Doll Bed Mattresses: A Solution

You may remember my little dilemma from a couple of weeks ago in regards to needing mattresses for the doll beds my husband is making our daughters for Christmas. Based on my own thoughts and a couple of reader suggestions, I decided to see about buying some foam that I could cut or have cut for me to the proper size and then attempt in my own non-crafty way to cover it.

Well, that idea lasted as long as it took me to peruse the Walmart craft department. The first item I spotted (after asking a “sales associate” for direction, that is) was a package of four foam squares, intended for seat cushions. Size-wise, those might have worked if I somehow finagled them together, but at a cost of almost $12, I wasn’t willing to try it. Who knew foam cost that much??? Beside that product was a space for some thinner foam, cost of about $9, but all out of stock. I suppose I could have gone to the fabric store to check the cost of foam there, but decided to keep wracking my brain for some other idea.

The next night, I was standing in our laundry area, looking at some table place mats I had recently washed and decided that they had seen better days.

Just as I determined that they were headed for the trash, a light bulb clicked on in my brain. These were a rectangular shape that was similar to what I needed for the mattresses. Was there a way I could use them to make what I wanted? I decided to experiment.

I trimmed each of the four place mats down to the size that I needed, then hand stitched the cut side of each one to close it. I found an old, relatively fluffy towel and cut two pieces out of it that matched the size of the cut-down place mats. I stitched those three layers together – one place mat, topped by a towel rectangle, topped by the other place mat – one set of three pieces for each mattress.

Once that was done, I took some old pink fabric I had around the house and cut it to double the size of the place mat. I stitched around two sides (one side was the fold), then turned it inside out, inserted the place mat/towel configuration and just hot-glued the final side shut.

I was actually pleased with how it turned out, considering my total lack of expertise. My husband pointed out that it’s not the thickest mattress in the world, but I don’t think the dolls will be sitting up in bed in the middle of the night to complain.

Maybe touching it up with an iron would help as a finishing touch!! The doll beds are receiving their final coat of white paint, so I hope to post pictures of the completed project tomorrow.

See what others accomplished this week at Tackle It Tuesday.