Doll's Bed in a Suitcase Sew Along Coming Soon!

This blog post has been a long time coming.  I first posted pictures of this project a few years back (here) and always planned to do a tutorial, but what with one thing and another, never quite got round to it.  You know how it goes.
 

The original project was made for my goddaughter, and around that time another friend requested one for her then unborn child.  I agreed, but there was no rush, I thought, because the baby wasn't even born yet.  And then I forgot, as I so often do with these things.  Roll on two years, and said child is long since born and perhaps at exactly the right age to play with this, and it again cropped up in conversation, so I thought it might be about time I did the things I promised, and give you guys a tutorial, and give Frida Betty her doll's bed-in-a-suitcase.

This suitcase is covered, has a perfectly fitting mattress, along with a fitted sheet.  It has a duvet, duvet cover, pillows, pillow cases, quilt, and blanket.  Perfect for all a doll's needs.

It's a huge project, so I thought we'd do it as a sew-along.  To get started, you'll need a couple of things - the first one being one small vintage suitcase. 

Now, it's going to be pretty hard to tell you exact measurements because it's a vintage suitcase.  And we all know they come in completely mixed sizes and shapes.  Find a small one, in as good a condition as you can manage, as the better the condition the easier the job.  Mine was approximately 35cm x 55cm.  The last suitcase I made, was possibly slightly smaller, and easier to work with as it had a plastic handle.  This had awkward slightly rusting hardware, which was a lot trickier to maneuver around.

So despite the fact that your suitcase will no doubt be a completely different style and shape, here's some really detailed instructions so you can hopefully pick up a few tips! 

This is my suitcase - as you can see, it's a little beat up and dirty.  Stitching is coming undone, and there's a little bit of rust.  But it'll do for the job.  You can see in the top picture that the handle was plastic and that was a lot easier to cover.

You'll need about 75cm each of main fabric and lining fabric (more if your suitcase is bigger, less if smaller).
You'll need glue, either mod-podge, or this awesome stuff is perfect.

But alternatively, if you want to skip this step altogether, find a case like this and follow this great tutorial on the Beautiful Mess blog here.

image courtesy of A Beautiful Mess blog.

We'll go through how to cover the suitcase in the first proper installment which we'll do on the 2nd January 2016, and we'll do every Saturday until we're done!