Dec 4th: Gingerbread Dollhouse pt.1

I hope you had a good start into the week! To ensure that you won't have to spend your whole day crafting, today's project will be part one out of three.
Today, we'll start making a gingerbread house. But not one that can be eaten - it'll be all sewn and glued, ... and it'll make a nice gift for any little girl in your family (or just for yourself).
I've seen a few of these houses lately and I really love how convenient they are. On the one hand, they sure make a great dollhouse (if large enough) and when playtime is over, everything fits neatly inside the house until next time.
Mine measures about 10 cm in height, that's why the sides look a bit chubby. The taller your house is, the higher the percentage of space on the inside since the pieces will be a bit more flat. If you take the measurements in cm like I did, the house could also be a nice way to hide a little present or money.

So without further ado, let's get started!

Templates & Arrangement

You will need:

Templates
Brown fabric (I use fleece but really anything will do)
A sewing machine
Cardboard (plastic sheets work as well, just make sure they're strong enough to keep their shape and not aren't too hard to cut)
Stuffing
(Optional: ribbon and buttons to close it)
Ribbons, other (non-fraying) fabric, buttons, etc. for decorating
All purpose glue
A bit of fantasy and lots of fun

 

How it's done:

Well, as I already said, this project takes a bit more time than the others so far, so I wanted to split it up. Today, we'll concentrate on preparations mainly.

1. Bring the templates to the desired size and print them out. If you're like me and don't like puzzling the pieces on different sheets together, the templates have angles and relative measurements to make it easier for you to adjust them to your needs by constructing them on paper with ruler and pencil.
2. Cut out the template pieces and trace them onto your cardboard. Cut those out (I find it helpful to use a box cutter).
3. Take your cardboard pieces and glue some stuffing on. Just a coat on both sides so that it's a bit more fluffy. Don't overdo it here, we'll need the pieces to fit inside the construction in the next two steps.

Stuffing glued to one side of four pieces

4. Arrange the cardboard pieces on the brown fabric as shown in the picture above. The space between the cardboard pieces is about 0.5 cm on each corner they meet (if measurements are in cm like I did them). Trace the construction, leaving about half a cm around the outer edge too. If you're not sure whether your "stuffed" cardboard pieces will fit inside, rather leave more space between the pieces and on the edges.
5. Cut out the t-shaped construction, leaving an additional space around the edges for seam allowance. Cut a second one just like the first.
And that's it for today!


I hope you have a nice time. Stay crafty!