Miniature Monday - the final room

Yes, I am afraid today will be the last post for Miniature Monday, as we come to the last room in the house - the den.

This is the room where the lady of the house comes to do her accounts, put the money in the safe, relax and do her knitting or some sewing on the treadle sewing machine, or read a book.

Here is her chair with her shawl over the arm (knitted on extremely tiny and thin knitting needles!) and her footstool which was a kit. The pattern on the footstool co-ordinates with the carpet, which was also a kit and took me about 3 months of stitching nearly every evening!

And here is the carpet in more detail.

This shows her bookcase with the books I made, the newspaper rack with newspaper printed off the internet and her sampler on the wall - one of the easiest bits of embroidery/tapestry that I did!

Here is her desk where she sits and does the accounts for the tea shop and writes her letters to her brother when he is overseas. I even have letters in the drawers!

And finally a shot of the sewing machine with some fabric left in it - she must have been interrupted half way through making something!

Thank you so much for joining me every Monday. I have really appreciated all your comments and have enjoyed sharing my miniatures with you.

Miniature Monday

So, here is the penultimate room of my dollshouse. We are now up in the attic, where the owner of the shop has her own 'den' and a room for her brother to stay in when he is back from his travels overseas. So, which room am I showing you today? The brother's room and here it is.

So, here is the brother in his meagre room! He doesn't stay very often, and is just pleased to have somewhere to lay his head and store the treasures he has brought back from his exciting adventures overseas. I will let you in on a bit of a secret. The brother was originally the gardener, but when I sold the garden I could not bear to part with him and so kept him and promoted him to brother status!

He was a kit (a present from Hugh) and I had to put him together, wig and beard him and then make his clothes.

Here is one of his trunks, with maps from earlier adventures and a teddy from when he was little. He uses the globe to plan where he is off to next!

The bed has not been made up yet as he has only just arrived home (and also because I love the mattress I made and wanted to show it off!).

Thank you for looking and please join me again next week for the final episode of Miniature Monday.

Miniature Monday

As promised, here is the bedroom from my tea shop/house.

I love this room - it is so pretty and feminine. The only light in here is the candle on the bedside table and as you can see, it does light up.

The table is actually a cotton reel and I embroidered some pink cloth with green thread to create the table cloth.

The cover, pillowcase and undersheets were all embroidered in pink, green and pale blue and I also made the nightdress (first photo).

Finally, I also made the rug above. I can't remember if it was a kit, or if the pattern came from a book, but I know that I was pleased with it.

That's all for today. Please come back next week for the penultimate Miniature Monday. Thanks for looking!

Miniature Monday

I've just been taking photos of the remaining rooms, so I know that you have only 3 Miniature Mondays after today I am afraid!

Still, that means I have four more rooms to share with you and today's room is the sitting room on the first floor.

The doll came free with a magazine and is the only one that I have not dressed myself. She is visiting the owner of the shop and has been left upstairs whilst the owner has gone to get the teapot!

The fireplace lights up - doesn't show too well in this photo - but Hugh fixed it into the lighting circuit for me. I love the little dogs on the mantelpiece - we have them in real life on our mantelpiece!

The sofa came as a kit and I made it up and upholstered it. I then made the cushions and embroidered them.

The carpet, which you can just see in this photo, was a 1:12 scale tapestry kit - it took a long time to complete! There are actual music scores on the music sheets on the piano and the music stand.

I love this corner unit. My Gran and Pop use to have a Buddah like the ones on the shelves and Hugh had a Toby jug.

This photo shows the cushion and the bell pull, both of which I stitched. The wallpaper is properly flocked too, although I bought it that way!

I hope you have enjoyed my tour of the sitting room. Please come back next week to see ...... the bedroom!

Miniature Monday

Today I am going to share the tea room itself with you and the owner of the shop and rooms above. This, like last week's post, is photo heavy again!

Both ladies here were bought dolls which I dressed. I also made the tablecloths. The furniture was all bought at the Dolls House and Miniatures Fair that I used to go to in Southend every year. It was very conveniently held on the weekend of my birthday!

I loved playing with Fimo to create food. I had a great book by a lady whose first name was Angie, but I cannot remember her last name. I made all the food in the tea room.

I tried to remove the dust before taking these photos, but it was very difficult to shift!

The pattern on the tablecloths was sketched on and then I stitched along the lines and then stitched the lace onto the bottom.

More yummy cakes! Makes me hungry looking at them!

The telephone under the stairs - obviously a very well off establishment.

This lady is the owner of the tea rooms and lives in the rooms above. I made all her clothes, but she is bought - my dollmaking skills had not miraculously improved!

I even made her underwear and shoes!

This lady is again purchased, but I made her clothes. She is the one and only customer in the shop.

A close up of buttons and trim on her blouse. I had several books of 1:12 scale Edwardian and Victorian dollshouse clothes. I have kept quite a few, but they are currently up in the loft!

Well, that is all for today.  Next week I hope to show you the bedroom - I am going to see Take That on Friday and staying at my sister's - had I mentioned?! I am only a little bit excited!

Miniature Monday

WARNING! This is a very photo heavy post!

