Make a dollhouse bed skirt

 Dress your mini bed up with a dust skirt!

Gather these supplies:

Scissors
 • Cotton fabric
 • Tacky Glue • 
Ruler
 • Bed

This is a quick way to add a bed skirt to your miniature bed. You can do this technique for any scale. I made a bed from recycled building materials I had on hand. You can either make a bed or use one you already have.

Cut two equal sized squares for the bottom bed corners. When you cut them out be sure to leave enough room for a bottom hem. They will need to wrap around the corner about an inch on either side of the bed.

Use a little bit of Tacky Glue to make a bottom hem. About an 1/8” fold.

Glue one side onto the bed as shown and then snip away some of the extra fabric on the top fold. This will hide the folded fabric edge from view.

 Now fold over and glue the fabric you just snipped to the bed as you did the first fold.

 Repeat these steps for the other side of the bed skirt corner.

Next, cut a piece of fabric that runs from one side to the other across the bottom of the bed. Leave room on both sides for a 1/8” side hem.

 Use Tacky Glue to make a 1/8” hem on both sides of the fabric.

 Make a bottom 1/8” hem on the same piece of fabric with Tacky Glue.

Glue it to the bed on the top and sides so it will stay down.

Glue another piece to the center of the bed on both sides. Be sure the bottom has an 1/8” hem.  You don’t need to have side hems on this piece because it will be covered by other sections later.

Be sure to glue it to the top and sides so it stays down. Make a crease with your fingers to be sure it stays folded over while it dries.

Now add the left and right to both sides. Make side and bottom hems and glue them on as you have before. You just want that center piece to peek out a little.

 Put your mattress on and make your bed.

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Make mini bottles for your dollhouse

 Every dollhouse needs some beautiful containers!

Gather up these tools and materials:

Beads of interest for the bulk of the container
n
End caps in various sizes
n
Tiny beads for caps

Jewelry pins with and 
without decorative heads

Wire cutters

Tweezers

Super Glue (Gel)

This is a really popular thing to make as a miniaturist. So if you are new to minis or if you tend to have some trouble making decorative bottles, I hope this will help! 

There are lots of different style bottles throughout a house that all have different uses. Perfume bottles are perfect for a vanity or dresser, but you can also make interesting decanters for the bar (especially for the Victorian time period). There is also a need for canisters for the kitchen or bath as well as potion bottles for a witch or wizard’s den.

First, go through your stash of beads and find beads of interest that would be the bulk of the bottle or container.  Line them all up at your workstation.

Next, be sure you have a lot of end caps in various sizes to choose from. These will be used for the base of some of your bottles. You will also need a collection of extremely tiny beads that will be little lids for your bottles. Metal ones are great but you can also use tiny crystals. Another option is crimping beads that are used in jewelry making.

When choosing a bead to be the majority of your bottle, you want to have something with a special interest, whether it be a printed pattern or a glass bead with beautiful coloring. Printed beads are a perfect option but beautiful glass beads will make them special as well.

If you don’t have a collection of beads ask some friends if they have any to spare. Or go to the craft store when they are having a sale.

 Use a magnifying glass to be sure there are no imperfections in the beads that you choose. Also set them on your work table and be sure they sit evenly and are not crooked. If they are ceramic, the clay may have misshapen before they were fired in the kiln.

Use tweezers to try pairing the end caps with your main focus bead. They can go on the top or at the bottom.

If you have a bead with a larger opening, you can put a bicone bead shape inside so the top half shows and then top that with a very tiny ball bead. 

If you have a tall slender bead (like the one in step 5b) that you want on top of an end cap you can put a jewelry pin through from the bottom of the cap and up through the bead to help keep it centered. You can also use these pins to help center the tops.

Decide on all of your designs and set them along your work table as you pick out all the pieces.

The gluing

Put a touch of glue on the top of your bead (but not inside the hole yet). Use tweezers to drop the top end cap on it, being sure it is centered.

Getting them straight is the most tricky part of the process. If you made one that you discover is crooked but the glue is dry, try spinning it around until the angle looks straight. This is how you can display it to hide the mistake.

