52 Weeks of Fairy Tales #41 - The Princess and the Pea

I have been looking forward to the craft for this week's fairy tale for quite some time.  I have chosen a well known tale for week #41- The Princess and the Pea.

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The tale of The Princess and the Pea is a short and simple fun little tale.  It begins with a prince who has had very bad luck in finding a proper princess for a wife.  One evening the princes luck changes, it is a dark and stormy night, and a knock is heard at the castle door.  When the door is opened, there is a rain drenched girl standing outside, she was caught out in the storm and wishes to seek shelter in the castle and claims to be a princess.

So the queen decides to test the girl to find out if she is really a princess.  The queen puts a pea under twenty mattresses and feather blankets.

That evening the princess has a very uncomfortable night of sleep tossing and turning.  In the morning the queen asks the princess how she slept.  The princess replied that she had a very uncomfortable night of sleep, and was kept awake tossing and turning by something hard in her bed, which has most certainly bruised her.  The prince hears this, and is overjoyed, only a true princess  could be so sensitive as to feel a pea under so many mattresses.  So the prince marries the princess and they live happily ever after, and the pea is put on display in the royal museum.

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I think this is a cute little tale, I remember, as a child, thinking how fun it would be to climb upon twenty mattresses, and wonder if you really could feel a pea underneath them all.  I thought it would be fun to make a little Princess and the Pea doll and bed set, along with a little green pea of course.  I decided to only make 10 mattresses, as twenty would probably not stack very well, and because the doll is a tiny bendy doll.

I made a simply dressed little bendy doll, using instructions from  Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects by Salley Mavor.

Then found 10 different prints of cloth from my fabric stash, cut out two rectangles from each print, and stitched them together like a little pillow, lightly stuffed them with basic fiber fill, sewed them shut, then stitched an X across the top to give it a semi quilted look, and help hold the stuffing in place.  Like this.
(You can also see the little needle felted green pea)

This would be a fun and easy project to make for story time, I look forward to showing this set to my youngest niece when she visits for the holidays.

I hope everyone is having a nice week, our house is all decorated for Christmas, except the tree, which will go up a couple of weeks before Christmas so it doesn't dry out.  I am looking forward to all the fun Christmas meals and projects this coming December. :)