Care Package Doll Carrier

So, I've finally sat down to do this, no more putting this off...

 

About a month ago I mentioned a project I had finally started, converting the Call of Duty: Black Ops II Special Edition Box into a carrier for dolls. Considering I found it randomly as opposed to purchasing the game, shame on me. But I digress, for those who don't know what it is, this:

Care Package Carrier by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

is the case. As you can see:

Care Package Carrier by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

it is missing one of the clasps, I found it like that, and have since made do with what I have lying around.

 

Because it didn't come with any padding, I had to figure out what to use. I could have just gone the cheap and easy way and just stuffed it with packing foam, cloth, and some other filler to round it out, but I wanted this to be special! So I started by measuring the thing.

 

As it turns out, each half is approximately 5in (127mm) by 22in (559mm) by 10 3/4in (273mm), with cutout sections where the handholds are mounted for the exterior. It turns out that the foam padding I was introduced to a long time ago belongs to Pelican Cases, which makes heavy duty cases for just about anything you might need to carry around. I digress though, after taking the measurements and comparing them to their current stock, the only set that is close to the size I was looking for was the IM2720 Storm case. Due to me not needing the exterior, I decided to find somewhere that was selling the foam replacements...Hooray for EBay! For I found just what I was looking for, so I bought two sets just in case I messed up:

Care Package Carrier by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

So, from the back of the picture, we have the top padding, the bottom padding, and three interior padding sections (I was glad I got two).

 

From here, I had to cut the interior padding down, the sheet's just too wide otherwise. Not too much of a loss:

Care Package Carrier by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

Now, the other problem was what to do with the case padding. I only had two bottoms and two tops to work with when, in retrospect, I probably should have just gone with four bottoms. So I decided to use the lid padding for the "bottom" of the case. Of course I had to cut it down to fit inside:

Care Package Carrier by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

But that's where I ran into another problem...When set inside, the foam takes up so much space that it renders any other padding insufficient to pack a Dollfie Dream in:

Care Package Carrier by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

The solution was to cut this down so as to fit two of the interior padding sections and then cut the those sections to fit. The clean side:

Care Package Carrier by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

The rough side:

Care Package Carrier by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

Did the rough side with a long-ish knife, though my other half said there was something I could have used to make my life easier...I just don't have access to it. Figures...Anyway, with that done and the interior sections cut to fit the case, like so:

Care Package Carrier by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

It was time to adjust the fit for the interior padding. All of this was fairly easy, just time consuming. Working with a sharp knife always requires patience and/or adult supervision...^_^

Here's the adjusted section:

Care Package Carrier by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

And, just in case, I figured I'd need something to hold it all together, so I made straps! Two per side, four straps total. Behold! My shoddy hand stitching:

Care Package Carrier by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

It's holding together fine, though I'm going to need to shorten the bottom pad a little, getting it to close is proving a little problematic...Maybe I should have gone with the same thickness as the other sheet of foam I'm using as the middle spacer...

 

All that really matters is if my girl likes it, and I think she might be happy with it, what do you guys think?

I Think She Likes It by Seiichiro San, on Flickr

Can I ask how many dolls can you fit on it? Looks really pro!

It can only manage 2 with space for some accessories like a pair of shoes,a wig, and an outfit each. Also, after trimming the bottom sheet down a bit the whole thing closes better. I'm also thinking about switching to cloth instead of the stock plastic bags. I'm tired of fussing with it, and I'm sure it'll look a lot nicer.

I want to do this with a larger military surplus container to hold at least a few dolls with clothes and accessories. Yours looks great.

Sad thing is, the padding cost at least as much as a Volks carrier. If you add the cost of the other misc. items, it'd almost be cheaper to just order the Volks one. Plus, I know there are cheaper alternatives, but I had this easily on hand.