Tiny dollhouse doll

So far I've collected a few little animals from around the house that seem to like living in the dollhouse. But I wanted to try my hand at making my own little people.

As you can see from my needle book blog, I've been working on dolls lately. I've been trying different patterns, such as the vintage patterns of Edith Flack Ackley, and working out some of my own.

And now I've finished my first dollhouse doll! I've added her to my Etsy shop - she's here. She has a lovely purple floral Liberty dress and lace trimmed petticoat. It was hard to cut into some of my precious Liberty fabric, but it was just so perfect for this. The lawn stays in place nicely. Not every fabric will work on such a small scale. I was happy to find this tiny lace amongst all my trim. These supplies are gathered up by me over the years and every now and then the perfect project comes along.

Strombecker kitchen set

Well once again in the interests of putting the cart before the horse, this is the furniture I bought for the kitchen which has yet to have the floor finished. These pieces are from the 1930s, a wooden table, chairs and stool set made by Strombecker.

After I bought it I found out that this set sometimes comes with a little floral decal on each piece so I'm sorry they don't have that, but they're still so charming. I love the vintage green colour and the detail of them, they're quite simple but still nice.

I can't decide whether or not it would be ok to paint flowers on them myself. They aren't particularly valuable or anything but I don't like to mess up something in its original condition. I thought if I painted them they would have a bit of that Tynietoy style that I covet. 

The little bowl is actually from a tiny incense set. I keep finding little things like this around the house that I bought at some time because they were tiny and nice. Then finding that they'll work perfectly in the dollhouse!

Details

I've been doing various odds and ends on the house, but not really finishing anything. I keep doing little details like putting logs into the wood box when I should be getting the shell completed.

I need to touch up the stairs before I put that outer wall up, and that's the next step before doing the roof and other additions. The stairs had some primer and paint spilled on them - as I've already said I should have added them in later - and after sanding that off I need to add a fresh coat of polyeurethane. I'm waiting for a warmer day when I can air out the room afterwards.

So I think I'm kind of stalled a bit! I've also spent a lot of time on bits of furniture that aren't done yet. Although I did finally sand, prime and paint the living room floor.

I also bought some baseboard trim and thought I would try that out. But I realized I would need to add the door trim first, and the instructions say to add the door hinges before the trim. Which means getting the doors ready and figuring out the hinges. So I just tried out the baseboard on one of the plain walls. I love how it looks!

Adding the mitred corners is a bit trickier but I found a good little saw at a local hobby shop. I wasn't sure about going in as it seemed to be mostly boat, airplane and car kits, but they had lots of handy tools and the man I talked to had helpful tips and used to work on dollhouse furniture himself.

So that's the update for now, I really am going to finish the shell someday, but it could take a while!

Books!

So I think I spent most of my childhood making books, particularly miniature books. I had a whole series of tiny books with illustrated stories in them and a staple holding them together. I wish I still had those! Someone told me once he remembered me bringing them to class for show and tell. I had forgotten about that and I was embarrassed when he told me but now I'm thinking it's pretty cute.

I spent the rest of the time trying to acquire miniature books. They used to have miniature joke books in bubble gum machines but the tricky part was getting one because most of the bubbles just had gum. You could spend a lot trying to get a bubble with a book! Several years ago I found some on ebay though, so I have 3 of those.

Anyway I just finished making my HOM secretary desk and decided it needed lots of books. I thought the joke books would work but they were just a wee bit too big. The shelves aren't very tall so the books have to be really tiny. I measured a paperback and Bradley helped me work out the right size for 1:12 scale and it was smaller than the joke books.

So I made lots of books. They're perfect bound - a glued spine - with origami paper covers. They have real pages that are blank like a little notebook or sketchbook. While I was at it I made a couple of sketchbooks that are a bit larger and thinner and a few smaller notebooks. The sketchbooks and notebooks have brown paper backs to look like the cardboard back of a notebook. Then I even made two really tiny plain notepads.

These are my first tiny handmade items for the "tiny handmade" section of the needle book shop! I'm selling little book sets with combinations of books, sketchbooks, notebooks and notepads.

the teacup is a little wooden one, the only remaining piece from a set I bought in Scotland when I was little.

The desk still needs some knobs and a bit of touching up, but I think it looks cute with all the books. I'd like some little mugs/cups as well for the pencils I'm going to make. But for now I accessorized with a plastic thimble, little cup shaped button and a tiny dish from the dish set I showed you before.

White HOM chest of drawers

So as I mentioned there are these House of Miniatures kits that make nice little 1:12 scale furniture pieces for dollhouses. They're from the 70s and 80s but some are replicas of 18th century furniture by Chippendale such as this Chest on Chest piece.

