Oh, Alice and her babies.

She’s been enamored with baby dolls since she’s been able to sit up.  Finn suggested we get her a stroller for her first birthday, which turned out to be a stroke of genius.  We ordered a plastic Fisher Price walker-type one from Amazon, and she was on a roll. Once she realized that she had more than just the one baby, all hell broke loose because the other babies were too big.

That one has been banished to the basement for its tantrum-causing tendencies.  Don’t worry; it has the giant cardboard bricks, slot-cars and Hot Wheel track down there to keep it company.

Last week, after my I-should-get-rid-of-my-crappy-Old-Navy-clothes epiphany, I whittled down my closet by almost half and lugged two giant blue Ikea bags full of clothes to Goodwill.  I made the mistake of popping in.  And left $3.00 poorer with this icky bad boy in my trunk.

I scrubbed the hell out of it with Clorox wipes.  Instead of being a regular person and plunking the cover in the wash, I made a new cover.  Just trying to make the world a little cuter, one beat-up doll stroller at a time.

It wasn’t rocket science; I used a seam ripper to tear it apart and then traced the pieces onto leftover fabric scraps.  Oh, yeah, canvas dropcloth to the rescue yet again!  I’m gonna milk that baby as long as I can.  Best twenty bucks I’ve ever spent.  Since the original stroller fabric was finished in bias tape (which tests my sewing skills and frustrates me to no end) and I was fresh out (shucky-darn, motherfucka), I opted to double up the canvas with some cute Amy Butler fabric I had lying around waiting for a project.  That meant adding a bit of seam allowance.

I made sure to add elastic loops, static loops and velcro wherever the original had it.  The original had a pair of D-rings and webbing for the belt to hold the doll in.  Alice would have long outgrown this darn thing before she was able to manipulate those, so I improvised a velcro/fabric belt instead.

Now she’s happier than a brand-new momma with a Bugaboo…  (Probably because she gets more sleep).  And I’m happier because this one folds up and hides in the cabinets in the living room when she’s done.

This should stay relevant until she realizes they make DOUBLE strollers for dolls…  I’ll plead with her to reconsider putting it on her Christmas list.  (“Please, Alice, honey.  Your father and I thought we had to have a double stroller for the two of you kids…  And that thing is a bitch to get around.  And takes up too much real estate in the garage…  Even though it is AMAZING.”)  But she’ll be just like her mom – and won’t listen to her mother’s sage advice.