DIY A Vanity Chair for Barbie

The finished vanity chair.

       Generally speaking, vanity chairs or stools do not have arms attached and should be neatly tucked under or very close to a vanity table when not in use. The project here for making a vanity chair is a very old-fashioned one.

        Toy manufactures now often 'suggest' a printed vanity on the walls of dollhouses. Buy when it is produced for a doll to sit in, the vanity table and chair are usually made from plastic. 

       I've made a vanity chair here for our family's dollhouse using recycled materials - discarded cardboard and a velvet blouse that was no longer fit for wearing. I prefer the soft textures and unique quaintness found in handmade doll furnishings. 

Supply List:

• bread crumb box measuring approximately 3 1/2 inches across (The size of a barbie doll's chair seat.)
• masking tape
• foam for upholstery
• tacky white glue
• four matching buttons
• long needle 
• dental floss
• velvet or some other upholstery fabric 
• hot glue gun and glue 

Photographs of Step-by-Step Process:

Pictured above is an example of "how" the bread crumbs
 box is cut to craft a vanity chair for Barbie.

        First, remove the label and clean out the recycled tube container. I chose to use a bread crumb container because it best fit our smaller Barbie and Fashionista dolls. The circumference of this tube is 3 1/2 inches for the resulting seat and this is the size needed for our standard play dolls. 

       Cut a tall arch for the back of the chair's seat. Measure from the bottom up approximately 1 1/2 inches for the seat "legs" and bottom. The height of the seat will be increased slightly by a foam cushion. Use the plastic lid to cover the seat cushion's hole. Tape it down

Left and Right you can see how the upholstery foam is measured against the cardboard tube.

 

      Cut the foam to fit the front cushion and seat bottom. This may be roughly cut; it will not ultimately show after the chair is finished.

       Cut a cushion cover for the seat. Stuff it with the foam and stitch the openings shut. Stitch on braid or lace trimmings if you desire. Set the seat cushion aside while you proceed to tuft the front of the chair.

 

Left, the holes are pierced into the cardboard. Center the dental floss is sewn with the buttons into
 the front side of the chair through the backside  to make tufts. Right the tufts on the front are shown.

 

       Pole holes into the backside of the chair where you would like to create tufts for the back, see the photo above to understand where I have placed these. Heat up the glue gun, cut a rough size piece of fabrid from the upholstery of choice to wrap the tufted front of the chair. Glue this on the backside covering the front cushion. See photo above. 

       To sew the tufts, thread the needle with dental floss and then sew it through the buttons and into covered foam cushion all the way to the back side of the chair through the precut holes. Do this for each button looping the floss from back to front and front to back. Use masking tape to hold the floss in place at the back side of the chair. 

The back covering of the chair is now ready to be glued  onto the back to cover up the
wrapping and tufting. You will need a hot glue gun and glue for this.

       To finish the upholstered chair, cover a backside panel that has been cut to the exact same measurement of the front from a separate piece of cardboard with the same fabric. Glue fabric to this piece around the edges and to the inside face where the fabric ends will not be seen. Now use hot glue gun to adhere the back finished panel to cover the backside of the chair. Glue on the seat cushion and cut and finish the lengths of a chair duster to hide the bottom half of the tube. 

       If you wish, you could glue on three or four beads to the very bottom of the chair for legs. But, I have not yet elected to do this.

Doll comparison to size of this finished vanity chair.

        Above you can see the finished chair for our eleven inch doll's vanity table. See how her size is compared with the final chair. This vanity chair is slightly smaller than a ordinary side chair used to couple with a sofa. It also has no arm rests. If I chose to, I could make a similar chair with arms and feet to go with a Barbie sized couch. Maybe I will post something like this in the future and use a fabric that will lend itself to a tighter, more tailored appearance.