I love these kits, they are generally perfect, the pieces match up beautifully and are nice wood with lots of charming details. They're easy to make - the main trick is to figure out the right amount of glue for a secure bond without too much oozing out the sides.

I decided I wouldn't really have such a grand piece of furniture in my house, so I painted mine white which I think is pretty for a chest of drawers. I also changed it by adding green glass knobs (flower beads) instead of the brass fittings that came with the kit. It just seemed like too many tiny brass bits on the drawers as there are also the keyhole escutcheons. I think I may even paint over those later. It would be nice if they darkened up but that could take ages. (I want green glass knobs for my own bureau but when you need to buy ten the cost adds up. So it was nice to have them for the dollhouse.)

The final touch was Japanese paper drawer linings. I did paint the insides of the drawers as it's so easy with a little piece like this, I thought I might as well. It's less realistic but I thought it was pretty. 

Then onto the styling. I crocheted a tiny granny square bureau doily for the top from a single ply of cotton embroidery thread. I just learned how to make a picot edging border, I love it! Then I added a little pot from The Little Dollhouse Company shop. I had some tiny flowers that are used for bridal embellishments, I liked these ones that look like some kind of spring bulb. I was disappointed I didn't have clay for the soil then remembered I had tea leaves in the kitchen leftover from my morning tea. It's absolutely perfect for potting soil!

I'm starting to get caught up in these decorating details but I need to finish building the house. I guess I will start on the ceiling beams soon...

Downstairs floors

I've been working on the downstairs floors but the kitchen slowed me down. I wasn't sure what kind of flooring to put in there and didn't want to just have the same hardwood flooring. Also I didn't want to buy fake sheets of tiling.

In the end I had an inspiration and I think it's working out. I'm making subway shaped tiles from the same batch of popsicle sticks. It's time consuming, but I think it will be worth it. So they're going to go on in a brick design. Then later I'll prime and paint them white to look like tiles. I'm not sure about the grout but I suspect I can just let the paint fill the gaps.

The "tiles" aren't attached yet but I wanted to see if I'd like the way they'd look. Then I just kept putting them in place as I was cutting. I figure when it comes time to glue they'll be all ready to go. The nice thing about doing them from the same popsicle sticks is that the kitchen floor is the same thickness as the living room floor.

At the same time I've been working on some House of Miniatures kits. These are dollhouse furniture kits from the 70s and 80s. They are really nice quality and I've been enjoying assembling the little pieces of furniture. I have a few of them, so when some of the pieces are done I'll be sure to post them!

Popsicle stick floors

While my house doesn't have a roof I thought I would do the flooring. I'm not sure if this is the right order to do things in, but it's worked out so far. Except I wish I hadn't attached the stair treads yet.

I've been doing some filling and sanding to touch up gaps and cracks here and there and the dust is all over the stairs now. Then I stained the floors and some stain got on the risers. Then I carefully covered the treads with painters tape and touched up the risers and now there's paint on the treads that leaked under the tape! Now I'm just leaving them and will try sanding them later and adding another coat of polyurethane.

It's things like this that make me wonder why I'm doing this when there's so many other things I should/could be working on. But I will say that working on my house is usually very relaxing!

floor after sanding

Anyway, so back to the floor. I decided the most affordable and nicest way would be to use popsicle sticks. Most dollar stores have them, I bought two big bags for just $1.25 each. I trimmed the rounded corners off with a pruning tool, glued them down and then sanded the surface until it was nice and smooth. A regular popsicle stick is like having a wide plank floor, but you can get narrower craft sticks with straight ends at places like Michael's. I saw a bag of them there on the weekend for around $5. 

Here's a little strip of popsicle stick that I cut to go between rooms in the doorway:

Cutting the sticks lengthwise is pretty easy, just go over them a few times with an exacto knife and metal ruler.

 floor after staining

I've read that you should make a template of the floor then attach your flooring to that then attach it to your house. I guess it would be easier to work on a flat piece outside of the house but I didn't have any trouble. Although as I mentioned the stain did make a mess. But I think that was because I used a rag to apply it. For more control I would use a little foam brush or even a cotton swab for corners. (Another reason to attach your flooring to a cardboard template is so that you can take it out later and also so you can run wiring underneath.)

Speaking of the staining... Well, I regret that. It was pretty smelly and I had to open the window for a long time in the middle of a cold Canadian winter. And in the end I thought the colour was too high contrast with the white walls, clashed with the wood stain on the furniture and seemed dark and heavy. I didn't like it at all so I just ignored the house for a while.

painted floors upstairs

Then I decided to paint the floors - I love that country look. So this is how the upstairs floors look now and I'm happy with them. It will look even nicer once I add baseboards, and the wood furniture looks great. The little mirror over the fireplace is from the antique mall in St. Jacobs. I love that place!