So, this is what my tea-room/house looks like from the outside. Today I am going to share with you the kitchen, which is the room on the left, downstairs, as you look at the house.

This shows an overview of the kitchen area, with the cook and the 'tweeny' (inbetween) maid. Although the room is fairly small, I have stuffed it full of kitchen bits and bobs, just like I imagine a Victorian kitchen would be like.

This shows the range at the back of the kitchen. Hugh bought this as another present for me and fitted and electrified it, so that when the lights are on in the house it also lights up. There is an alcove to the right of the range which I filled with tins with authentic labels on.
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The kitchen table with the sugar cone - this is made from real sugar stuck onto a cone shape and then pva glue poured over the top to stop it from falling off! I made the mini jam tarts in the tin too.

This shows the dresser - there are even plates and cups inside the cupboard.

The sink and plate rack and also the bells to summon the servants to the appropriate rooms.

A meat safe - made for me by Hugh. I made the meat out of Fimo.

A tiny vegetable box with Fimo made vegetables in it. I loved making the food - I bought a book which had brilliant instructions in. The cabbage was one of my favourite things to make.

Here is the tweenie - I named her Maud. I actually made her out of Fimo too. She is not the prettiest of girls, but I was pleased with her as my first attempt at doll making! I also made her clothes.

This is the ugly cook! I again made her from Fimo and made the clothes myself. I never gave her a name - she was just cook!

Here is the final photo for today. Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments about my miniatures. Next week I will share the tea room with you.

Miniature Monday

So, we have finally reached my last miniature. This was actually the first one I had. I had seen this shop in our local dollshouse shop and knew that I wanted to make it into a tea room downstairs and living accommodation upstairs and make it Victorian.

This is the basement showing the garden areas I created

Hugh purchased it for me for my birthday and I spent the next couple of years building, decorating and filling it up. When I had 'finished' it I needed something else to do and had seen a basement which I fancied adding to it. So, being the wonderful husband he is, Hugh bought me the basement for my birthday. I then spent many a happy hour decorating the basement and making a garden for the outside.

A closer look at the garden. I made the vegetables out of Fimo and used
tea leaves as earth!

This then sat under my dollshouse for a few years, but it did take up quite a lot of room - sticking out into our lounge. Unfortunately, when we had to buy a new three piece suite this meant that we no longer had room for the basement, so I had to sell it :( So, what you are seeing now are the photos I took of the basement before I sold it.

This is the right hand room in the basement. I had decided that it was the servants' bedroom, so was to be fairly basic. I hand stitched the two patchwork quilts - I loved doing the miniature sewing although I hate to do real sewing (apart from cross stitch which I love!).

This is the left hand room. Hugh added the extra small room for the toilet, as I loved this wonderfully ornate one I had found. I had this room as a sort of junk room come basement working area for the shop above. I built a  copper into the corner near the fire for the washing to be done in and under the stand ont the right you can just see some wellington boots. There were also lots of flower pots and seeds on the dresser, along with bottles and jars of preserves, but unfortunately  wasn't into photography as much then and I didn't take good enough photos, which is very frustrating now!

Next week I will start my tour of the actual shop. As I still have this dollshouse I intend to take some digital photos and so give you a lot more detail to look at! Thanks for looking this week.

Miniature Monday

So, we are now up to 'The Tower'. This was a kit from the Dollshouse Emporium and as soon as I saw it I knew that it would be just right to create a miniature for Ben. As a 14 year old at the time he wasn't exactly 'into' miniatures, however he was into all things Lord of the Rings and also Warhammer.

So, I bought the kit, and with a little help from Hugh we constructed it. Hugh decided that he would really like to help with this one, so whilst I was wallpapering inside and out he created the light for the main room and various of the weapons. Sorry the table is dusty below! I didn't realise when I took the photos!

The idea was that this was one of the towers of Rohan and so I also created a figurine for it to represent Legolas (Hugh made his pointy ears!).

The outside was laid with individual stones from an aquarium shop - all stuck down with white glue and the steps and 'concrete' look was achieved with a special stone effect paint.

The first floor was the main hall and the upstairs room had the weapons. Ben was really pleased with it and the tower had pride of place in his room for about three years. When he reorganised his bedroom he wanted to get rid of it - gasp! I couldn't let that happen, so it is stored away, to be found a home again perhaps in his bedroom once he has moved to Reading and his bedroom becomes the spare room!

Thanks for looking! We are almost at an end, although I still have my main dollshouse to share, which I will stretch out for as long as I can!

Miniature Monday

This is a room box I did for Hugh for his birthday quite a few years ago. He was away on business at the time in South Africa, so I did it all secretly. I used a wine box and printed out the wallpaper from an online dollshouse site. I based it on his bedroom as a child and so of course had to include a train set! I knitted the teddy and stitched the sheet, pillowcase and eiderdown. I mae the rag rug infront of the fire and scanned in some of his train photos and childhood books to use. This one is again lit and you can see the lampshade hanging from the ceiling.

 

The farm was made from model railway scenery animals, which I thought was apt as Hugh is so into his model railway! I love this one as there is so much in the room - a typical child's bedroom!