Doll Table & Chairs {with Fitted Tablecloth & Chair Covers}

I guest posted on The Wood Connection blog on Monday, and wanted to share this project with you here! I wanted to give my daughters a doll table and chairs set for Christmas 2011, so I was excited when I found an unfinished wood set at The Wood Connection. It was a big hit on Christmas morning! It fits the 18 inch dolls perfectly (like the American Girl dolls) but my girls have used the table with their Barbies too. 🙂 The fun thing is that they also got a big kid-sized table and chairs from their grandparents–white table and pink chairs–so I painted this doll version to match!

I started with the unfinished pieces of furniture and gave them a really good sanding to smooth out any rough edges. I primed all of the pieces with spray paint primer first. Then I spray painted the table in a glossy white and the chairs in a glossy pink. Here are a few quickie spray painting tips:

• Use primer first! Helps to even things out, helps the paint to stick better, and you end up using less paint in the long run.
• Spray several LIGHT coats, letting each coat dry completely in between. This prevents drips and globs of paint everywhere.
• You can also lightly sand in between coats to ensure a smooth finish.

I thought they were cute just painted! The nice thing about glossy paint is that it makes it easy to wipe down from those messy dolly tea parties. 😉 The beauty of an unfinished wood set is that you can completely customize the colors to match any room, plus it’s less expensive than buying a table and chairs at the store or online. It’s such a fun project!

Next I decided to fancy things up a bit and make a mini fitted tablecloth and some mini chair covers. I’m sort of a beginner sewist (is that what you call it?!?) so I was looking for simple projects that would give me good practice! 🙂 I found some cute fabric that was sort of Valentine-y (look closely, there are little hearts in the flowers) and had a lot of fun whipping up some doll-sized goodies. I love how they turned out.

I used a simple fitted tablecloth tutorial found at Smashed Peas & Carrots and added a fun pom-pom trim to the edges.

I’m just going to show you the basic steps I did to make the fitted tablecloth:

Step 1: Gather your supplies: fabric, rotary cutter, ruler.

Step 2: Measure the table and cut the fabric. I cut the fabric as a 16.5 inch square which includes seam allowances, just FYI.

Step 3: Fold up the edges of the square to create your hem. I did about a 1/4 inch hem all the way around and pinned it.

Step 4: Use a straight stitch and sew the hem on each side of the square.

Step 5: Here is the square all hemmed.

Step 6: Put the tablecloth on the table and center it. Take a corner and sort of “pinch” it together into a triangle.

Step 7: Cut the triangle off, leaving a little bit of fabric that you can sew together.

Step 8: Turn the fabric inside out and match the raw edges together.

Step 9: Sew a straight stitch on that raw edge.

Step 10: Repeat on the other 3 corners! Look how cute!

I added a pom-pom trim using a zig-zag stitch, along the edge of the fitted tablecloth. It was pretty easy and made a big difference!

For the chairs I measured from the chair back to where I wanted the cover to fall in the front of the chair, and then measured the sides as well, adding some room for the hems. I followed the same tutorial, I just modified it by only doing two fitted corners. I added some ruffles to the edges of the chair covers (I love ruffles). If you don’t know how to make ruffles just Google it, there are a plethora of ruffle tutorials out there! 🙂

The only thing left to do was to just add the play food and the dolls and we were ready to go! It’s so cute, I think I might play along too!

I have some more ideas for customizing the doll furniture:

• Use stencils to add designs to the table and chairs
• Add ribbon along the edges
• Mod Podge some scrapbook paper on the tops and sides
• Add decorative wood trim

Lots of ways to get creative! 🙂

Now for something fun—The Wood Connection is giving away a $25 dollar gift certificate to one of our readers. You will need to be able to go to the store which is located in Salt Lake City, Utah  (since they are not shipping right now).

To enter:

You must be a public follower of The Crafting Chicks (via GFC, RSS feed or email subscription) and leave a comment on this post.

Good luck!

This giveaway will end Sunday night, February 5, 2012 at midnight MST. Winner will be chosen at random and will be announced on our Facebook page Monday morning 2/6/12 as well as contacted via email. Winner has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Disclosure: The Wood Connection let me pick out the table and chairs set in exchange for the post. All opinions and text are my own, as always.