doll cradle + bedding

Donated to the silent auction at the kiddo's school:

 Birds & Branches flannel doll quilt

 

Tufted flannel mattress

 

Pillow and pillowcase

 

Refinished vintage cradle with leather insets

Yay! It sold!

You can see a previous vintage doll cradle project here. I might make this an annual thing. ;)

p.s. want to see some more detail? click a photo to see a larger version.

crimes of crafting: doll faced pillow

Welcome to a new feature: Crimes of Crafting. In Crimes of Crafting, I'll share some of the ferociously strange craft projects I find abandoned at thrift stores, or in craft books from decades ago.

Like this haunted doll face pillow.

I can't imagine someone thinking that a doll face crocheted into a massive pink ruffle would be beautiful (especially when that doll face is creepy and the eyes are all iris, no white), but I can't take issue with the craftsmanship. The crochet is flawless.

 Some little girl with a ruffly pink 1970s bedroom probably got this from her sweet grandma. Likely it was inadvertently the source of many odd nightmares. 

I spotted this at the Village a couple of weeks ago, priced at $4.99. It wasn't with the Halloween stuff, either, but over in the normal housewares section, in case you're looking to coordinate with your coffin coffee table.

a doll cradle for a birthday girl

Aack. You'll have to forgive me; I neglected to take a before shot. I got this doll cradle home and started work on it that same evening, when the dark made it impossible to get decent photographs.

We discovered it at a resale store a couple of miles from our house, actually left it behind, and then returned and picked it up when I couldn't stop thinking about it. It was too sweet to leave behind.

Here's the cradle the kiddo and I found, after being scrubbed clean, rubbed with butcher block oil (food-safe, therefore baby-safe), and repaired, with new hardware in a couple of spots.

I also added on these little wooden bird cutouts (painted turquoise, then glued and nailed in place) to cover some places that needed covering.

The old screw eye holes didn't hold the hardware in place tightly enough, and the cradle basket scraped on the bottom support board, so I drilled new, lower holes and filled/covered the old ones. The bluebirds cover the places on the inside where the screw eyes had begun to poke through.

One end of the cradle, so you can see the side supports. U bolts on the side supports connect with screw eyes on the cradle basket to make the cradle rock; I replaced the nuts with cap nuts (also called "acorn nuts") to make them a little safer and prettier.

With the bluebird flannel mattress in place. I pulled sweet fabrics from my stash to make the bedding feminine but not overtly girly (no pink here!).

With the "Celebrations" fabric pillowcase covering the green pillow. (The fabric features butterflies, frogs in party hats, happy women and girls in birthday cake hats, etc. Click to zoom.)

The little doll quilt incorporates all three fabrics: celebrations on the front, green on the back, with bluebirds for binding.

The cradle and bedding set were given to my kiddo's little friend as a birthday gift this afternoon, and for such a simple gift, it was a big hit. Happy birthday, cutie! I hope every one is just as happy as this one.


p.s. you can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that.


Linking up to:

Simple Design's Thrift Haul
Mop it Up Mondays
Thrift Share Monday
So You Think You're Crafty's I'm Crafty party
My RePurposed Life's Catch as Catch Can