Psst! Don't tell Mia

The fashion place

The doll caddy grandpa

Marc and I have been keeping a secret from our soon-to-be 8-year-old granddaughter.
We've been playing with dolls or rather a dolly caddy for Mia's American Girl doll.
It seems Mia has realized her doll clothes are in a closet that's way too big for the clothes and they end up getting mashed at the floor of the closet.

The underlying structure

I keep making her more clothes and her sisters keep giving her outfits for every occasion so the wardrobe has grown.
Marc and I decided to help her out by finding or buying or (in this case) building her a closet of the right size.
Marc is a Pinterest guy so he found a perfect closet constructed of fabric and PVC pipe.
We just had to build it.
I can sew.
Marc had a hacksaw and a measuring tape.
We ordered a pattern for $5.
When it arrived few minutes later (on the Internet), we went to work.
We went fabric shopping. (Marc loves it among the bolts and thread!)

The pieces ready to go

He bought a length of PVC pipe and glue.

The Tinker Toys

I looked at the pattern and tried to decipher how big to cut the pieces. When I couldn't figure it out, I e-mailed "Tilda" for help. "How big is the main side piece?" I asked.
She wrote back. "I don't know. I can't see what you are looking at!"
We figured it out and went to work.
It was fun. I was cutting and stitching. Marc was sawing and playing with the pipes like so many Tinkertoys.
Finally came the day when we could put it all together.
Things fit.
We found little hangers we could cut to size.
I made dividers so the shoes could be kept separate from the tops and skirts.
It's exactly what we wanted to create.
It should delight Mia.
The only problem is her birthday is still weeks away and I literally can't wait.