Teeny Tiny Curtains....!

Pursuing A Dream....

Some of you May recall, Dear Readers, my mentioning that I was not satisfied with the paper curtains that are provided with the Secret Christmas House kits. To begin with, they are very "fussy" and are just not my style. But more importantly in my opinion, they are Flat! As you may have noticed, I have been trying to add a third dimension to many of the pieces that come in these kits...(thickness to books, roundness to teapots and candlesticks, depth to picture frames and door frames to name a few!), so it should come as no surprise that I would want my curtains to appear more realistic and have at least a little bit of dimension to them! How to achieve this and with what materials has been the pursuit of many hours both waking and asleep. There was no way to finish decorating the Secret Christmas House without adding curtains.... and they needed to be added before the furnishings could be put in place. And in case you had not noticed... the Christmas Season is fast approaching! Would I give up on completing this project this year? Or would I try yet again to make suitable curtains....
The above picture will show you some of my attempts. They are a bit embarrassing.... made from coffee filter paper smushed into a curtain-ish shape and painted a color approximating the ones in the kit. Even with lovely gold trim, they just looked horrid when tested in place...

No, this just would Not work!

I decided I was going to need to be very precise with the "folds" of the material... 

and I also decided I would prefer to use cloth if possible!

From there I tried many methods of making the material fold like pleated drapes.... 

I even tried winding the wet cloth through the teeth of a comb while it dried!

But none succeeded in giving me a small enough pleat.

Finally, last weekend I decide to try making a wire "jig" 

to hold the material in place as it dried.

I thought that perhaps if I made a frame of wires in a curtain-drape shape,

 and placed the wet cloth over the wires....

Using a method described by Elizabeth of Studio E Blog...

 (The material is dipped in a watered down glue.... 

thank you for the tutorial Elizabeth!)

And then laid more wires over the wet cloth....

 pressed into the valleys between the first wires.... 

to hold the wet cloth down while it dried....

Then maybe it would dry with small enough pleats!

I also tested the method of just using pins

 to hold the fabric in pleated folds.... 

(which you can see above to the right.)

This method left large pin holes in the cloth 

and not enough consistency to the pleats.

But the wires method seemed to work fairly well...!

You can sort of see the test curtains here.... 

I know they are very pale and you can hardly see the pleats....

 but it shows promise!

I tested more versions with coffee filter paper.... 

but did not like the results.

Paper is out... cloth is in.

I quickly made more with the cloth...

Well, not quickly... it takes a couple of hours for the cloth to dry!

Here I am using an antique silk charmeuse scrap...

it has a very fine weave and a soft and malleable hand.... 

and is also a cream color that could be painted if necessary....

Here I am testing one of the dried panels in the parlor..... 

I think I am getting somewhere!

How about two panels together....?

I think these could work!

Now, Dear Readers, I am getting Excited!!!

Here I am testing the pale silk in the Sitting Room again... 

but I am not happy with the color for this room... 

it is too pale. The curtain just disappears.

And I am not really happy with the way it looks painted... 

that will serve as a last resort... 

but first I want to try other fabrics.

Starting with a green silk....

 the very same green silk I used for the bed curtains 

for the Tree House bed!

Here you can see several of the different versions 

together with the original printed paper kit versions.

The green silk is too "yellow" for the Sitting Room... 

so I try them in the Dining Room....

Oh my...!!! 

What a perfect color match!!!

And the fringe even looks okay!!!

So now I need to make the curtain rods.....

Like so...!

And testing the Parlor curtains......

I have decided to go with the cream color in this room... 

it tones down the pink a bit and won't compete with the Tree....!

And now I have Glued them in place!

The Sitting Room curtains wanted to be a darker green....

Here you can see it drying in the wire "jig"....

And in place in the Sitting Room.

It is hard to get the colors to look the way they are in RL... 

this appears a bit too blue in this light.

But the "green" in this room is a very blue-toned green!

But I must say, Dear Readers,

 I just want to Crow about these curtains!!!

Even though they will practically "disappear" 

when the room is all furnished...

 I think they look Perfect!

See what I mean? 

You hardly notice the curtains!

Here, come a little closer.....

I just Love the way the Light shines through them!

Well, Dear Readers, 

I just can't tell you how Excited I am

 by these tiny bits of cloth...

Catching that Dream....

Teeny Tiny Curtains!

Not Another One....!

Stolen Moments.......

I hope you are Not Shocked, Dear Readers, to see an entirely different Tiny House kit featured in the above picture! I was pawing through my boxes of mini Christmas supplies, looking for something else entirely, when I found this kit I had bought a few years ago but never assembled. And if you are like me and are procrastinating from all sorts of more difficult tasks, then something as simple as this becomes Irresistible! There were hardly any parts, and they would go together so quickly! And best of all, the printed decorative papers that needed to be glued on would give me Practice in attaching these sorts of  papers to the constructed house! (And I was feeling a trifle nervous about gluing the papers for the Secret Christmas House kit!)

So I quickly assembled the parts 

and forgot to take any pictures of the beginning....

The entire House is less than three inches tall. 

The kit is made by "Dragonfly International" 

but I bought it through the Hobby Builder's Supply Catalog.

 

 

The laser cut wooden pieces went together quickly 

and the exterior papers were simple to glue on.

