Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Inspiration re-ignition !


Current Mood : Eager for a picnic.




In case you’ve ever wondered if those ‘food tents’ they sell at Dollar Tree are good for dolls, well, they kinda are. It’d be great for a doll picnic pavilion, if the dolls are small and sit low. The top of the frame hits MH heads if they’re in the red Coffin Bean chair or the School playset bleachers. And I picked the smallest dolls to sit on those things ! It’d be even better if you can prop up the tent with straws or similar cylinders, but as-is, a picnic on the grounds would be the best. Guess I should have tested it with the lunch/ picnic tables instead of the bleachers. Ah, well. The tents really are cute ! Especially for a dollar. I also have the orange hibiscus print one. I think Dearest Son’s gonna snag the blue one for his Ponies.


As you can guess, we hit DTree today, but I mostly bought snacks and some household goodies. They make a generic Febreeze, which I just today discovered. Their Magic Eraser is OK, in that it did better than plain water at cleaning up my Arena surface, but I’ve never used the name-brand to compare them to. My bag of Tootsie Roll Pops had a new flavor – Pomegranate – that I really liked ! So I’ll probably never see it again, but I’ll know what the label color is, just in case.


Once home, I found that the fabric scraps I’d ordered from Nevada Crafts Supply on Etsy had arrived. I’d ordered three ‘Pay It Forward’ packs of 24 scraps – 20c each with combined shipping of six bucks, which I thought would be a fun gamble. It was ! While they weren’t in the hand-sewn bags the ad mentioned, the baggies did include ribbons, lace, and trim that wasn’t – and some stickers !


I loved my order, but I do have to mention that these really are scraps. Most are very small, maybe three to four inches square. Luckily for me, my three each contained many of the same fabrics, in different size scraps, so if I want to make a MH skirt out of the cherry-print micro-corduroy, thanks to ordering three bags, I’ll have enough. Of the 72 scraps total, maybe ten were unique, another ten prints were in two of the bags, and the rest were in all three. I’m glad it worked out that way, and feel my $6.60 was well-spent. But aside from quilters, doll sewists, budget-strapped teachers, or applique aficionados, I don’t think these scraps would be big enough for most crafters. I do recommend their customer service and quality fabrics. Even the prints I don’t usually go for still fill me with possibilities !


I had a blast draping and fitting the various pieces to numerous dolls. For sheer entertainment value, that was worth six bucks right there ! Maybe after using a few, I can work up the courage to go near the Japanese fabrics and do more than just stroke them like kittens…

2 comments:

  1. I haven't seen the food tents at our store. I wonder if you could sew in a "doorway" and make a camping tent out of them for dolls?

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    1. Ours had 'em in with the Luau party stuff, which I thought was odd. Only reason I knew DTree had 'em was I read their ads online, otherwise, I'd have skipped right past them.

      Shouldn't be too hard to put in a door - just cut the shape out, reinforce the 'frame' and the 'door' with some stitches, and maybe add craft foam or cardboard to give the door some substance. I'd probably cut on the floral side instead of the net one. It's a good idea that I may have to steal ! (grin)

      Hope your weekend is stellar !

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