Kit Sets or Build from Scratch?

A house built from a kit set

Here's a question for you. Do you like to make kit set dolls houses and furniture or do you build from scratch?
  People at our miniatures club were divided fairly evenly on this issue. Some who are proficient in the use of power tools, bandsaws etc like to build from scratch, using patterns they've found in magazines or books, or even designing their own. Some of our members create kit sets for mini furniture for us to make at club day workshops..
  Others, and I'm firmly in this group, would rather buy kit set houses or furniture and make them up. Although we may 'kit bash' them to put our own particular stamp on the project.
  For me, if I can't make an item with a craft knife out of matboard or foamcore, I'm prepared to buy a kit. I value my fingers too much to use saws and sanders!
  So, what do you do?

How to Make a Leather Shopping Bag in 1:12 Scale

A little leather shopping bag

I thought I'd tell you about our workshop at miniatures club today. We made shopping bags out of very fine leather. The pattern we used was from Dolls House World magazine, Issue 161.

Starting the workshop - note the essential cup of coffee!

Our tutor, Joan, had adapted the pattern slightly, so the indented edges were not so deep. She brought along fine leather in several colours for us to choose from, and silver and gold jump rings for the handles and clasps. I used a piece of beautifully soft, extra fine leather from an old glove. 
   I traced the pattern onto the back of the leather with a sharp pencil and cut it out with very sharp, small scissors. I cut the thin shoulder straps and piece for the fastening with a craft knife against a steel ruler to keep these thin pieces as straight as I could. 
  Then all of us in the group seemed to ignore the instructions and attack the making of the bag in different ways! 
  I stuck silver jump rings onto the four points first. 

Gluing the jump rings on

  And then I folded up the sides and glued them so the curved edges made the gussets on each side of the bag.

Making the bag shape

Chris did hers a different way, gluing on the handles while everything was flat, which was probably more sensible!

 Then I attached the handles, then unattached them and reattached them because I'd stuck them from front to back instead of both ends of one strap on one side and the other strap on the other side - am I making sense here?!

This is how they turned out

We were pleased with them. Now I need to make some Fimo groceries to put in my bag.

An Edwardian Doll's House Carousal Pop Up Book

I have this Edwardian Doll's House Carousal Pop Up Book in my library of books about minis and dolls houses. It's a bit of fun, something different and is actually quite informative. The book looks tall and skinny but then you undo the ribbon ties, stand it up and fold it round to make a circle and redo the ties to keep it together. 

The book folded into a carousal

And there you have it, an Edwardian era house of a middle class family decorated in the latest styles of the early 1900s. The colours, furniture, carpets and decorations portrayed make this book a good resource for anyone wanting to make their Edwardian dolls house authentic looking. 
   A family of cardboard figures comes with it and there's even a cat on the roof! What I especially like is that you can open the doors and drawers and see what's inside them, just like in a real dolls house.
  I have also seen others in the range of these pop up books -Victorian era and of Anne of Green Gables.
   Here are some more photos to give you a good idea of what the Edwardian book is like.

Peek in the wardrobes in the girl's bedroom

The well-decorated parlour

The 'modern' bathroom with boiler

Involving Children with Miniatures

Jurassic Park in Miniature

Children seem to be fascinated by small things. Some, boys in particular, love detail - look at the popularity of the 'Where's Wally?' and the Richard Scarry books. So our miniatures hobby is ideal for getting kids involved with planning and making mini projects.
   My husband made this Jurassic Park diorama. He rigged up the car so the headlights turned on and he had spotlights along the high wire fences. And what child doesn't like dinosaurs? This mini scene was a hit with primary school age children.
  Children from our local pre-school centre sometimes visit our house to look at my dolls houses and miniatures. Their mums and grandmas come too. Last time they visited I asked the children what they'd liked best. I was expecting them to say the Alice in Wonderland scene or perhaps the mini village.
  And their answer - "The dog."
  That 's our real dog. He's definitely not a mini!

Free Printables for Mini Projects

Accessories I've made from free printables for my dolls houses

Have you discovered the wonderful range of free printies for dolls houses yet? There are so many things you can make out of paper and card when you visit websites that have printables for miniatures. All you need to do is print what you want on your home printer, then glue them onto thin card, cut them out and construct them by folding and glueing. Easy peasy!


   Items range from boxes and bags; books, magazines and newspapers; packages of toiletries and food; signs and labels; games and toys, and wallpapers, flooring and maps. There are even dolls houses in 1:144 scale that can be found as free printables.
   Here are some of my favourite websites for printies:

• www.jennifersprintables.com   This has an extensive range, especially in 1:12 scale wallpapers.
• www.printmini.com  Printies are available here in several scales in many categories. Especially useful for modern mini settings.
• www.cdhm.org/news/printies.php  Some beautiful labels and food packaging amongst a good range of items
• www.miniatures.about.com  Search under 'printies' for examples and also a good section of instructions for constructing printables.

Be prepared to spend an enjoyable time looking at these sites! You'll find so many ideas of extra accessories to add to your mini projects. And they're free!

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!

How to Make a Screen for your Dolls House

A decorative screen in a dolls house

In real life, people used screens in their houses as decorative features, or as draught excluders in reception rooms, and as modesty screens in bedrooms for privacy when dressing or undressing. They also look great scaled down to 1:12 scale in a dolls house.
   I made the screen in the room above to match the chaise longue I had made for my Edwardian dolls house morning room.
  The fabric and edging trim are in shades of pale blue and I covered the back of the screen with a darker blue paper. As you can see, the tops of the three panels are curved: the tallest is 5 1/2 inches, the middle piece is 5 inches and the smallest is 4 inches tall. Each panel is the same width - 1 1/2 inches. 
  

Items needed to make a dolls house screen

You will need:

• pattern for screen
• matboard
• fabric
• fabric glue
• thin cord or stranded embroidery cotton or fine bunka
• paper for back 

What to do:

1. Cut out the screen pieces in matboard, using a sharp craft knife.
2. Cover the matboard pieces with a fine layer of glue.  
3. DO NOT CUT THE FABRIC. Leaving the fabric in one piece and right side up, smooth it over the screen pieces. Cover with a sheet of plastic or baking paper and weigh all down with something heavy. I used cans of tomatoes! Leave to dry overnight. The weights will stop the matboard from warping as it dries.
4. Now take very sharp scissors and cut out each fabric-covered screen piece, trimming the edges neatly.
5. Glue decorative paper over the back of the pieces in the same way as you did the fabric. Trim when dry, again keeping the side edges neat.
6. Doing one piece at a time, run a fine line of glue along 3 sides (not the bottom edge). This will stop the fabric fraying and will glue down the edging. Use a toothpick to position the edging. I use a fine cord but stranded embroidery thread and fine bunka work just as well.
7. If you like you can make hinges with masking tape or ribbon. I didn't. I just glued the pieces into place, holding them at the angles I wanted till the glue dried. 

A screen for a 1:12 scale nursery

Here's another screen I made. Each piece has a rounded top and they are all the same height. I didn't use fabric, just black paper with 'scraps' glued on with a layer of mod-podge.

  I hope you will have a go at making a screen for your dolls house or miniature room setting. Play around with shapes and colours to custom make one just for you.