But after that, Something happened.....

 

 The attic was not supposed to be "accessible". 

But I thought that would be a real waste of space!

So I cut an arched opening in the roof paper.

And then I realized that the roof paper was not sturdy enough alone,

 and would need to be stiffened with some cardboard...

(Which was easily accomplished.)

And then I realized that while there were two printed floor papers, 

there was only one decorative paper for the ceiling.... 

but there were two ceilings....!

So you can imagine what had to be done to the unfinished ceiling!

(It did not take too long!)

And because the middle floor fit so snugly in the house, 

the printed wallpaper needed to be cut in half 

and applied separately to each room after the floor was attached.. 

So there you see, Dear Readers, 

I made only a few modifications to the kit!

And I had good practice with the gluing of the decorative papers!

Which made it much easier for me to feel confident

 about the Secret Christmas House!

 And because I was still stealing moments from all those other tasks on my list, 

I decided it was time to glue the windows into the front of the Secret Christmas House,

since the interior side of this wall would not be decorated and so 

I needn't worry about getting paint or glue on the window panes by mistake.

And then I glued the rest of the floor papers into the rooms.

Because the ceilings had all been painted

 there was no risk of getting paint on the floors by mistake!

And then I went ahead and glued the exterior wall paper 

on the right side rooms!

I had glued the window panes in last week, 

and could not attach the exterior frames 

until the paper was in place.

Here I am testing the fit with the right side in place.

And since that was looking so good... 

it was time to attach the front wall papers too! 

Here it is without the interior rooms in place....

And here they are in place.

What a difference the papers make!

Here you can see a close-up view into the Library through the window!

I still have to paint all those incredibly delicate window frames.... 

but I figure that will take me quite a while and I don't want to rush.

Well, I don't know about you, Dear Readers, 

but I just couldn't resist stealing a few moments 

to work on these Tiny House kits!

(And No, I don't have  Another one!)

(Almost) Nothing To Show...

The 200th Post!

I hope you can forgive me, Dear Readers, for being Completely Unprepared for the Momentous Occasion of This, My 200th Post!!! I would have liked to have some thoughtful commentary prepared..... or a summary of the Life of this Blog to show.... or perhaps an update on all the ongoing projects..... or perhaps even a giveaway contest planned..... but, Alas, I have none of those to show! Instead, it was one of those weekends where the RL Chores ate up all my time and I got Almost Nothing Done in my mini worlds! I did manage to add a couple of rows of bricks to the top of the Chimney for the Conservatory.... in fact, I decided that the top of the chimney needed to be a little taller and fancier.... so what should have been only three or four more rows of bricks, grew to ten or twelve rows of bricks.... and it is still Not Quite Done!

Here you can see the brick portion in place.... 

between the halves of the Conservatory.....

I think the chimney looks more realistic when taller....

And here is the view from the side.....

Please forgive the poor lighting.....

It is that dark time of year!

(And now that all of the Christmas Lights have been put away :(

It Feels even gloomier...!)

That was all I accomplished this weekend, Dear Readers, 

so rather than leave you with So little to show...

I thought we could have a Closer look 

at the Dollhouse Annabelle got for Christmas!

(Several of you mentioned that you wanted to see inside it...!)

I made this little doll's dollhouse in 1974.....

(I was still a teenager)

And I had very few materials to choose from when building it.

It is simply painted cardboard.

It is front opening (unlike the Lovely Old Dollhouse)

and the front doors are "hinged" with strips of linen sheet material.

I carved a wooden peg as the latch to keep them closed.

Inside are four rooms and the central Hall with stairs....

On the right downstairs is the Dining Room....

With china and silverware painted on the table....

And a Maid ready to serve....!

And the upstairs is the Children's Nursery....

And on the left downstairs is the Parlor....

and Upstairs is the Master Bedroom...

The Parlor has a mirror over the fireplace made of Tin-foil!

And the sofa and chair are painted cardboard....

painted to resemble dark blue velvet (I think!) with brass tack detailing!

The visiting guests are "paper doll" cutouts... as are the Resident Hosts!

They appear to be dressed in the fashions of the Victorian era....

Here you have a better view of the Hallway and the stairs going up....

It is rather difficult to get good shots of these rooms.... 

the Parlor is only 1 and 1/8 inch wide!

The entire house is less than four inches long and 

about 3 and 3/4 inches tall including the Widow's Walk on top!

Here is a view of the Master Bedroom and the upstairs Hall...

(yes, that is my thumb in the upper corner!)

(And no, I don't have giant hands!)

The bed is also made of painted cardboard.... 

with an American Patchwork Quilt!

Upstairs in the Children's Nursery 

two children are playing with building blocks....

Once again, "paper doll" cutouts....

I even painted the candle sconce on the walls... 

visible on the right!

In places the paint has "crazed"....

but it really has held up very well over the years!

 

 

You can see that my measuring and gluing was a little off....

The floor is definitely higher on the left side!

The attic is not accessible..... 

and it is interesting to note that this cardboard is a good bit thicker 

than the average cardboard available now!

I hope you have enjoyed this Tour 

of Annabelle's Antique Dollhouse.....

Because without it, Dear Readers, 

I really would have had Almost Nothing to show you...

On This, My 200th Post!