The Enchanted Cottage Close-up...
Some of you, Dear Readers, might have Noticed the little Cottage in The Enchanted Forest in my previous post. First, let me say it is not a Dollhouse. But it is an Enchanting little cottage! It is actually a small sewing box, made entirely by hand by myself. I started it last year as soon as I had retired from my regular day job. But the Dream of making this cottage began many years prior to that when I first saw this project being stitched on another needlework blog (Janet Granger's Passionate About Embroidery) way back about 2015 or so. She had a Book called " Home Sweet Home" that was detailed patterns and instructions for making this and many tiny stitching accessories to go inside it, written by Carolyn Pearce, originally published by Inspirations Magazine, an Australian publication. At the time that she was stitching it, Janet informed us that the book was already out of print and the "kit packs" of supplies unavailable. She was sourcing her own threads and beads and charms, so she didn't mind that part. It took her ove a year to stitch all the parts and assemble it, and she posted her progress regularly on her blog. Well, I was smitten and added it to my "Someday" list, figuring that I could just copy what Janet did to the best of my abilities when the time came. Imagine my surprise when sometime in 2022 I learned that the book had been re-issued in a 10th Anniversary Edition with updated patterns and even a few new accessories! Well, I bought it as soon as I could and began to collect the supplies needed. This was my "Retirement Gift" to myself.... a no expenses spared indulgence in beautiful threads and materials to make this kit.... wool form Australia.... silk from France.... linen from California... beads and baubles and tiny sequins... I was in heaven just gathering the supplies!
The windows are appliqued voile with an overlay of a Cloud Filling stitch.
After lacing the pattern the frames are stitched with a Portuguese Border Stitch.
In my eagerness, I decided to do all the windows for the house at one time...
to save on having to re-learn the techniques months later!
It was at this point that I realized the back wall of the house
was not designed to have any windows.
This seemed a terrible waste to me... there was the back wall...
looking out on a lovely tree and no windows??
So began my excursion into adding More all over the kit!
As you can see, I decided the back needed three windows!
(I was really enjoying making them and loved the way
the voile glittered in the light like glass!)
Alas, somewhere about now was when I injured my arm
and had to do Nothing At All with it for about eight weeks!
This gave me plenty of time to slow dawn and consider the project as a whole.
And when I did start to stitch again... in tiny little increments...
I decided to do as Janet had done and make the "smalls"
(all those accessories) first.
This way I learned a Lot about the scope and details of the project
starting small and making those inevitable mistakes in a small way!
Here you can see the beginnings of the Emery Block...
a 1.5 inch by 1 inch little gem you use to sharpen needles.
The items being stitched were so small... they did not over tax my arm!
Here you see one of those "little mistakes".
The visible dashed line was supposed to be done
only in basting stitches for placement purposes.... not ink!
Thus I learned the hard way to pay close attention to those
instructions about tracing the patterns onto the cloth!
I did "fix" the above mistake by adding a line
of stitching around the border to cover the ink lines.
Here you can see the lines have been disguised.
The box is only awaiting the emery powder
to be inserted and then stitched closed.
And you might have noticed I had drawn the pattern
for another of the "smalls" on this same piece of linen...
This too, was not a good idea!
As you can see I made the same mistake with the dashed lines....
using ink instead of basting stitches.
And because this is so close on the cloth to the Emery box,
I had to stitch this before I could cut out the Emery box to complete it!
A small frustration... but another lesson learned!
Here you can see the completed Needle Book...
and I used the same tactic for covering the inked lines....
just add more thread and gold!
And as you can probably imagine...
it took almost an entire month just to stitch
and assemble this little book!
I learned so many stitches and varied padding techniques....
not to mention construction techniques...
it turned out to be a really good idea to start with the "littles"!
There is not room in this post to detail any of the
half dozen other "littles" I made before I got back to the main project...
the House Box itself.
at this House Front and compare it with the one on the Book cover,
you will discover that they vary in a few details.
I tried, at first, to make the project just as the Book described.
