Love this! I saw something like this on the Hart + Sew blog (http://hartandsew.blogspot.com/2011/07/zoomed-in-nursery-tour.html) and i was thinking of using a suitcase as well for my daughters dress up clothes! Great idea!

Ha! I just bought a vintage suitcare for my daughters dress-up. I bought it on ebay but unfortunately it smelled bad, so it's still sitting outside to hopefully air-out.

I'd like to know where to get good play clothes? All of the kits and outfits at stores are just so crappy. Poor material and workmanship, plus full of plastic/resin accessories that keep getting recalled for lead paint violations. I'm starting to look at re-purposing old clothes from a vintage store, but just thinking of the sewing makes me tired. I have two active girls who only sometimes want to be princesses. Anyone know about cowboy, doctor, train conductor, and scientist wear? Animal outfits?

This is adorable!
Denisegk--have you tried the Melissa and Doug dressup clothes? I can't comment on the quality because I haven't bought any yet, but it's a potential starting point. A local toy store also sells the brand Aeromax, and so far I've seen a train engineer and dr's scrubs from that brand. A friend of mine also stocks up on Halloween costumes when they go on sale after the holiday. Last year she found costumes for less than $2! I hope that helps. I'm dreading the day my daughter wants the cheap looking princess dressup stuff!

I've been hunting for dress up clothing as well. I hate junk and although I sew well, I am NOT a thrify seamstress. There is a local natural/independent toy store in Santa Monica called Acorn with good dress up clothes.

Popular dress up options at our house have included regular play silks, Sarah’s Silks Play Cape, Wand, and Fairy Skirt (so pretty!), Creative Education / “Great Pretenders” is made in Canada or Sri Lanka (fair trade) and looks quite nice in person. All purpose cowboy vest http://www.kidscowboy.com/childs-western-vests.html , best pirate hook ever http://www.palumba.com/product/pirates_hook/377/ , Conductor Hat http://www.amazon.com/Brooklyn-Peddler-Engineer-Child-Blue/dp/B000H72I1U/ref=sr_1_5?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1312402938&sr=1-5,

My kids play “doctor” by putting on my fancy shoes. Our pediatrician has an excellent shoe collection and doesn’t usually wear a coat so that is the family joke.

thanks, mdoell77 and JudiAU. I'll be checking those out!

Thank you so much for featuring my updated vintage case - it is always such a thrill to be on Ohdeedoh.

Our dress-up case consists of tutus that I have made the girls as well as crowns/party hats/headdresses/doctor bags that I have made. We also have quite a few second hand bags. I generally make the girls' Halloween costumes (last year they were kites) and these all go in the dress up box.

When I was a kid, my favorite dress-up was my Dad's old shirts. I consistently see my girls use their dress-up for what ever they can dream - not the intended purpose. So, perhaps any unusual items will inspire all kinds of play.

Carie too - I dumped a box of unscented kitty liter into the case and kept it shut for a few months (a week will probably do!) and the musty smell went right away.

I have found old dance costumes from yard sales! I even have some stuff from when I was a child.

I'm a Halloween obsessed person so I hit up a lot of stores for the after Halloween sales. I've found tons of full costumes for less than $5. And where people open the packages to try them on accessories fall out of the package, the stores sell them...I've bought cuffs and capes for quarters.

yard sales and thrift stores have been good for finding dress up things as well.

We thrifted our best dress-ups, and have added a large supply of home-made kool-aid-dyed playsilks. (Dharma trading and other websites sell the blank silks, and there are many websites with instructions for dyeing them.)