Catalina Mouse and Phoebe Fawn have a regularly scheduled teatime: mid-afternoon, every third Wednesday. They drink raspberry leaf tea, eat tasty little sandwiches, and tell each other all their news; like about the current melody Phoebe is composing on her pan flute, and what kinds of nuts Catalina has recently foraged. They also catch up on the latest Village gossip, such as who made that giant fallen leaf and twig maze in the Lodge Field. (It was Arthur and Lucas.)

Catalina and Phoebe usually sit on cushions on the floor for teatime, and while floor cushions can be perfectly nice, the friends decided one day that a pair of comfy armchairs might be better. Since Hazel Village animals are very capable, and always consider themselves up for a project, they decided to have a crafting afternoon!

In this blog post, we will show you two different methods of making an armchair for your Hazel Village friends. This armchair pattern is designed around a Hazel Village one-doll box – that is, the box in which we will pack up your order if you purchase a single doll or animal on our website. 

Our shipping boxes are 100% recycled and recyclable, so their environmental impact is already low, but repurposing a box as a delightful item of dolly furniture is a wonderful way to practice sustainability!

Before we get started, here are a couple of things to note:

1) The easiest way of making this box chair would be to simply cut out the pieces, assemble it, and paint it. We decided not to demonstrate that method, but it is certainly available to you if you'd prefer a simpler crafting option. You can also simplify by choosing to forego the feet. 

2) If you would like to try this craft but you don't have a one-doll box handy, we are confident that you could adapt this tutorial to make it work with any cardboard. We would recommend glueing the CUSHION piece inside of the folded CHAIR piece to create a seat.

Without further ado, let's get to crafting! 

 

Catalina's Method: Paper Covered Armchair

What you will need:

• Printed chair pattern
• Hazel Village one-doll shipping box 
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Glue (we used both a glue stick and liquid craft glue) 
• Decorative paper (such as construction paper or wrapping paper) 

 

Part 1: Box Preparation

First things first, open up your package and greet your new Hazel Village friend. Once they are settled in and ready to help you craft, you can get started by peeling the shipping label and packing tape off the box. Don't forget that our custom-printed paper packing tape is recyclable!

Disassemble the box and lay it out flat. The side panels are held in place with a tab that notches into the bottom of the box – if you have any difficulty taking it apart, place the box on your table and press down on the inside bottom near each end to help pop the side tabs free. We will be utilizing the existing tab structure of this box to make the chair!

Place the CHAIR pattern piece on top of the flat box, tucked into a corner as shown in the photo below. Trace around the top and sides of the pattern piece. You will not be cutting the bottom, so there is no need to trace it. 

The placement here is important – make sure that yours matches our photo! Note that the bottom of the pattern piece does not cover the little rectangular hole, but rather sits just above it. 

Cut out the chair along the sides and top. Make sure you do NOT cut off the bottom panels!

 

Part 2: Covering with Paper

Next, trace the CHAIR pattern piece onto your decorative paper and cut it out. (This time you WILL cut along the bottom, as seen below.) Glue this paper to the inner side of the box/chair. 

Here you can see us using the side of a pencil to press the paper into the folds of the box: 

Next, flip the box/chair over and trace its outline on another piece of decorative paper. As shown below, this time you will trace around the outermost bottom panels. Cut out this shape, which will cover the outer part and the bottom of your chair. 

Glue this outer paper to the outer side of the box/chair, as shown below. Catalina says that X marks the spot where you DO NOT GLUE! It is important to leave the bottom part of this paper unattached. 

Lift up each of the side panels and draw a line along the edge of the middle panel, like this:  

Then cut along those lines to create vertical slits in the paper, like this: 

Flip the chair over. Next you need to cover up the foldy part of the middle panel, which will be visible when the chair is assembled. 

Cut out a 2" x 6" strip of paper and glue it over the place where the middle panel folds. Note that you are working on the outer/back side of the chair at this point. 

It should look like this, with some paper sticking over the edges: 

Now flip the chair over and wrap the excess paper around the panel, cutting slits to make it fit neatly. Glue into place. 

 

Part 3: Assembly

Trim the little tab slightly, just taking about 1/8" off to make sure it won't stick out from the back of the chair: 

Now the box/chair can be re-assembled! Fold in the sides, fold the middle panel over, and tuck the tab into the hole at the back.

Holding the assembled chair upside down, fold over each side flap and secure with glue. 

Repeat to glue down the back flap. 

Cut a rectangular piece of paper that measures 4x3", and glue it to the bottom of the chair. This step is optional, but it gives the project a more finished look. 

