While waiting for Chuck 'square up' all of the openings on the room partitions, I thought I would post a wee bit relative to how I use my skills in sewing and fibre arts in my dollhouses.  I LOVE to sew, and am an accomplished quilter. When I saw what passed as 'bedding' on the miniature market, I just knew I could do better.  So I began by making miniature pieced quilts and comforters.  I found that cotton muslin and calico is far to heavy for miniature bedding.  It does not drape easily, and looks a bit 'stiff' when installed on a bed.  The solution was to use a fabric that had a drapeable hand and a soft feel.  I chose haboti silk, and it lends itself wonderfully to hand sewing and finishing.  There are few examples of my work in my 'miniature stash'.  I have given away and sold with other dollhouses many pieces of silk bedding and quilts that were made before the digital camera, and hence there are no photos.  I do have one of my very first silk twin bed ensembles that I determined was not quite 'up to snuff' as far as quality of workmanship.  The photos are below (all pieces DO have square corners.  They just look a little 'off' in the photos because of the positioning.) 

The ensemble consists of two bottom bed sheets, one embellished top bed sheet w/matching pillowcase and pillow, and one comforter.  Also shown in the picture are several hand made pillows (incidentally all pillows are filled with REAL down), and several plain pillowcases.

I have since done many 1:12 scale bedding pieces and found that searching the 'Thrift Stores' for 100% silk neckties yields some incredible teeny tiny silk prints that can be used for quilts, comforters, fabric linings for hat boxes, curtains, and upholstery.  So I have amassed quite a 'stash' of wonderful designer silks from neck ties.  Some of them have linings that have the design logo woven into the silk (i.e. Oleg Cassini, Versace, etc.)  I also scavenge these  linings from the ties for use as linings in hat boxes, luggage, etc.  A little 'designer touch' is always welcome in my creations.

Silk damask also makes lovely dining room tablecloths w/matching napkins.  They all must be hand sewn with extra fine thread so they appear to scale.  Machine sewing, for the most part is not compatible with 1:12" scale.  Hopefully, I will have some time in the next few weeks to finish up a few more bedding sets that show up much better than the one above.

So, that's my bit of palaver for today.  Hopefully tomorrow we will get the partitions in the Thornhill and the hinged panels attached.  The kit instructions call for a stucco finish, but I plan on using the Magic Mortar Brick system to 'brick' the Thornhill.  It is more in keeping with the Federal style.  So, I will want to have all of the panels attached before applying the 'brick' so that all rows will align properly.

So until the next time,  'Think Miniature', it's so much fun!!

Dottye