Customer Reviews

Making Doll Furniture in Wood: 24 Projects and Plans Perfectly Sized for American Girl and Other 18" Dolls

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

How disappointing! I bought this book for my daughter's 9th Birthday. Her dad is going to make her American Girl dolls some furniture & I thought this would be the perfect guide. WRONG! The armoire is only 6" deep. The American Girl clothes hangers are 6 1/4" wide. Tell me, how is that going to work? The doors won't even be able to close! Thankfully my hubby is a skilled woodworker & can expand the dimensions, but if he is going to have to come up with his own pattern this book would have best been left on the shelf. We are very disappointed. My brother-in-law is making the picnic table & my niece told me that they were surprised & how small it is looking. Seems like more than one project is not quite up to the 18" par. Think twice before buying this one or at least find one to look at in person before hand.

This is not a book for beginning wood workers.
Need a lot of different tools.

I really loved this book. My girls wanted furniture for their dolls, but Pleasant Company Products were out of my budget. Using this book, my daughters and I were able to create the simple pieces.

My older daughter designed a bedroom suite. We painted it blue with a cascade of morning glories. Flower painting is not one of my talents, so we used rub ons from the craft store. The bed was easy to build, the armoire was challenging. We turned the chest over to Grandpa to finish. I was beyond my skills.

My younger daughter wanted a dining room suite for her tea parties. The table and chairs were fine, but once again we requested Grandpa's assistance to turn an armoire into a china hutch. We painted the furniture a lovely yellow with sunflower transfers. Both of my girls love it.

In closing, the beds, tables, and chairs were fine for a beginner. If you are attempting any of the case-goods, you might need a grandpa too.

I don't have a lot of tools. My local store (the orange one) cut the wood to size for me, so we just needed to assemble it, sand it, etc. The first cut was free, and there was a nominal charge for the other cuts. The sweet gentleman who helped us liked the book. He is a grandpa, and is going to buy the book too.

I wish the case-good projects were a little easier. I also wish there were simple patterns for bed coverings and chair pillows. I am an experienced seamstress, but others may benefit from this in the next edition.

An excellent book with good projects. So far I've only built the armoire, but have others in mind. I did discover minor discrepancies in the directions. Cuts did not agree with what pictures showed in the construction. Trying to find all the different thicknesses of woods specified was difficult if you do not have access to a thickness planer or sander. There is no problem that can't be overcome with a little ingenuity.

Thank you everyone for your comments and corrections. We are putting out a revised and expanded edition of this book (link is below). The armoire was originally sized to fit the hanger design also included in the book, but we have modified the dimensions so that it will fit either the hanger purchased from American Girl or the design in the book itself.

Additionally we have combed through the book looking for discrepancies in directions and fixed all of those that were found.

The new book also includes directions on building a modular dollhouse for an 18" doll.


Making Furniture & Dollhouses for American Girl and Other 18-Inch Dolls

Between the decor book and this one we will be busy making furniture for granddaughters American Girl Dolls. Patters are nice and instructions good.

My husband and I had a ball with this book. Although we didn't have all the tools needed to complete some of the projects, we were still able to use the book to get some good plans out of. We can't wait to see our granddaughters' eyes on Christmas morning when they see their doll beds and bunks!

The pictures of the projects are beautiful but the instructions for making them are terrible. Simmons is not accurate in describing the steps and there are descrepancies in the diagrams. If you try to make a project, figure that you will have problems. I am appalled at the mistakes in the designs. Look ahead as you try to make a project and make the necessary alterations. I tried to emailed Simmons about one problem but got no reply. So much for customer concerns.

The book is nice and the project are beautiful, but you do need several tools (scrolls saw, router table, router bits, chisels or a mortise jib, table saw and possibly a drill press)and knowledge how to use them as there are several different types of joints the author uses.

As others said, I found the instructions a bit "off" especially for beginners who don't know how to "look" at a project but slowly work their way step by step. I did have to make some adjustments due to the not-so-clear instructions. That being said, I learned a lot from my first project (the bed) and am looking forward to other projects.

Great book! I bought it for my son-in-law--he loved it.