Put glue into the top hole. Use your tweezers to drop a tiny ball bead on top of the cap. I prefer to have the bead holes on the sides and have the top smooth.

If you are gluing using the jewelry pins, just glue on one section at a time as you build your bottle. The slower you go the more you can be sure things are centered. For the elephant decanter (photo 7), I put all the beads on the pin but only glued the tiny ‘bottle cap’ to the pin head to start. Once it sets, I glued the end cap to the ‘bottle cap’. I let it set. Then I trimmed the wire so it would stop up inside the elephant bead. Then I put a spot of glue on the top hole of the elephant bead and dropped in the top beads that were already glued and made sure they were centered before I set it aside to dry.

The less time you spend fiddling with things after you add the glue the better. Practice how you will place one tiny bead onto the other one first. Then add glue and use the same technique.

Sometimes you may need to use a small metal sanding tool to smooth out the underneath of the pin head, if the mold is bulky, so they sit straight.

For the rose canister, 
I glued the gold bottle neck on first and let it set. Then I added a spot of 
glue inside and dropped 
in the pin with the decorative head. 

Have fun and get creative!

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New animal art dolls!

 

To see what art dolls I have in stock visit my eBay shop here!

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A Dollhouse Cottage

Here I go again! I'm building a 1:12 house that is more modern (as far as the time period). The last time I did this was with my Kinfeld. You can see that in detail HERE 

Here are my chicken scratch plans! I usually sit down, have a coffee, and start drawing out my ideas on graph paper. Then I think about it for a few days and then make 1:12 scale measurements.


I am working with Gator board to keep this little cottage lightweight. I recommend always using a skill saw or jigsaw to cut this board. It’s basically like foam board but has a plaster coating on both sides. I only recommend a saw because I ended up with a rotator cuff injury while cutting gator board by hand with a utility knife for my French cottage. I did have a very small injury on my arm from running into a pointed piece of furniture a few days before and cutting the gator board really did me in! It took 2 years to recover and my arm still isn’t the same. Now I don’t take any chances and always use a saw.

Here I have started making the base that will be under the first floor because there will be steps up to the porch/front door.




After I assembled the first floor, I started cutting the walls with window holes. For the walls I have used .5” thick foam board cut with an X-ACTO knife.




I added the front door to its wall with a pin hinge. I make my doors from scratch with basswood and mat board. It took a few tries to get the right shade of blue, but now I am finally happy!

So here are all the walls installed. The left opening will be a big bay window.


While building I stopped and made the stairs. I framed them out with cardboard, mat board and wood. I placed them in and cut the second floor from gator board to be sure they fit correctly as far as height.


Then I cut all the wood step-tops from basswood and will be sanding and staining them.

The bay window is made from basswood and Plexiglass.

I used to always have at least one room with William Morris wallpaper as my signature. (I discovered his work back in art college and loved it ever since.) I used to have to search the internet for just one little swatch and then build it in Photoshop. Well, now you can find his patterns already made into dollhouse wallpaper everywhere. Now I use whatever design I find online that makes me happy and make my own wallpaper. I found this pretty one and used Photoshop to make a larger sampling.

I want this little cottage to be a happy place that is bright and up-lifting. In fact, I have named this build “Her Nest”.  We will see if the name changes during the build. 

The wallpaper is up and now I will continue on with the wainscoting!

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Mossy Grove fantasy dollhouse

Mossy Grove is complete! I took it down by the creek and got some photos. This has been sold and is ready for it's new owner. I love fantasy builds like this because my imagination can see so many different residents. 

Some bags of coin are stuffed up in the attic.

The warm stone keeps dinner warm in the cast iron pot.

My signature plaque.

The upstairs room.

 The reflection of the stained glass window is cascading on the floor.

Th logs hide the storage area for the LED battery.

A mossy roof.

Pine cone roof.

My signature drawer to hold seasonal mini treasures.

The tall table is perfect for food preparation to be cooked in the fire.

Mossy Grove with the lights on.

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