DIY American Girl Doll Bed

For my second grader’s Earth Day project she had to create something useful out of materials that were destined to be recycled or thrown away.  She decided to make a doll bed for her American Girl.

This DIY cardboard doll bed was easy to make and totally free since we used things we already had at home!

Homemade Doll Bed Supplies:

• corrugated cardboard (ours was from a refrigerator box)
• hot glue
• old crib sheet or leftover material
• catalog or magazine

How to Make a Cardboard Doll Bed

1. Measure and cut the cardboard.  You need two 23 inch by 13 inch pieces and sixteen 2 inch by 4 inch pieces for the base and one 12 inch by 13 inch piece for the headboard.
2. Hot glue the small pieces together along the long side so that you have 4 legs.
3. Hot glue the two 23 inch by 13 inch pieces together. They should be stacked one on top of the other.  Using two pieces makes the bed stronger.
4. Use hot glue to attach the legs to the bottom of the bed.
5. Hot glue the headboard to the end of the bed.

How to Make Doll Bed Bedding:

1. Draw a 17 inch by 26 inch rectangle on the crib sheet and cut it out with fabric scissors. This becomes the doll blanket.
2. Draw a  12 inch by 12 inch rectangle on the crib sheet and cut it out for the pillow.
3. Fold the pillow fabric in half and hot glue two sides together. We turned ours inside out like you would when you are sewing to have a smooth edge.
4. Crumple up a couple pages from the catalog and stuff inside the pillow.
5. Fold the ends under on the open side of the pillow and hot glue together

Once the glue is dry the bed is ready to play with!

She already has plans to add more accessories and even make a mattress. I love when kids can create their own toys to play with!