Baby Doll Cradle Make-Over

For this past Christmas, I decided to make Pretty a big doll, and Santa brought her a little cradle for her doll to sleep in!

I found the cradle at a discount outlet store for a company that does monogrammed things. This store is where all the mistakes go. Poor mom of "Reese", who ordered this and it came back upside down. Oops.

I bought it with the intention of peeling off the vinyl lettering and being done with it. It was only a few days before Christmas when I realized that the letters were engraved about 1/8" down! I wasn't looking forward to sanding it down and painting over it. That's when my awesome husband said, "why don't you just put paper over it?"

Bless him!!

Technically, his idea included normal old copy paper.  But I only used it for the template, and chose a scrapbook paper for the final look.

I smooshed the copy paper into the space, then cut it out so it fit.

Then I used it to trace on the back of the scrapbook paper. I used ModPodge to stick it down and repeated it on the second side.

I also made a mattress for the cradle using some left over 1" foam and spare fabric.

I love it!

 As for the baby, I was hoping this one would replace her favorite toys and be all she played with! Not so much. Maybe when her new baby brother comes in June?

Vogue Pattern 7418

So far the only thing this baby does is sleep. Christmas morning, she opened the cradle first, since it is from Santa. As soon as she opened the "baby" it went in to the cradle and that's where it has stayed for the past 2 months. Not even joking.

Sadly, she doesn't quite fit, unless you squish her legs.

Also, a funny thing. Hero watched me make the doll while Pretty napped. He even handed me pins while cutting out the fabric (and oh my, did that take forever. "Do you want red, or blue, or purple?" with every pin!) Anyway, it wasn't until he pointed it out that I noticed I was using the same purple fabric for this doll's dress as I did for last year's Christmas doll. Hmmmm.

Pretty's birthday is next week (2 years!) and I'm planning on making a blanket and pillow for the bed. Maybe for next Christmas, she'll get another dress for the baby. . . that's not the same purple?