Dollhouse Miniature- Dressing the Bed

Watch the video here.

This week we are finishing up our little bed project. I asked you all if you wanted to see me dress this bed and the overwhelming response was a huge YES!! So this week we dress our bed.

So the first and probably the most important part of this part of the project actually didn't take place on camera, it was the shopping for the fabric. So I am going to start the blog with that very important step.

I went to the fabric store with a couple of things in mind but I was fairly open to getting what I could find. The things I knew I wanted were:

1. a fabric that was lightweight so I could get it to drape correctly.
2. I knew I wanted a muted color scheme, preferably in a brown, green, type of color.
3. I wanted the design to be subtle and not frilly. I was actually hoping for either a stripe or a plaid.
4. Whatever the design it had to be in scale

One thing I probably should say right here is that I have been sewing for over half a century, (yikes when did that happen??) My mom and grandmas taught me to sew by hand long before I started school. And my mom taught me to use her sewing machine when I was about 8 years old. So for me a fabric store is someplace I am very at home.

Other than those points I really didn't care what the fabric was. So I started my hunt as I always do in the remnant bins. I love the deals that can be found there but sadly nothing that would work for this project was on hand.

My next stop was the aisle with the “special purchase” fabrics. I love this area because I never know what I will find. And believe me when I say I have found some real treasures in this area sometimes. And this is where I struck gold so to speak. The piece of fabric I got was actually the second one I found, the first was almost right but the design was just a hair too large for my taste.

So how does this fabric fit into my requirements I listed above? Well, although it was labeled as a taffeta, it is very thin and lightweight. The only problem with that part is being a taffeta it is a bit stiffer than I was hoping for. The color is exactly what I was mentally picturing as I created the bed. It is a stripe, which is what I was hoping for, And as for scale, this stripe is soooo tiny. I absolutely love this fabric and I have a feeling it will use all of it over the next couple of years. I can picture it on a mini couch too.

So the only real drawback to the fabric for this project was that I knew going in it would be stiff. How stiff I wasn't sure of until I got home and played with it a bit. Since I have been sewing for so long I do have few tricks up my sleeve when it comes to handling fabric.

So the first thing I tried to decrease the stiffness of the fabric was to simply get it wet and dry it. Many times this step will do the trick because the manufacturers put a finish on some fabric to make them appear more polished in the store. Once you remove this finish you can see what you are working with. With our fabric today this did help a lot.

Another challenge with any woven fabric is that the edges will fray if you don't seal them in some way. I really was hoping to not have to add a hem because that would have made the cover a bit more difficult to work with. I was lucky in that Fray Check was able to seal the edge and not leave too much of an obvious line. This product is always the first thing I try. If it hadn't worked I would have probably just sewn a narrow hem on my sewing machine.

Since I didn't need a hem I was able to cut my fabric to the exact size I wanted it to be. If you have to add a hem to your fabric you need to cut your fabric big enough to allow for this.

Since the bed it made of foam I was able to pin the cover onto the bed. I always try to make just a spritz of water work to make the fabric lay down. With many fabrics it will work. Our taffeta was just a bit too stiff still for that to work.

You have several options when water alone doesn't hold the fabric. Hair spray and spray starch are both good choices and I did use them often. This time I just had a feeling the taffeta was a bit too unruly for either of them to work so I went the the other option and used glue. Since I already had my hot glue gun ready for attaching the headboard to the bed that was what I used. The big advantage to hot glue is not drying time, once it cools you are good to go. The drawback to any glue is it makes it harder to change the bedding later. Also you need to be very careful not to get glue where it will show or allow it to soak through the fabric.

So there is the how and the why of our bed.

Now as I promised here is a link to the bed I dressed in a previous video. This one is much more frilly with lots of pillows.

Be sure to send me pictures if you make a bed, I love to see what you make from my tutorials.

Dollhouse Miniature Bed

Watch the video here.

This week we are finally getting the bed made to go with the headboard I made last time. Sorry for not getting this done last week, but real life took over.

I like to keep this part really simple and I like to use what is on hand. We aren't going to see most of this when we are done so keep that in mind. The basic shape is made of a layer of foam core and a layer of builder's foam. Builder's foam is a sturdy foam insulation that can be found at home improvement stores. I got my 8' by 4' sheet of it several years ago. I have made a ton of projects from it and I am trying really hard to use up the last of it. I have also made beds using regular Styrofoam and the softer foam that is sold in fabric stores for real furniture. As long as you have the sturdy foam core on the bottom any of those will work. I personally like the builder's foam a bit more than the other options but use what you have (or have access to)

I cut both the foam core and the builder's foam to 3 ¾” by 6 ½” and then glued them together. This glue needs to dry completely before we go on to the next step.

