Dollhouse Miniature Coffee Maker

 

Watch the video here.

So I have been working off and on on this video since the end of December. I knew I wanted to make a coffee maker for the dollhouse kitchen and I had a couple of ideas for what I wanted to do. In fact the basic coffee maker is one I have been making for many years. I used to sell one with the same base part a different coffee pot part. I also did a tutorial for my Patreon page back when I had that up and running. The old version had the pot made out of a large clear bead (I think it was about ½” in diameter) but for this version I wanted to “modernize” it a bit and make a coffee pot that had a more cylinder shape. I have lost track of how many different ideas I tried over the last almost 2 months but it was a lot. Some were total failures, some worked out okay but when I tried to replicate them I couldn't get them to work out again. This one while I feel there is room for improvement is the closest to what I wanted to make at least so far. I felt happy enough to take the time and energy to make a tutorial on it. I may do another version in the future, who knows.

So for the coffee maker part we need the following items.

From heavy white paper (I used some 140lb watercolor paper) we need 2 circles that are ½” in diameter.

From either a really thick paper or a piece of double layer card-stock a strip that is 1/8” wide by 3” or 4”.

From card-stock that is painted silver (I painted mine with one coat of grey craft paint then one coat of silver) 2 strips that are 1/8” by about 4”

From white card-stock a 1” wide piece that is a few inches long (depending on your dowel you might not need this piece, I'll discuss this later)

From a 5/8” wide craft-stick cut two pieces (1 from each end) that are 1 ¼” long, you will need the round ends of the craft-stick on both pieces.

A small wooden spool that has been cut shorter to look like the filter holder.

 

 

 

 

 

And finally a piece of 5/8” dowel cut 1” long.

A thin round wooden shape ½” in diameter (you could use a round of black card-stock for this if you don't have the wood piece)

Once all the pieces needed are cut and gathered we can start building.

First step is to glue the two heavy paper disks together with the double layer strip extending from them. This will become the lid/handle unit.

Glue the cut spool to the round end of one of the craft-stick pieces.

Once this is set up add the dowel and the other craft-stick piece and allow to dry.

Since the dowels I have in this size are made of a really coarse wood I decided to wrap that part of my coffee maker in the strip of card-stock to make a nicer finish. If your dowels are nice and smooth you won't need to do this step.

 

 

 

Once all the glue is dry paint the body of the coffee maker with white craft paint. It will most likely take 2 coats at least.

Paint the small wooden circle with some black craft paint.

Now onto creating the coffee pot portion of our project.

I am using a sheet of acetate, I purchased this tablet of acetate sheets probably 20 or more years ago. And I although I have used them in many projects I still have a lot left. Here is a link to a similar product.

One of the problems I ran into in coming up with a way to make the coffee pot was a good way of cutting something that is so hard to see. I couldn't mark the acetate sheet with cutting lines and without cutting lines it was very difficult to get straight cuts.

Then I came up with the idea of making the lines on a piece of paper then taping the acetate to that paper and cutting both.

Since my acetate sheets are 9” wide I decided to make my life easier and use a piece of printer paper turned on it's side. That way I could line the acetate up and have room on both sides to tape it securely.

I don't remember what order I drew the lines in the video, as long as you put them in the same places the order, for the most part doesn't matter.

I drew a line ½” from the left side of my pattern paper, this is the line the that the left edge of my acetate sheet will line up with.

Next I drew a line 3 ½” from the left edge of the pattern paper. This is where I will transition the cut size of the pattern.

Now I drew a line ½” down from the top (long) edge of my pattern paper. This is the cut line that will determine the height of the coffee pot.

Now from the 3 ½” line draw a line 1/8” up from the ½” long line. And then draw another line 1/8” from the top of the page starting at the same point.

Hopefully that description along with what I did in the video will help you to get all the lines in the right places.

Now using a couple of pieces of masking tape adhere the acetate sheet to the pattern page lining the left side of the sheet to the line ½” from the left edge of the page and the top edge of the acetate with the top edge of page.

Make sure you tape your acetate really well in the area you are going to cut off. You want the pattern page piece to be taped still when it is cut away from the rest of the piece of paper.

Carefully cut as shown in the video to give you the piece needed to make the coffee pot.

Now for those that have been with me for a while you know that I am not a fan of the hot glue gun. I tried every glue I had on hand and nothing else worked as well. That being said I did have to try all 4 of my glue guns to find the right combo of glue gun and glue. Some melted a hole in the plastic, this one did too if I put the glue on directly, but with a toothpick it was fine.

Some of them left a cloudy haze when the glue cured. The big glue gun I used in the video with it's glue sticks worked well and dried clear. Before you ask I have not idea what brand glue sticks I have since they are just dumped into the drawer where my glue gun lives.

Heat the glue gun on low heat.

I did use a bit of transparent tape to hold the beginning of the roll together. I used a permanent marker pen as my base to roll the pot around.

Be really careful to keep everything rolled tight and straight. Add a few dots of glue as needed to hold this together, just remember every drop of glue has the potential of showing so just do them where needed.

Once you have the coffee pot rolled use some glue to hold the end of the strip to the rolled shape and carefully slide it off the pen.

Now use a pool of glue to glue the coffee pot to a scrap of acetate and allow this to harden.

Once hardened trim the excess acetate and glue away from your coffee pot body.

Glue the lid/handle unit to the top of the coffee pot.

Add the silver strips as shown in the video.

Once all the hot glue is dry coat the coffee pot with some clear nail polish. I found this to be the perfect finish for the acetate and it had the bonus of helping to hold everything together.

Give the part of the coffee maker that you painted white a coat of satin Mod Podge and allow to dry.

Glue the black disk onto the correct area of the coffee maker and allow the glue to dry.

Once everything is dry try to place the coffee pot into the coffee maker. If it is too tight to slide in sand away at the filter holder area until it fits. I did have to sand mine a bit to get it to fit in. You want this to bit hard to get in place so it doesn't come out every time the dollhouse is bumped.

There you have it, a coffee maker to put in the dollhouse kitchen. Pair it with the mug tree (video can be found here) and the mugs (video here) that we made a few years ago and I think the dolls will be very happy.

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.