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April 22, 2014

DIY American Girl Doll Bed

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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!

How to Make a Simple American Girl Doll Bed with No Sew Bedding

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

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.

DIY Doll Bed and Bedding for American Girl Doll

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

Make Your Own American Girl Doll Bed

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!

About Megan Sheakoski

Megan is the creator of Coffee Cups and Crayons, a blog full of simple fun and learning. She believes that kids’ activities don’t have to be complicated to be fun and that learning is better with play.

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Comments

  1. Anna@The Measured Mom says

    April 27, 2014 at 3:26 pm

    Well done, Megan 🙂 Reminds me of a bug house my daughter had to create for school this year. Definitely had us putting on our creative hats.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      April 27, 2014 at 8:45 pm

      A bug house sounds like lots of fun!

      Reply
  2. Londa says

    October 23, 2014 at 9:45 pm

    I used your pattern to make this bed for my granddaughter’s birthday. Thanks so much for posting this!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      October 24, 2014 at 1:24 pm

      How wonderful!!! Happy birthday to her!

      Reply
  3. colette grimard says

    May 23, 2015 at 11:36 pm

    Thanks for the idial it so lovely thanks again

    Reply
  4. Abbie says

    April 29, 2019 at 10:30 pm

    Thank you so much for this post! I remember making things for my AG doll in 3rd grade out of cardboard for a project. My one thought is, is it really sturdy enough to hold the doll long term? Thanks again!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      April 30, 2019 at 5:57 pm

      Yes! We still have it 5 years later!

      Reply

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