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!

More Tiny Christmas House....

Inside and Out.....

No Matter how much work you put into it, Dear Readers, the progress on this Secret Christmas House kit is always Tiny! Even though the final room needing its interior walls decorated is the Largest and fanciest room in the House, it needed only the same treatments as the others. I started by making the gold picture frame to add to the printed wallpaper version. This time I made it from two layers of card, one cut slightly narrower than the other, and glued them together.

Here you can see it once it was painted with the gold paint....

which I applied in a textured manner to suggest the carving on the frame.

It is by far the largest and most elaborate frame in the house.

Here you can see I have glued the frame to the printed wallpaper.

And here the paper has been attached to the back wall of the Parlor.

Here you can see the ornate window in the Parlor 

before the wallpaper has been fitted.

The kit comes with interior window frames 

which are supposed to be glued to the wallpaper 

before it is attached to the wall...

but I found that was going to mean 

I could not adjust the placement of the frame 

over the opening of the window 

because the paper needs to fit the wall precisely.

So I fitted the paper to the wall first 

and then tested the window frame.....

And then I noticed that the interior frame 

was not exactly the right shape 

to match the exterior window frame!

The center cross bar was going to be too low 

and would interfere with the view in the window from outside!

So I removed the center portion of the frame....

Which you can see here.

And here it is glued in place.

And the door needed a frame around it like the ones in the other rooms.

At this point I had to postpone making the baseboard trims 

because there will need to be a fireplace mantelpiece 

to surround that beautiful glowing fire 

and until it is built I will not know where to end the baseboards.

The fireplace surround comes in a separate batch of kits....

 

 

Yes, there is an entire houseful of teeny tiny kits 

for all the furniture and decorations shown in these pictures!

But meanwhile, Dear Readers,

 I was also trying to make some tiny curtains....

 

From coffee filter paper painted with acrylic paint

 and "wrinkled" to shape as it was drying.

The idea is to let the acrylic paint 

act like the "glue" used in other methods.

They needed a brass curtain rod..... 

and maybe a draped top.....

Or at least some gold rope tie-backs....

But I am beginning to think I have to be

 more precise with the drapery folds.....

Because when I test them in the room... 

they just look messy!

Yes, I will need to refine the drapery a bit!

And that is not all I accomplished Dear Readers, 

I also made Tiny progress on the exterior of the house!

I really want to "finish" the exterior 

before starting on all those dozens of interior furniture kits.... 

if for no other reason than that I would hate to lose 

any of the final outer pieces before I got them attached!

The House is designed to sit attached to its own perfectly lovely table....

which I am painting a glossy silver gray.

But then I started thinking that maybe I shouldn't attach it to the table.... 

because what if somebody wanted to Play with it? 

What if there needed to be a garden...? 

or a beautiful Landscape....? 

Perhaps it should be able to sit on a larger table 

where the sides could sometimes be open ....?

So I painted a piece of cardboard to be a separate base.....

Making it look a little like the rocks on the foundation....

And then I glued it and the (painted) steps to the House!

I think this allows for much more versatility! 

And it can still sit perfectly on its own graceful table!

 

You can also see here that I have

 painted and attached the tiny window boxes.

The kit suggests that they be painted red, 

but I wanted to downplay the red on the exterior 

so I painted them green.... a much more traditional color!

There is a supply of green and red "bunka" included 

in this kit to make the greenery three dimensional. 

I have yet to try bunka.... 

so I am looking forward to learning how to work with it!

The exterior of the house still needs the "icicles" added 

along with the fake snow and "bunka" greenery....

and suddenly I am getting "Cold feet" 

about making this permanently a winter scene!

Really! 

I am just going to have to accept it....

It is the Secret Christmas House Kit after all!

And even if I decide to add a Garden.... 

it could be a beautiful Snowy garden scene!

So you can see Dear Readers, 

That a lot of Teeny tiny steps were accomplished,

Inside and Out.... 

And there is only a little more to do 

to finish this Tiny Christmas House Kit!

(If we don't mention all those furniture kits, that is!)