitates upholstery (suede, velvet), liquid nails, and cotton wool.

You need to cover the armrests with material and secure them with glue.
Next, you need to put pieces of cotton wool under the seat upholstery and also cover it with material.
Connect the seat, back and armrests.

You can sew pillows from leftover fabric and knit or crochet rugs.

Decorations for dolls in tatting style.

Tatting is a version of knotted lace that is woven using shuttles. Tatting lace can be used as a trim for doll clothes, and this technique can also be used to create real independent jewelry: necklaces, bracelets, earrings. You can now find a lot of information on this type of needlework on the Internet. These include master classes, tutorials, videos, and diagrams. This is how I learned this art myself, from video master classes. However, in order to make decorations for dolls using this technique, you need to properly learn how to weave this large-sized lace, so to speak, get your hands on it. And only then move on to miniature, “micro” tatting.

The micro-tatting technique is quite complex and will take a lot of time to master, but the results are worth it!

For tatting doll jewelry, you need to select thinner threads. Dacron, polyester and silk are excellent. Very beautiful jewelry is made using lurex, but weaving with it is much more difficult. Lurex is very delicate and breaks easily. The circuits also have to be redesigned to fit small sizes. Before you get a beautiful decoration, you have to make several “trial” options, adjusting the design to the parameters of a particular doll. When creating tatting wicker jewelry, you can use beads and seed beads. With them the decoration will look more elegant. You can also use faceted Swarovski crystal beads of the smallest sizes and rhinestones in tatting style jewelry. Using the microfivolite technique, I made trim for a doll's costume and women's jewelry in the form of necklaces.

Fabric doll products

For beginners, there are many different lessons and explanations, calculations, so as not to make mistakes in cutting. Otherwise, the thing may turn out to be either very large or very small.

You also need to focus on small details and decor to make the item look realistic.

Hobbies and work

There are people who are incredibly attracted and happy by such a hobby. They enjoy paying attention to the smallest details, being the best at what they do, and showing off their talent to others.

They often conduct master classes on crafts for dolls, where they explain how and what to do, what mistakes beginners often make, etc.

Subsequently, when they become specialists in this field, they are able to open their own business and sell their own doll products.

This is very useful and profitable, since not all doll lovers are endowed with talent and can create something for their favorite toys with their own hands.

Polymer clay jewelry

Polymer clay in doll jewelry can be used to create beads, pendants or flowers for decoration. I use small polymer clay pieces to complement jewelry made using different techniques. For example, tiny roses made from baked plastic are quite durable and great for decorating miniature headbands, necklaces, and arm decorations. Miniature plastic flowers can also be used as a centerpiece in necklaces.

Mixed media jewelry

You should not limit yourself to using only one technique when creating jewelry. This is true for both doll jewelry and large “human” size jewelry. When creating a beaded necklace, nothing prevents you from using small plastic flowers you made yourself or using wire wrap using the wire wrap technique. Come up with unexpected combinations. Do something of your own, unusual, original, unforgettable!

For example, when creating jewelry for the “Venetian” doll image, I used beads, tatting elements, and embroidery. You can see this doll image in its entirety in the gallery, but here I show only one photo, which shows the neck decoration.

You can see my experiments in the field of doll jewelry in the “Jewelry for Dolls” section.