Amy’s Free Ideas
Crafts > Crafts for Adults by materials > Tissue box doll house > How to make a miniature toy sofa out of recycled materials
Crafts > Crafts for Girls > Tissue box doll house > How to make a miniature toy sofa out of recycled materials
Make the bottom cushion:
Cut some foam to fit the inside of the box. It doesn’t have to be an exact rectangle-- cut pieces to fill any gaps.
Alternative: If you don’t have foam, fold a piece of paper towel, tissue, or packing foam to fit the space.
Cut a piece of felt slightly wider than the foam, and 3 times as long. Sew or glue the felt into a tube around the foam. If your child is likely to pull the foam out of the cushion, glue or sew the ends shut, too
Cut another piece of felt long enough to wrap around the whole sofa and that is also twice as tall as the back of the sofa. Glue it around the base of the sofa so that the felt goes 1/4 inch (1 cm) below the bottom of the couch. Fold this 1/4 inch of felt to the bottom of the sofa on the front, back and both sides, and glue in place. There should now be a “tube” of felt around the cardboard sofa. Cut the felt in the 4 corners down to the cardboard frame, at the front and back of each arm of the sofa. There will now be flaps of felt in front, behind, and on both sides next to the arms of the sofa. Drape the 2 arm sections over the cardboard arms and cut off any felt that goes past the arm, along the bottom of the sofa. Pull the felt back off the arms and glue the cut off bit of felt onto the cardboard arms of the sofa to give it some padding. Glue the arm sections of the felt over this padding to form the padded arms of the sofa. Gather or bunch up some of the felt as you glue it on to make the straight felt fit the rounded shape. The arms in the photo above are finished.
Make the base of a sofa by cutting off the end of a cracker box. Any box with roughly these dimensions will work--not too narrow or wide, and will fit nicely in the house. Cut the front of the sofa short--about 1/4 inch (1 cm.) Cut the back about 2 inches tall, and then taper the sides from the back to the front to form the arms of the sofa.
Glue the felt that is in front of the sofa to the bottom of the sofa. Glue some cotton balls or extra felt to the back of the sofa for padding. Glue the strip of felt at the back onto the back of the sofa, covering the cotton ball padding. As you glue the back on, make some folds at each end of this felt to help it fit the rounded shape of the sofa.
Sofa without the bottom cushion
Finished sofa with the bottom cushion
Finished sofa with throw pillows
Cushions or throw pillows
Cut a short length of ribbon. Fold it around one or two cotton balls so that the ends overlap the length of the cushion. Sew or glue the two sides. Optional: If you don’t have cotton balls, use balled up or folded tissue or packing material.
Easy-to-Make Easy Chairs
Find bottle caps that are the same diameter as toilet paper tubes or paper towel tubes. Glue colored paper to the outside of the tube. Cut out the front of the chair to be slightly lower than the bottle cap. Cut the back of the chair in a gentle curve on each side. Put glue on the sides of the bottle caps and push them up from the bottom of the chair. A glue gun is the easiest way to glue this.
Optional: If you want to make the seats soft, glue some sort of padding on top of the bottle cap. This could be cotton balls, small bits of batting, circles of felt or bubble wrap, etc. Cut fabric in a circle that is 1/2 inch (2 cm.) bigger than the lid. Stretch the fabric across the padding and glue in 2 places that are opposite to each other. Then Glue 2 places that are between those two spots. Then gather the fabric and glue each remaining place that is not glued already Cut off any excess fabric along the bottom edge of the bottle cap. Put glue around the edges of the bottle cap that is covered in fabric, and push the cap up through the bottom of the cardboard tube.
Note: the caps need to be slightly smaller than the tube to make room for the fabric.
