Those of you who have kids probably know how quickly the arrival of a toddler or two can turn even the most stylish, carefully designed living room into a cheap looking playground slash toy store slash kindergarten.

Removing all toys from our living room would be one option, but I lack the level of cruelty this requires. Cunningly replacing all the cheap looking synthetic eye sores with a more stylish variants is less cruel, and exactly what I plan to do in the next months.

Let’s start with those ugly furry animals which seem to inevitably find their way to our house after a visit to the zoo, the theme park, or any other event which welcomes kids for that matter. I’m replacing them with a set of four handmade cut & sew dolls. These are from Teagan Whites stunning Acorn Trail collection, and were sent to me by the kind people of Modes4U.

They are made from just 1 panel of fabric, and they are very quick and easy to make. Cut out the figures, stitch front and back with right sides together leaving a turning hole, turn right side out, stuff with filling an close the turning hole.

You can find the fabric here. As you need just one panel for making the four dolls, they are not only much prettier, but also much cheaper than their less stylish alternatives who are now spending their days in the cellar. And which Norah hasn’t even noticed are gone!

In the next episodes of Project Eyesore, I’ll be dealing with storing Duplo and with our Ikea car mat. Stay tuned 😉

Thank you to Modes4U for the fabric panel.