Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Here's to a little girl's smile...

So, I took a couple days off to work on a little project.  It's really nothing fantastic, but it sure did make one very special little girl smile.

Disclaimer:  Let it be known that I am neither an upholsterer, nor an interior decorator.  I just like to crate things and rearrange furniture.  Nothing you see on this blog is professional quality.  It's just for fun...  Oh -- and I'm not a professional photographer, either.

That being said, if you are a professional upholsterer, you may want to look away.  This blog post contains graphic images.


A Barbie Sofa

Items you will need:
A shoe box
duck tape
hot glue & glue gun
2 old kitchen towels
a little fiberfill


Step One:

Take an old shoe box, and cut it into the shape of a sofa.  I took mine apart at the side seams, and they naturally created the arms of the sofa for me.  Duck tape the seams so the sofa frame will stay stable.



Next cover the entire sofa frame with duck tape.  I used black to make it look like a black leather sofa, but Walmart has Duct tape in Zebra, Cheetah, and Neon colors, too. That would be fun!


When the entire frame is covered, go back and trim excess pieces of tape.


Cut sections of fabric  the length and width you need to form a seat cushion 
- I used an old dish towel to look like chenille - but you can certainly use any fabric you have.
You can sew this, but since the Barbies aren't actually that hard on their furniture, I chose to hot glue all my seams.  Hot glue the length, and one end. 



Fill with a small amount of fiber fill, and hot glue the other end closed. 
 Then hot glue directly to the bottom of the sofa.


 Repeat the process for the back cushion and two arms.


Once all the pieces are attached, it will look like this.
One last assembly step:  I took a left over block of 2x4 that happened to fit perfectly, and hot glued it to the base of the sofa.  Then I covered it with black tape, too.  But I forgot to take a picture of that.


With another old dish towel, I made two pillows 


And a sofa throw. 


I didn't know a 10 year old girl could squeal that loudly!  She loves it!  And to think, all it took was a box, some duck tape, a couple of old dish towels, and a block of wood...

These are the days I love what I do!  
They may not be pretty, but the smile on my daughter's face sure was!

Until next time, friends,

Only By His Grace,

Billie

2 comments:

  1. How darling! I'm sure she's enthralled by having a sofa for her Barbie's. Very creative!

    Pat

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very precious, she can save this for her children!

    ReplyDelete