Dolly Makeover: 1880s Edition

You can buy inexpensive porcelain dollhouse dolls (about $10 each) online, but the assortment isn't large. Say, for example, you wanted a doll to portray Sherlock Holmes' housekeeper Mrs. Hudson, Time for a dolly makeover!

On the left is the Before doll. I peeled off her apron (it was glued on) and "cap", and restyled her hair with a new elastic band and a little glue of my own.

I changed her face a bit with sharp coloured pencils (if you don't like what you've done, you can just wipe it off with a damp cotton swab and start over). I stitched the back of her dress to give it more of an early 1880s silhouette (straighter, with a bit of a bustle) and made a gathered petticoat out of sheer unhemmed ribbon, which gives the skirt support and body. I "ironed" it with a hot hairdryer.

For the finishing touches, I glued a tiny jewel to her collar (it was sold at the dollar store in a packet of items for fingernail decoration), sewed a ring of dollhouse door keys to her belt and made a pair of pince-nez out of a used staple (!) and some thread.

You'd hardly know it was the same doll.

The Jewelbox Dollhouse

Here's the bathroom from my one-day jewelbox dollhouse project. It's just two inches wide!

And here's the whole house. It's 10.5 inches wide and 8 inches high; I think the scale is 48:1, or one quarter-inch to the foot.

The catalyst for this project was threefold. First, I needed a break after three weeks of intense work. Second, there was nasty freezing rain all afternoon. Third, I've been wondering what to do with this complete houseful of cheap Hong Kong-made plastic dollhouse furniture. It came in one of the lots I occasionally buy on Kijiji, and I felt I should either use it or give it away.

So the other day, as I was looking through my extra bits and pieces to pick out a few items for a friend, I was reminded of this little hanging jewelbox or kitch display unit. It also came in a (different) lot of second-hand dollhouse furniture. A lightbulb went on!

Here is stage one of taking the jewelbox apart. Luckily, it was only fastened with tiny nails and even tinier staples: no glue. As you can see from the picture above, I slightly reconfigured the dividers. It was my sweetie Jonathan who pointed out that the drawer could make an extra room (I knocked the back off it so the "floor" wouldn't be too thick.

After that, it was just a question of sticking it back together, adding a few scraps of wallpaper, carpeting and some tiny leftover bits of plastic tiles, lightly gluing the furniture in place and painting the outside to hide dirt, dings and nail holes.

The plastic furniture turned out to be remarkably detailed for something that only cost $1.50 when it was bought new. (Mind you, that may well have been 40 years ago, when $1.50 went a bit further than it does now—but, still.)

Here's the attic study...

The bedroom...

The kitchen, complete with icebox, dry sink and cast-iron stove
...

The upstairs landing, with the telephone on the wall...

...and the dining room (I glued some minuscule squares of fabric to the chair seats).

The original box had a hook for hanging, so I stuck it back on, and here's the finished product in place hanging from a shelf in my office.

Handmade Polar Teddy Bear

I spent one summer working in a stuffed animal factory, turning out hundreds of toys a week. I don't know why it doesn't occur to me to make stuffed toys more often.

This is a very quick hand-sewn felt polar bear adapted from an online pattern, with just a little bit of embroidery and some button eyes.

I may do more of these.

Reupholstering Dollhouse Furniture

Since I don't buy much new dollhouse furniture (I get most of mine in odd lots on Kijiji and MaxSold), and also because I enjoy making things, I've recently had a go at re-covering some of my miniature furniture. My first try is shown above. The original fabric was the blue stripe, which looked nice but not really in scale: more like a toy than a miniature.

In order to re-cover dollhouse furniture, you have to gently pry the pieces apart. For some, a hair dryer will help melt the glue; for others, you might need to dampen them (although this could be risky in many ways.) Cheaper furniture is actually easier to disassemble, because the glue gives way easily and there are no nails.

Then you gently tear off the original fabric, cut out copies in the new fabric and glue them on. This wingback chair was a chore to do, because of my choice of fabric. It's a rather heavy synthetic with a tight weave that repels the glue, so I had to work in stages and secure everything with alligator clips while the glue dried. Also, the fabric tended to ravel at the cut edges.

