Under a blue moon

Small things

As I mentioned in Monday's post, since I am all caught up with my projects, I want to start refocusing some attention to the dollhouse.  I thought I would use this post to share some things I have created.  

While I am procrastinating on the actual restoration of the house I've been creating the furnishings and belongings of the house's occupant.  I didn't intend for this to happen but as I began acquiring and making things for the house a story began to emerge on who actually lives there.  I can't adequately explain it.  It's like I have a muse.  She is an elderly woman who has had a rich and intriguing past.  

She is very creative, as evidenced by the paint supplies and she may have been a circus horseback rider back in the day.  She has many mementos from her days traveling across the county with the circus.  Puppet theater inspired by Guignol.  

Most of the furnishings I've made are actually for the attic.  To me that is far the most interesting space to furnish.

Most of what I make is from bass wood I get at the craft store or local hardware store.  It's a little less soft than balsa wood and I just find it easier to work with.  I will also employ Popsicle sticks in my creations.  I have a box of Popsicle sticks that Rick bought when he was 9 or 10 years old.  They are a much better quality of wood than the Popsicle sticks you can buy today.  

The attic space is divided into two rooms.  The main room with all the stored mementos and cast-off furniture and another room that will be like a dressing room with all her old costumes and vestiges from her life as an entertainer.  

Yes that is the Ikea Bekvam stool, painted in my signature shade of green.  It was quicker and easier to put together the real size version!  

You know I have to replicate some of my own furnishings if you recall the bed, dining set and stove I shared previously.  The stool will be in the kitchen next to the Wedgewood.  Just as it is in my kitchen.

I fully admit to being intimidated by some of the masterpiece dollhouses out there.  There are so many miniature artists that I admire so much but if I try to live up to their standards I will never finish the thing.  I want the house to tell a story more than I want it to be perfectly to scale and accurate.  So I am going to forge ahead and I'll share as I go along.  Believe me I am completely new to this so I'll be sharing what I learn along the way.

Also - I just noticed, looking at the above picture, that the oven door handles on my Wedgewood aren't lined up.  They must have replaced one of the doors during the restoration process.  So - I'm thinking perfect really isn't all that realistic anyway.

Ruffles

I had forgotten how completely tedious sewing ruffles is.  What I thought was going to be a super simple, whip it out in an hour, type of project was decidedly not.  

Our lounge chair cushion is torn and discolored and I couldn't find a good replacement for it that would match the chairs.  So, inspired by this picture on Instagram, I decided to make a shabby floral cover for it.  

I originally ordered the prettiest faded floral fabric from Carousel Designs but after pre-washing it I realized that I didn't have enough yardage.  It is also a very lightweight cotton and I was going to have to line it with another fabric.  So I'll save that fabric for another project.  

I wasn't able to find anything online or in stores that was quite what I was looking for so I turned to Etsy and found this fabric, which is actually a vintage bedsheet from France.  It is a nice weight cotton and I figured it was about as pre-shrunk and as faded as it was ever going to be.  

I had my fabric cut out and was ready to go when the ruffling and my sewing machine started giving me fits.  I tried the high tension, long stitch method but my machine kept skipping stitches - like two inches worth.  It also wasn't gathering it very much so I tried a variation where you also pinch the thread between your fingers to give it more tension.  Too much evidently and when I tried to ease up the ruffles the thread would break.  I finally settled on the string and zig-zag stitch method which was better but still kept dropping stitches.  

If you look closely you can see where stitches are dropped.  It wasn't as bad because I could always go back over the areas that needed it.  I did try swapping bobbins, rethreading the machine, switching out the needle.  What I finally figured out was my thread was shredding and after I switched that out things picked up.  

After ruffling over 33 linear feet of fabric I was over it.  

I love the sprays of lilacs in the fabric.  Just to the left of the lounge chair is a lilac bush.  It also picks up the statice right behind it too.  

My friend asked if I was all caught up on my projects and it turns out I am!  Except for the dollhouse which I can/should focus on.  The greenhouse is done, my slip cover is done.  I might try my hand on making some dresses for my granddaughter.   I could also focus on the Halloween party invitation and my costume.  Halloween always sneaks up on me and I find myself frantically trying to get invitations out and my costume finished.  I already know what I am going to be and one component of the costume might be tricky to find.  

Happy Monday everyone!  Enjoy the week.

Kitchen

Bit of a late start this morning.  Normally I do Monday's posts on Sunday but yesterday got away from me.  We had a very productive weekend.  

We are nearly finished with the greenhouse.  We sorted out the door hardware and got the roof on and I did a primer coat of paint.  All that is left is to finish painting and get some door knobs on.  It's turning out just the way I had envisioned. 

I did have some time yesterday to tick off one of my long standing to do items and that was to replace the under sink curtain.  If you are a long time reader you may remember I made a curtain for it when we first moved in.  It was looking worse for the wear, after five years.  The lace was coming apart and it was getting stained.  

Like the previous one, I made this using vintage pillow cases.  One of the pillowcases in this pair had a tear in so I used that one for the shorter tier.  I'll try to explain my construction method.

