A New Find!

Our family took a vacation this summer to 

Yellowstone and Glacier National Park.

It was all SO amazing! I had never been to

either place before.

Eventually we ended up in Helena Montana, the state's Capitol.

We saw the Capitol building and museums and great restaurants.

 While we were in Helena I DID look in a couple shops.

In particular I stopped at an Antique Mall.

Guess who I found languishing in a locked cabinet!?

YES! This lovely restored Patsyette!

She had been adorably restored,

but sadly had on an unflattering, boring dress.

The dress didn't even fit properly!

SO!

I made an emergency trip to the fabric store before

we headed for a fishing cabin in Idaho!

I picked up some yarn, ribbon, a few fat quarters and other

miscellaneous sewing bits and bobs.

 I cut out some pattern pieces from 

newspaper and got to work!

Here is her first new dress.

Did I have a sewing machine with me?

NO, of course not.

I used a needle and thread!

Actually these small dresses are almost easier

sewn by hand.

The dress needed a little something, so I added some

embroidered flowers.

Look how sweet she looks!

I decided she would be called Helena 

since that's where I found her.

I had almost forgotten!

Just before we left on vacation

I was lucky to find two Patsyette outfits

on eBay!

 This green and white outfit, and...

This little bunny pattern dress with a bonnet, book and SHOES!

I was so happy when I returned 

home to find these waiting for us.

Helena had only some plastic shoes, ugh.

Here are Helena and Lizzie

modeling their new outfits.

Sadly, the bonnet doesn't really stay on their heads.

I'll have to see what can be done about that.

 This outfit came with this tiny 'P' pin.

Here is a close-up of the bunny fabric dress.

Well, Helena was thrilled to meet her new sisters.

And just adored her new bedroom. So much better than

a stuffy display cabinet!

The girls also got some new plates. Two for the wall.

One on their dresser to hold their cards, 

 And another on the shelf above the tea table.

Speaking of tea, let's have some.

Miniature Doll Book Making - Tutorial

In my recent Doll House project I made some little books.

I promised to make a tutorial and here it is!

I made these three books and some little flower

cards.  Small details like these can add a lot

to a Doll's room. The flower cards I just glued 

to a second sheet of paper and cut them out.

For the book, you need a picture of a book cover.

There are lots of free images for books like this.

I just did a search for "Free dollhouse book cover".

I increased the size of the image to suit my 9" dolls.

I printed the image on regular print paper.

Trim the image but leave some extra!

Trim the corners out.

Leave folds on all four sides.

You will need thin cardboard.

Cereal boxes and tissue boxes work great!

Cut out 2 cardboard pieces, slightly smaller than the front and back

images. Cut a third for the spine.

You want the image to fold over all the edges, 

so no white paper shows on the cover.

I always use a glue stick for paper projects.

Liquid glues make the paper wrinkle.

Carefully glue the cardboard to the back of

the book cover.

Leave some space between the cardboard pieces.

This will allow your book cover to fold.

Glue the flaps down on all 4 sides.

(my glue goes on purple!)

Notice how the pink cover is visible on this side!

This makes certain your book cover image 

looks right, with no white showing.

 Here is the cover all glued and ready for pages.

For the inner pages, use a full sheet of paper.

Accordion fold your paper the width of your book cover.

Some people use a piece of styrofoam instead

of paper pages.  You could also use

thick pieces of cardboard glued together.

I personally like seeing the paper pages.

 You should end up with this.

Lay your paper inside your book to

measure the length you need.

Remember, the pages should be slightly 

smaller than your cover.

Cut the folded paper into pieces to 

fit inside your book.

Stack them up and check if they are thick enough

to fill the spine of your book.

Keep in mind that these are books for looks only!

It doesn't matter if they have normal opening pages!

Next I use Tacky glue to glue

the pages to the spine.

Tacky glue is stronger and dries 

faster than Elmer's glue.

I add an extra dab of glue on both ends as well.

Let the glue fully dry making sure the pages 

are all in contact with the spine.

Let it all dry and your book is done!

Doll Dress Fun!

I recently found these 3 vintage outfits.

I believe they were hand made from flour sack fabric.

First are these two Baby Doll Dresses.

The fabrics looked like they came from the 1940s?

This first dress with a Fall color pattern 

And this blue print dress.

The dresses were hand made, but a little plain.

But, I liked the style of the dresses.

SO! I decided to see what I could do to give them

a little more charm.

Here are the results.

I added some gros-grain ribbon and some little

bumblebee buttons to the Fall colored dress.

Not a huge change, but I think very sweet!

This dress will be sent to my friend for her Puddin.

She really loves Fall so I thought of her.

The blue dress I added some vintage lace 

and some pink ribbons.

Very Sweet!

Now, this next jumper is a mystery to me.

The fabric is adorable.

But it is shapeless and ill-fitting.

It is a flat garment with no gathers.

There are also tears in both legs.

What to do?

MAKEOVER!!!

I used some linen and made a collar.

I'm hoping this will give the garment more interest.

Here are the collar pieces ready to be attached.

I had to make the neck area larger by cutting it out a bit.

I also decided to make this a short sun dress with bloomers.

You can see here these outfits were all hand-stitched!

Here is the remade sun dress.

I used the same linen to create a cuff on the pocket.

I also shortened the sleeves slightly to fit better.

Looking sweet Puddin!