How to Make Items For the Dolls House Laundry

Hand- made items in 1:12 scale for a dolls house laundry

If you have room for a laundry in your dolls house, you can really get cracking on making lots of bits and pieces for it. This photo shows some of the items I made for my Edwardian dolls house laundry/scullery. All these things would suit dolls houses from the Victorian era right up to the 1950s. And the best part is that I made them from scraps of wood & lengths of wire so they didn't cost a cent!

• Carpet beater: this is made from 1 length of wire. Starting at the centre of the wire, form the heart shape then twist the ends round and round each other. Pliers came in handy here for getting the wires tight. At the handle end, finish off the wires into a loop so the carpet beater can hang on a hook on the laundry wall.
• Fly swat: another piece of wire, of a finer gauge this time. Start in the middle of the wire, at the handle with a loop, twist up the shaft then fan the ends out into a square. Bind the end with a piece of cotton then glue a square of fine tulle or mesh onto the square. If you make the material larger than the square, it is easier and you can trim the excess off when dry.
• Laundry basket and pegs: the basket was a fridge magnet I adapted and filled with squares of cotton folded to look like linen. The pegs I made from the ends of toothpicks, the ones that have the fancy turnings.
• Feather dusters: again, the fancy ends of toothpicks, with little feathers (donated by my bantam hens!) glued onto each toothpick and bound with black cotton thread.
• Brush and shovel: the brush is a piece of balsa wood whittled into a brush shape, then stained brown, with black paint for the bristled edge. The shovel is made from a piece of cardboard folded and glued to shape then painted with chrome nail polish. I had my real size one in front of me when I made this so I could measure it and get the look and sizing right for 1:12 scale.
• Scrubbing board: balsa wood for the 'body', fine square stripwood offcuts for the edges and corrugated cardboard, painted silver with the chrome nail polish, for the scrubbing insert.
• Duckboard: this is what the poor washer woman would have stood on to keep her shoes off the wet floor. It's made from wood offcuts 2 1/2 inches long and 1 1/4 inches wide, glued onto 3 lengths of matchsticks on the underside to raise it from the floor.
• Laundry tub: this is the thin metal surround that a tealight candle came in with the 'eyes' of hooks and eyes used in sewing as the handles.
• Housemaid's box: more scraps of thin wood made into a box shape, the edges bound with black paper strips and a handle made of a toothpick painted black and glued between the 2 long sides. In it I've put a brush (made as the other brush was), dusting cloths, a tin of Brasso and a feather duster.

Even if you don't have a whole room for a laundry in your dolls house, you could make some of these things for your mini kitchen. 

Have fun!