I start by cutting the cases to the lengths I need.  For the bottom tier I cut it three inches longer than the finished length so I can fold over the top and make a pocket for the curtain rod to fit through.  These cases have a pretty tucked detail that I didn't want to lose so I cut the shorter piece about a inch above it and then folded it over twice to hide the raw edge.  

I then seam ripped the sides which really is the part that takes the longest.  The reason I cut first, then seam rip is so I have less to do.  I sew a hem on all the sides, create the rod pocket on the longer piece and then attach the shorter piece on top.   

Grace approves.

I think the previous owners removed the cupboard door when they installed the farm sink.  I do like the look of the curtain and despite how delicate the lace looks it actually holds up quite nicely.  Well for five years anyway

On Wednesday I'll try to get some green house pictures up.  

 

Simple Sign

Rick and I are going to assemble our little greenhouse lean-to this weekend.  We have all the components and have set aside this weekend to get it all together.  But you know me, I need to start decorating before there is a place to put decor (ahem - dollhouse for example....).  

Our vision for the greenhouse it to have a small structure where we can over winter delicate plants and a place where plants that are doing poorly, but still have potential, can go to recuperate.   

Right now we just stick plants behind the shed and have started referring to that area as the infirmary.  That is what spawned the whole notion of having a greenhouse in the first place. 

So of course it needs a sign.  I set out by finding a piece of scrap wood in Rick's inventory.  What I ended up using is a pre-primered scrap of one by four left over from the bathroom remodel (toe kick, maybe?).  I printed out the word "infirmary" in a font and size I thought would work to be used as a trial run.  The font I used is Hand Shop Typography.  It has a hand lettered quality I really like.

Once I was satisfied with the size I then printed out the letters for the sign in reverse, on wax paper, using my inkjet printer and transferred the design to the wood.  Let me explain how this is done.

1. In MS Word create a blank document  
2. Insert a text box  
3. Enter your text in the font and size you like  
4. Right click on the text box and select Format
5. Under text options select 3-D Rotation
6. In the X Rotation box change it to 180 degrees

Boom!  It is in reverse!

Prepare your wax paper by cutting it to 8 1/2 x 11 and attaching to a regular sheet of printer paper so it will feed into the printer easily.  I just used two sided tape.  I've used spray adhesive in the past but it is just overkill.  Then print, making sure that the image (or wording) is printed on the wax paper side.   

Be careful when handling the printed wax paper because the ink will be wet.  My image actually spanned two lines so I cut it out and then carefully lined it up on my scrap piece of wood and then firmly pressed it down, transferring the ink to the wood.  It smudged a little in the printer but that didn't worry me too much.  I used a q-tip to clean up any ink on the wax paper that was outside the lines and didn't worry if there were any gaps in the ink.  My intention is to use the impression from the ink as a guide for painting the lettering.

I had already created the sign when I decided I should blog this so here is an example of what the transfer looks like on a cardboard box.  

See?  It gives you a nice clean image to follow when you are hand painting.  I used regular old acrylic paint in a dark, forest green for the lettering.  Some of my lines are a little wobbly but that's okay - I really wanted a hand lettered look to the sign.  

It will eventually go above the doors of the green house which you know I will share with you once we get it all built.  Now my begonias will survive the winters here.  

 

Art imitates life

I think I've mentioned that I have a rescue doll house.  I bought it off of Craigslist and the thing is enormous and in much need of restoration (mostly of the decorative kind).  I haven't made much progress on it because, truth be told, the work is daunting.  The interior walls all need a good skim coat of plaster and sanding, the floors need replacing and, well, we just won't talk about the staircases at the moment.  

At first I was very inspired and then very intimidated by all the very realistic, authentic looking dollhouses out there and it kind of paralyzed me.  So I started working on the furnishings as a way to distract myself. 

Now the little details I can wrap my  mind around.  So I started making the odd bit here and there.  After making a few pieces I realized that I was essentially replicating my own decor.

I tend to buy dollhouse furniture and then modify it to suit my taste.  The bed, for example, was an orangy wood stain and I immediately painted it white and added some crystal finials.  Much like my own bed. 

The table and chair are actually plastic, assemble yourself pieces that I also painted white.  

I guess what works for me will work for the dollhouse (which I keep saying I'm doing for my granddaughter but we all know I'm really doing it for me.  I will share though...).  

I did create the stove myself out of scrap bass wood and lots of sanding and coats of paint.  I even made a little Wedgewood emblem like our stove has.  I followed a couple of tutorials to come up with my version.  I have a Pinterest board full of inspiration.   

I'll feature more things I've made and my progress (slow as it may be...) over the next few months.  It's such a fun little hobby and I love how creative I can get with it. You should see all the stuff I've made for the attic space.  I wanted it to tell a story of the person that lives in the house and what an interesting life they have led. 

P.S.  Sorry about the lack of post on Monday.  The weekend just flat out wore me out.  We had my mother in law visiting and a birthday celebrations and I just ran out of hours.   Here's a picture of the finished doll bed.  It was a hit!