A dolly carry bed....sewing with what I have for Christmas!

I'm quite proud of this project - I remember these from when I was a little girl and they were such fun, not to mention easy to pack away and washable :)
This one is going under our Christmas tree for our 15mth old daughter and considering she has been trying to put a dolly in there as I was making it I think it will be a hit LOL

I originally started by searching the internet for patterns and/or a tutorial but I'm just not the person the fiddle around reading step by step (and some of those tutes were very long) so I decided to wing it.....The first thing I changed for my own sewing sanity was to make the base rectangle not oval, much easier to do measurements and work out handle placements etc.

Next came the sides - I had a 13 inch by 8 inch rectangle so that meant two 38 inch long strips of material (made to the height you wanted the sides), it was easy to pin it around the base and sew folding the corners in as I went. I hid my handles between the two pieces of fabric for the sides and then top stitched them in.
I used pieces of felt to sandwhich in between the side fabrics to give the walls a stiffer shape and then did some light diamond quilting too which also helped with standing the sides up :)
Other patterns used wadding but I was working with what I had rather than buying new things for the project. Another thing that helped the sides was using a very stiff cotton fabric almost like a drill..........

All the fabrics I used were vintage/thrift shop finds as was the lace trim etc.In fact the blanket was a re-purposed vanity table cloth - so cute with it's embroidery.

I pinched the corners together once it was finished and sewed them down to create a more closed in' basket' feel :)
It really is amazing what you can do with a sewing machine, a bit of thinking and some fabric!!!!!
All up I think it cost me less than $6.00 too.

xxK