Dress Up Bin

One of Gianna's big Christmas presents was a 

DIY Dress Up Bin. I love.love.love how it turned out.

My wonderful husband build, with a little help from Ana-White!

You can find the plans, building material list, approx. 

cost of materials, etc on Ana-White.com. Just search

'dress up'. 

I painted mine with left over paint from Gianna's Birthday Kitchen

and used my Cricut to cut out the letters. 

I also added two hooks, to keep hats, jewerly and other accessories!

The fun part was finding odds & ends to put in the dress up bin!

The 'bin' part is perfect to hold all those extra stuff you can't hang up!

I bought a few things from The Dollar Tree; a tutu, princess slippers,

crown, a clown tie (to dress up as a business man), and jewelry. 

I found a few good things (old costumes, mostly) at Goodwill, Craigslist and

 Garage Sales. It's a bit late now, but I picked out a few old costumes from

the clearance section at Walmart and Target. You can't beat $2 for a pretty

princess dress! 

Of course, I had to make a few things too! An apron/chef hat and, my 

favorite, the doctor coat! This week Walgreen's has BOGO Free

on some toys, including a great doctor's set! Talk about a cheap gift :-)

When Gianna's a bit older, and can really appreciate it, I'll make her

some beautiful princess gowns to add to her dress up bin! 

Photo courtesy of HomadebyJill

I can't wait to see her playing with all her new dress up clothes and 

accessories. I'm positive she'll love it!!

Upcycling Infant Sleepers into Doll Clothes

Gianna is really getting into playing with her dolls. Of course, my mom

has to spoil her for Christmas and get her an American Girl Bitty Baby!

I have one from when I was little and it's getting a little worn out. 

I'm glad I have it though, because that means I can make clothes 

for her baby as Christmas presents! 

While browsing Pinterest the other day I found this great 

tutorial, from Obsessively Stitching, on taking a infant sleeper and

 turning it into a doll sleeper!  It's very easy to do!

I started with a sleeper that I didn't care about and went to work. 

The snaps were a bit difficult to cut around, it would definitely be 

easier if I had zipper sleepers but for some reason we have none!

I also picked a  sleeper that was newborn size, so the neck/collar

area would not need to be sized down. 

Overall, it was really easy to do. Plus, dolls (and their mommies!)

aren't really picky on how perfect their clothes are made. That makes

it easier, small mistakes can be overlooked ;-)

I had to take a morning picture of
G and her baby! The outfit was then
whipped of her bitty baby and put with
in the present stash. She won't remember,
right?!