After our layers are glued together we need to cover the “mattress” I like to use white craft felt squares for this. The weight is really good for covering, it will give us a neutral base under whatever material we decide to dress our bed with, the edges won't fray, and it gives a fantastic surface to work on because the fabrics we layer over it won't slide around while we are working on the dressing step.

I used 2 felt squares (they measured 9” by 12”)

I cut one into 2 pieces 9” by 6” and the other one I cut off two pieces 1 ¼” by 12”

Then we just need to glue the felt on. I started out with my normal white glue but it was taking way too long so I switched to the dreaded hot glue gun to finish up. I really prefer to use liquid glue.

For feet I like to use 4 regular push pins like you would use in a bulletin board. I thought for sure I had some white ones but couldn't find them so I used 4 clear ones. You can use whatever color will go with the finished bed you are making. 

Dollhouse Miniature Headboard

Watch the video here.

This week's project is not the one I thought I would be posting today. It is not the one I had been working on last week, it isn't even one I had planned to work on. I thought I was going to be finishing up the project I was working on last week. That project unfortunately is now at the bottom of my trash can. I haven't decided if I will be leaving it there, if I will pull it out and try to fix it, if I will attempt to re-do it or if that one is just a total wash. I think all of us have those projects from time to time.

So after I threw what I had been working on for over a week in the trash I had to come up with something else. I thumbed through one of my many mini-related books for some inspiration and saw several really nice beds. I do love to dress beds, they are a lot of fun to do, and I have done at least a couple of videos on them in the past. Then I got to thinking as much fun as beds are to dress, the beds themselves, especially the headboards are even more fun.

I sat down with a very loose idea of what I was going to do. I knew a few things I wanted to make this headboard with items that are inexpensive and easy to get. I didn't go out of my house to get anything to make this. So look around your craft room (and through the recycling bin) and see what you can come up with.

The headboard we are making today would fit a twin/single size bed. If you want to make a larger size just make it wider. You might have to use something other than the craft sticks in that case.

Start by cutting two layers of paperboard (cereal box) to about the size you want your headboard to be. Then glue the two layers together with the plain side out.

Now just build your design on this base. I used the craft sticks because I have a bunch of them. You can use what you have. I decided to use the wall patch fabric because I love the texture of it. I use in a lot in my card-making and in art journaling for the same reason. As a bonus it takes paint really well.

I used the skinny sticks to frame the texture piece both to help anchor it down and to add another decorative element.

The only thing needed at this point was to finish off the side and top edges for a more finished look.

At this point you could go in many directions as far as painting. I wanted a rustic, shabby chic type of look but you could go more polished at this point too.

If you don't have the materials I used look at what you have and make something with those things. That is the fun of projects like this.

Next week we will add a bed to the headboard. And I will show you a simple way to dress the bed.

Dollhouse Miniature Grocery Set

Watch the video here.

This week I actually had another project planned, and half way completed but it became very obvious that I just would not get it done in time for this week's tutorial. Instead of panicking I got out the kits that Ann from Paper Minis had sent me a while back and picked one that many of you had requested. Okay, I picked two but I only had time to put together one of them, so we will save the other kit for another time.

The kit I picked today has a grocery bag and some boxes and bags of staple items for your dollhouse kitchen. These are a little on the tedious side because of the size but they turn out so cute that they are well worth the effort it takes. I do recommend spreading the project out over a couple of days so you can work in short periods of time. If I try to do too much at one time on these small kits I find myself making dumb mistakes and getting careless.

You will need some thing to cut with I decided to use scissors today, something to score the fold lines with and some glue. So very few tools or supplies are needed for these kits. Oh and good lighting is also important because you want to be able to see all the details as you work.

I hope you enjoyed the video and be sure to go over to Paper Minis and have a look around. Ann has so many wonderful kits on her site. I am sure you will find some thing your dollhouse just has to have. LOL

Here is the link to the kit we made today.

Oh and if you do buy from Ann let her know I sent you over. We really enjoy hearing from all of you when you go to look at her site. And if you make up some of her projects be sure to send pictures to both Ann and to me, we both love to see what you are working on. (and Ann might put your pictures in her newsletter too!)

Dollhouse Miniature Folded Clothing

Watch the video here.

This week I am working on something that was requested a while back, some clothes that are folded so you can put them in the drawers of the dresser or stack then wherever you need them.

This is a fun project and really easy because there is no sewing involved at all.

The first time I saw these was in a swap I received probably about 15 or more years ago. I was very intrigued by the idea and set about to figure out how to make them. I am really happy with my version and I hope you are too.

Before we start we need to pick our fabric. This can be tricky because we need to keep scale in mind. Of course you can stick with solid colors then you don't have to worry about it. Just keep your eyes open for tiny prints. For this project I do recommend using a 100% cotton because it takes to ironing very well and also glues well.