It was only after I had finished the other three walls
that I decided I really did want to make some significant changes.
In particular, I wanted the designs to "go around the corner....
not stop neatly at the edges and leave a gap
before starting again on the new wall.
And the other significant change was
that some of the metal "charms"
that were part of the original designs
(the bunny was supposed to hold a carrot)
did not appeal to me, or were impossible to find.
So I either added charms to my liking (like the teacup above)
or ended up making a stitched version instead of a sewn on charm.
And for the teacup above, I needed to invent a mushroom...
my own original design Stumpwork Mushroom!,
for the teacup to sit upon.
Otherwise it would have dangled sideways
off the box wall and looked ridiculous.
And at the very last, I wanted to stitch the Cottage's name...
"Cottontail Cottage" above the door...
tucked under those rose blossoms!
The second side I stitched was the simplest and I made very few changes.
I couldn't find a charm for the salamander
so I stitched a version of the Red Eft that is native to this part of the world.
And I didn't like the charm for the lady bug....
so I just didn't add one. The stitched one is part of the original design.
Also there were supposed to be small flower shaped beads
to use right above the Red Eft...
but I couldn't find appropriately sized or colored ones
so I used ordinary beads.
The opposite side, or end wall, has a Strawberry blossom theme...
and here I made quite a few additions to the original design.
For starters, at the top I have added a dew spangled spiders web...
and a lovely black and yellow garden spider of my own design.
And because the spiderweb would only be dew spangled
if the whole world surrounding it were also dew spangled....
so if you look closely... there are clear little beads everywhere!
And where I was supposed to add a little metal charm "bee skep"
which I didn't like the look of...
I added a "Dandelion Fairy" dancing upon another Mushroom...
all my own Stumpwork designs!
And in this panel you can also see along the "corner edge"
I have stitched ivy... because I added it to the back wall of the House!
Really I changed almost everything on this back wall!
For starters, the wool, a variegated mahogany and rust
colored skein from Australia, was no longer available.
So I pieced together different sections of stitching
in various wool yarns I had from crewel stitching many years ago.
And then the original design was for an "Orange Tree"...
but we don't have them in this part of the world!
So I converted it to a "Pear Tree"
Using the same variegated silk thread
but making them pear shaped and pendulous,
rather than upside-down like the original design.
And the basket was supposed to have large "beads"
masquerading as oranges.... so I stitched pears instead.
And for the Bee Skep... it was supposed to be
one of those metal charms....
but there was also one of the "smalls"
(I haven't made that one yet!)
that had a lovely stitched version of the skep....
so I just used those instructions to make this one.
And the bee itself...! The one on the Emery Block ...
all metallic and weird must be some kind of Australian bee....
I had to make this one a Bumblebee...
using the "Ghiordes Knot" stitch to make
the fuzzy texture for the body!
And of course... those windows looking out on the yard!
And the ivy climbing up the walls... turning colors for fall....
and blackberry canes on the right side....
As I said... about the only thing unchanged was the leaves on the Tree itself!
Oh, I had so much fun!
And then it all had to be assembled into a box.....
with lining and an interior lift-out tray....
Another entire adventure
in matching pattern across different pieces...
fitting and stitching together the inner tray...
which you see here holding a few of the other "smalls" I did make...
a tape measure cover, a thimble holder,
a Spool holder..... and the Emery block.
And here you can see the lower compartment
with the Lift-out tray removed.
And the open roof panels with the elastic bands
to hold scissors or a measure stick or seam ripper.
And at the bottom of each tray compartment I stitched a small symbol
of one of the images on each of the items that fit that space!
And the roof panels open at the top,
closed by loops over the bead "chimneys".
I just can't describe how much fun I had making this project!
I learned so much about fine needlework in the process,
stitched with treads like silk and very fine wool
that I had never used before!
And gained the courage to try my hand at
inventing a few details like stumpwork mushrooms!
Yes, Dear Readers, making this Enchanting Cottage
was way more than just a small distraction...
it was practically a Master Class in fine needlework!
