Kit's room

So for her birthday we got my daughter a longed-for American Girl doll. I think these are just very expensive, but we've both enjoyed some of the books. And my girl really wanted one and it was lovely to be able to get the doll for her.

Anyway, one of my concerns was where to keep the doll. They're big -- 18" tall. Most kids I've seen with them keep them on top of some surface -- a dresser or a bookcase or something -- but she doesn't have that furniture in her room. So we decided to use the 3' space at the end of her bed as Kit's room, a place for her to keep the doll and accoutrements and to play with her.


The only problem with this idea was that the door to the attic is on the facing wall so we had to be able to access it. Also, because the space is so small we wanted as few obstructions as possible -- i.e., no legs. So we made a deep shelf out of plywood and hinged the supports. So when we want to get into the attic the table folds down.


We can even still hang up her play tent when the table is folded out of the way. In use, the table is fine for putting the bed on, dressing the doll, etc. It's not sturdy enough to lean on or draw at -- there's too much play in the hinges. I think if we decided it needed to be stronger we'd think about putting fold-down legs just in the front corners.

You get a peak here at some of the clothes I made for Kit. The Frannie dress pattern for girls includes a version for an 18" doll; that's my favorite thing I made so far.