Part 4: Feet & Finishings

Trace the FOOT pattern piece onto cardboard 4 times and cut each one out. Then glue one side of each foot to a piece of decorative paper, and cut around the edges. Repeat to cover the other side of each foot with paper as well. 

Fold each foot along the lines indicated on the pattern piece. Tip: use your ruler as a straightedge to press down and help the cardboard fold more neatly. 

Glue the feet to the bottom of the chair, aligning them with each corner. (We found that a glue stick wasn't doing the trick here, so we switched to liquid glue.) 

Next, cut 3 long, thin strips of paper – they should measure approximately 1/8" wide, but you can also just eyeball it. Glue these strips over the raw cardboard edges to disguise them. We used the same color as our chair, but you could also use a contrast color to give a piping effect. 

Trim the paper strips at the corners of the chair. 

If you would like, you can use this same technique to cover the edges of the feet.

 

Part 5: Make the Cushion

This wedge-shaped cushion ensures that Hazel Village animals can sit comfortably in the chair without tumbling out, as they might otherwise be wont to do. 

Trace the CUSHION pattern piece onto cardboard and cut it out. 

Glue this cardboard rectangle onto a piece of your chair paper, and cut out around it with about an inch of space on all 4 sides. 

Fold over and glue down the paper on all 4 sides. 

Use a pencil and ruler to copy the fold lines from the pattern piece. 

Fold the cardboard along these lines, once again pressing down with your ruler to help it fold neatly. 

Fold this cushion piece over into its wedge shape, and glue the inner ends together. 

It is helpful to use a clip of some sort at this point, to hold the cushion while it dries. 

Once dry, settle the cushion onto the seat. It should tuck inside snugly. Then your chair is done! 

Phoebe's Method: Fabric Upholstered Armchair

What you will need:

• Printed chair pattern
• Hazel Village one-doll shipping box 
• Fabric 
• Batting
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Glue stick
  
• A needle and thread or a sewing machine 
  
• Seam ripper
• Sewing pins
• Optional: 
  • Hot glue gun
    
  • A small piece of felt
  • Wooden finials (such as these ones) or beads, for the feet 
    

This method is best for those who have some sewing experience, but even if you have never sewn anything before we encourage you to give it a try! 

 

Part 1: Box Preparation

First things first, open up your package and greet your new Hazel Village friend. Once they are settled in and ready to help you craft, you can get started by peeling the shipping label and packing tape off the box. Don't forget that our custom-printed paper packing tape is recyclable!

Disassemble the box and lay it out flat. The side panels are held in place with a tab that notches into the bottom of the box – if you have any difficulty taking it apart, place the box on your table and press down on the inside bottom near each end to help pop the side tabs free. We will be utilizing the existing tab structure of this box to make the chair!

Place the CHAIR pattern piece on top of the flat box, tucked into a corner as shown in the photo below. Trace around the top and sides of the pattern piece. You will not be cutting the bottom, so there is no need to trace it. 

The placement here is important – make sure that yours matches our photo! Note that the bottom of the pattern piece does not cover the little rectangular hole, but rather sits just above it. 

Cut out the chair along the sides and top. Make sure you do NOT cut off the bottom panels!

 

Part 2: Batting

A note on batting: We used polyester quilt batting, which can be found at many craft stores or online. We find that the poly kind works best for this because of its fluffiness. Feel free to use whatever sort of batting/stuffing/padding you can get your hands on.

Apply glue to one side of the chair as shown in the photo below. You only need batting on the main body of the chair, not on the bottom panels. Phoebe says "Do not glue where I have drawn X's!"

Place a piece of batting on top of the glue, pressing down and pushing outward with your hands to help it adhere evenly.

Cut off excess batting around the border of the glued area. 

Flip over and repeat to add batting on the other side. 

 

Part 3: Making the Slipcover

A note on fabric choice: Most any kind of fabric could work for this craft, but the ideal choice would be something with a tight weave (so that it will not stretch or warp in any funny ways). We used scraps of some upholstery-style fabric that we happened to have on hand here at the workshop. You might consider using a Hazel Village bandana, or perhaps recycling an old canvas tote bag (which could be dyed a fun color).

To upholster this chair, you need to make a simple slipcover out of 2 matching pieces of fabric. You can either trace the CHAIR pattern piece, or pin it to your fabric and cut out around it.

Note that this pattern does not include seam allowance! We recommend a 1/2" seam allowance for this project, but you can use more or less if you prefer.