By sheer fluke, I spotted a bit of brown ribbon from a chocolate box as I was working on it, and I like how it looks glued across the front in place of another band of the fabric. I'm fairly pleased with the end result, despite some frayed edges; the interior I'm planning can use some shopworn-looking items.

By chance, I acquired two chairs and a sofa of the same type (but in different colours) in separate lots. The original velvet-like covering was rather threadbare, and a bit was missing from one of the chair arms (above). The swatches show the original emerald and ruby fabrics.

The flowery fabric, which is (expensive) scale fabric, came in a different batch. It's a cotton with a fairly open weave, and it stuck on like a charm. (I think I could size it with a watered-down brushing of glue to really seal loose ends and baggy bits.)  As with my first try, I was fairly lucky in my attempts to make the pattern match up between  pieces.

Here's the sofa from the set, with the cushions lifted out and one piece of the fabric off, to show what it looks like. This set has nails, which makes them fussier to work with, but sturdier in the long run. I'm looking forward to (eventually) installing three matching pieces in the Westville dollhouse.

Last Socks of the Season

While I was working on these during a record-cold Toronto February, I was joking that I just might get them done in time to wear them before it was too hot. Well, I finished them during a faculty meeting at the college; then the weather warmed  up, and it was just cool enough to wear them yesterday.

They're Thermal Textured Socks by Kelly Patla, available on Ravelry. I enjoyed them; they were my first time  trying a flap heel instead of a short-row one, and the pattern was tricky but not maddening. It's basically plain at the back, with a column of seed stitch on each side and broken ribbing across the front. Patla explains in detail how to do all these things; she gives a chart for the pattern, but I re-wrote it for myself as (K1 P1) x 4, K 16, (P1 K1) x 4 and so on.

I think they're made up in Spud & Chloë Stripey Fine, maybe in the Mint Chip (#7861) colour? I regret that I may only get to wear them a couple of times before summer kicks in. But they'll be something to look forward to in the fall.

Flour and Sugar Bags for the Dollhouse Patisserie

When I discovered that the local dollhouse supply company charges $4 to $6  for a toy flour sack, I thought "This will never do!" Clearly the patisserie will need a great deal of flour—not to mention sugar and coffee. Some other plan had to be devised.

My flour and sugar bags are made with bits and pieces from around the house: some scrap cotton from the rag bag (I have a rag bag for clothes that are too worn for Goodwill), some stuffing material, an art eraser (I have lots) and a red stamp pad.

I carved the labels into the eraser with a small blade cutter. Yes, I made the mistake of cutting out the letters right way around (twice) before I remembered to make them backwards. Then all I had to do was stamp the fabric and sew up the little bags while watching TV with my mom. I'll just have to remember—as my brother remarked—not to launder them, because the ink will run.

Yes, the store-bought  ones are fancier, but these will do me just fine. I think I'll make some coffee bags too, but I'll dye them darker brown with coffee or tea.

So now the upper storey is well on its way.

Simple Shelving Unit for the Dollhouse Patisserie

Since the dollhouse patisserie started offering coffee service, there's been a need for someplace to store coffee cups (and French onion soup bowls). This shelving unit was a quick project, although I did leave it overnight a couple of times to let paint or glue dry.

It's just made out of dollar-store tongue depressors cut to size with scissors. The decorative top and the backing are one piece of dollar-store craft foam, which can be cut into fancy shapes with scissors. The inside of the shelf area is painted a very pale mauve-pink. The roses are just freehand-painted with craft acrylics and a fine brush (dollar store again).

The tongue depressors curl when damp with glue or paint. The nice thing about a project of this size is that you can fix almost any irregularity with sanding, a bit more glue, some wood filler or even another coat of paint.

I've attached the shelf to the wall with that blue sticky stuff that comes in various brand names, so I can reposition it later without having to repair and repaint the wall behind it. As you can see in the close-up, I've also used it to stick the china to the shelves so I don't have to keep replacing knocked-down bits and pieces.

All in all, it makes for a tidier storage situation and a busier-looking patisserie scene.