To start we need two pieces of fabric the first one cut 2 ½” by about 6”. the second one needs to be aout 1” by 2”. We also need a piece of cardstock that is cut 7/8” by 1 ¼” (I know I said the size wrong in the video-sorry)

The steps in the video are pretty easy to follow, Just take your time and be careful working with the hot iron.

If you are not familiar with the paper backed fusible web it does make life so much easier when doing projects like these. I use it all the time and always have some on hand. Just be careful not to get the glue part on the iron. That is a huge mess and not fun to clean up.

The other tools you will need are some glue (I used Tacky) , scissors, a toothpick (to apply the glue) and a hole punch (1/16”) for the optional buttons.

I hope you enjoyed the project. Remember to let me know if you make any of my projects I love to see what you are working on. Send me pictures if you can either on the Facebook group (the link is always in the video description), here on the blog, or you can email them to me here. 

Dollhouse Miniature Faux Ceramic Tiles

Watch the video here.

Once again this week I am showing you a project that was inspired by the Frugal Crafter's Channel. If you haven't checked out her channel, well, what are you waiting for? Here is a link, go have a look around.

This time we are going to make some faux ceramic tiles. This project is really more of an inspiration than last week's wood was. This week I had to make some changes to get the end result I was looking for and some simply because I didn't have the materials and/or supplies Lindsay used in hers. Also I just wanted the tiles not the stamping technique she was showing.

So for paper I am using some glossy photo paper that I got at the Dollar Tree. There are 8 sheet for a buck so this is a really inexpensive project. I have a lot of different colors of ink because I love to rubber stamp and make cards. You can use any ink you want for yours. I like the Distress Inks from Ranger because they come in fun colors and I happen to have most of them. I almost always buy my ink in the small mini size- a lot cheaper and they take up less room. I like to have lots of color choices when I dig through my ink.

For this project we are going to use a scoring board and score what will become the grout lines in between our tiles. I went over each score line twice to make it slightly more pronounced that it would have been if I had just went over the lines one time.

I wanted to make my tiles to look like 12” tiles so my score lines are 1” apart. You can make pretty much any size tiles you want, just adjust your score lines.

I found that using the ink pad in a circular motion and not pressing too hard was the best way to apply the ink. Don't stay in one spot too long or you will do what I did in the first area I worked on and fill in your grout lines.

Once the ink was dry I used my white gel pen to touch up the grout lines. This worked pretty well except in the area I was really heavy handed with the ink. I think a white fine line paint pen might be a better choice in that area. Or just be more careful of how you apply the ink, in other words learn from my mistake.

So this is another project that I am showing you how to make a basic supply and I want to see how you use it. So if you use these tiles in a project be sure to send me a photo. 

Dollhouse Miniature Faux Wood

Watch the video here.

First let me say I saw this process on one of my favorite Youtube channels. If you aren't familiar with the Lindsay of The Frugal Crafter you just have to check out her channel (here) She is a very talented lady who among other things paints, stamps, makes cards, makes jewelry and so much more.

She used this faux wood technique a while back on a card and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to try it out. I knew it would be a technique my followers could use for many things in the dollhouse. I can see this being a floor, siding on a building, maybe a table top, and so many other things.

If you do use this process in your mini projects be sure to send me some pictures I want to see how you use it!

Since we are starting with Kraft color cardstock we already have a “wood” color base going on. We just need to add some grain lines and some dimension. The first step in this process is to use a scoring board (mine is a Martha Stewart one around $20) to make lines between our “boards” I chose to go every ½” to give me some 6” wide boards. You might want to try closer or further apart.

Next we need to add the “wood grain” for this I used a selection on dye based ink pads that are used for rubber stamping. I do prefer the small or “mini” size because I can collect a lot more colors for less money. The full size ones get really expensive if you want to get lots of colors. My are from the Tim Holtz Distress Ink line by Ranger. Here is a link to some online. You should be able to find them at any craft store. You can use any brand but I do find what is known as a “dye based” ink works best for this project. They dry faster and clean up is easy.

Lightly use the ink pads to wipe on the color going the direction you want the wood grain to go. Allow this to dry (it won't take long)

Once the ink has had a chance to dry use a rough paint brush to barely dry brush some paint onto your boards. Again go in the direction of the wood grain. Allow to dry.

Once this is all dry you have the option to come in with a dark colored pencil (I used dark brown) to trace over the scored lines. This adds depth to them and kind of looks like the dark lines between real boards.

I do recommend that you finish your project with a quick coat or two of a clear spray sealer.

Now where are you going to use your sheet of faux wood? Send my a picture so I can see.