Important: leave an extra 2-3 inches of fabric at the bottom, below the pattern piece. It should look like this: 

Stack your 2 pieces of fabric with their right sides together – that is, the sides that you want to show on the finished chair should be sandwiched together in the middle. Pin together to keep in place while you sew. 

Sew around the sides and top, leaving the bottom open. We used a sewing machine, but if you are hand-sewing then we recommend using a backstitch along the seam line. (You can learn the backstitch in this handy video tutorial.)

Once sewn, use sharp scissors to snip some slits in the corners and along the curves.  Be careful not to snip through your stitching! 

Turn the slipcover right side-out and use your fingers to poke/smooth out the seam line from the inside. Snipping along the curves will have helped to make sure that the seam looks nice and doesn't bunch up. 

Part 4: Assembly

Slide the slipcover over the batting-covered chair. Make sure that the top of the chair is tucked snugly into the top of the slipcover. 

A note on making mistakes in tutorials: Please disregard the extra seam line you will see on one side of our slipcover. We accidentally forgot to leave extra fabric at the bottom, so we had to sew on an additional piece. Whoops!

Cut a rectangular piece of fabric to cover the fold-y part of the middle panel, which will show when your chair is assembled. Glue this fabric to the back of the panel, wrapping around the sides. It should look like this:

Snip a horizontal slit in the slipcover over the spot where the box's cardboard tab will poke through the rectangular hole. Make sure you cut this slit on the TOP PIECE ONLY, the part that will be on the INSIDE of the chair. 

A note on poorly conveying directions: We did not do a great job of demonstrating this next part in photos. Our apologies to Phoebe Fawn, who would have done a much better job if it was left up to her. We hope you can follow along nonetheless.

Right now you should be working on the TOP side of the chair, which will be the INNER part once assembled.

Use your scissors or a seam ripper to open the right and left side seams, just up to the spot where the side panels fold. Next, cut 2 vertical slits in the fabric to align with the slits between the cardboard panels. Then glue the fabric to all 3 panels. 

In the photo below you'll see that we have opened the side seams and applied glue to the cardboard, but we haven't yet snipped the slits in the fabric. 

On the right side, take the seam allowance from the fabric that you have glued down and wrap it around the edge of the panel. Glue into place, and repeat on the left side. It should look like this: 

Now you can re-assemble the chair! Fold the side panels inwards, fold the middle panel up and over, and tuck the tab into its hole. 

Part 4: Finishing the Underside

Place the chair face down on your work surface. Cut 2 slits in the fabric at the bottom, aligned with the back corners. Make sure not to cut too high – you don't want the cardboard to show at the top. 

We used hot glue for this next step, because we found it to be the fastest and most secure way to attach the fabric to the bottom of the chair. If you can't get your hands on a hot glue gun, you could hand-sew the fabric instead. You could also probably make another kind of glue work, especially if you have more patience than we did at this point in the project. 

Fold the back flap over the bottom and glue it down, pulling as you do so to keep a nice level of tension on the slipcover.  

Glue each side panel down, folding the raw edges underneath and pulling gently again. 

Cut a rectangular piece of felt that measures 4x3" and round out the corners slightly. Glue to the bottom of the chair. (This step is optional, but makes the chair look more nicely finished.)

We used 4 miniature wooden finials for the feet on this armchair, because we happened to have some here in the workshop and we thought they worked perfectly. You can find an almost identical product here. 

You could glue some plain wooden beads together to make a more simple decorative foot. You could also use our 'FOOT' pattern piece to make cardboard feet, as demonstrated in Catalina's chair method. 

Whatever feet you are using, glue them onto the bottom of your chair. 

Part 5: Cushion

The final step is to make a wedge-shaped cushion, which ensures that Hazel Village animals can sit comfortably in the chair without tumbling out. 

Trace the CUSHION pattern piece onto cardboard and cut it out. Use a ruler and pencil to copy the fold lines from the pattern piece.

Using your ruler as a straightedge, press down on top of the fold lines to make neat creases in the cardboard. 

Cut a rectangular piece of fabric that fits the cushion piece with an extra inch on all 4 sides. Wrap the fabric over the cardboard and glue it in place. 

Fold the cushion over and glue the ends together. We used a binder clip to hold this in place as it dried.

Once dry, nestle the cushion into the chair. It should fit snugly. Then your project is done! 

 

Phoebe and Catalina were quite satisfied with their handmade chairs. Naturally, they settled right in to celebrate with another round of tea and some more cakes. 

Thank you for reading, friend! Did you make this craft at home? Send us a photo or tag us on social media @hazelvillage! If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at hello@hazelvillage.com. 

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