Tiny Kitchen

Finished this kit the other day... 

Still have four more kits to make so that should keep me occupied during this lock down.  The lock down isn't bothering me much, I suppose I can understand why some people would not be happy about it.  It's for our own good, unless of course you want to take the chance of dying from the virus, which I don't!

Miniatures

I've been busy making a little miniature kit.  I've taken my time with it so it has taken me three months to assemble everything.  There is so much in it and it's quite tiny, probably half inch scale.  I took this picture of part of the scene but before I'd glued everything in its correct position.

One side is the garden and the other side is a little room.  I've enjoyed this kit immensely.  I used PVA glue so there was a lot of waiting for it to dry.  Daren't trust myself with faster setting glue, the items were tiny and I kept getting glue all over my fingers, at least with PVA it washes off easily.

Neglected Dolls

My poor dolls have been neglected for quite a while now.  I bought a nine inch Dora Explorer in December 2016 with the intentions of making her some exploring clothes.  Started making an overall but couldn't get the size right.  Looks like she is going to end up with either knitted or crochet clothes, if I ever get round to doing it.

It's the same with my doll houses.  They are now really dusty.  Each day I vow to sort them out but, so far, haven't.

How can I get myself motivated and out of this slump?

Got To Get Back To Doll Stuff

Apart from knitting a few little animals and dolls I've done nothing with my dolls for ages.  I wrapped them up, put them away and got on with other stuff.  To give me some impetus to get on with a bit of doll stuff I've bought a Dora Explorer doll.  It's small enough to get me going again with making clothes so I'm looking forward to next year making her things.

Little Knitted Doll

The only doll related stuff I've been doing recently is knitting tiny dolls...

This is one from Flutterby Patch , this is from the Little Friends in Autumn pattern.  It is a lovely pattern, very easy to knit and a beautiful result.

I notice that she has got some new patterns on her blog.

Dusty Dolls Houses

I've got several dolls houses and enjoy making things for them as well as buying items. Trouble is they get so dusty.  A year can go by without touching them or making anything, so, as you can imagine, they are covered in dust.  It's such a shame when this happens.  I have a lot of hobbies and each one takes a turn, sometimes a couple of months, sometimes a year or more between each.  My fabric stash is big, there are quite a few fat quarters that I know I won't be making patchwork quilts out of, most were bought just because I liked them. How to use up my fq stash and do something about the dust are two questions I ask myself. My latest idea is to make dust covers for my dolls houses.  These houses are not on display as such, they are just standing there in my craft room.

Here's what I came up with.  The first house I covered was this Sylvanian People house, I can't remember what it is called...

Using five fat quarters I made the dust cover in a simple shape, to have made one to fit perfectly would have been to difficult for me...

It will be easy just to take the cover off and give it a good shake or to wash it.  Then when I want to 'play' with the house it won't need dusting first.  And it looks pretty, nice to see this Chinese style fabric instead of it being folded up in a box, which it has been for years.

Knitted Dolls

For about a year I've not made any doll clothes or bought a doll.  Recently I decided to get rid of some of the pile of clothes I had made so that I can get back into making new things for my dolls.  A bit like clearing out my own wardrobe that I do regularly.  So far, one bag of clothes has gone to a friend's granddaughters.  Still quite a few for me to go through so in the meantime I've started knitting dolls.  The pattern I used is from here and it worked up beautifully.  I'd heard how good the Jean Greenhowe patterns were and now I know for myself.  Here's the little Rainbow Baby I knitted from one of Jean's free patterns...

It took me a couple of days knitting on and off all day.  It's a very easy project and everything worked exactly as the pattern said it would.  I've started another one and intend sending for the Little Dumpling Dolls parts 1 and 2.  

I had bought a pattern book from another designer and was very disappointed with it.  It was for little knitted bears that had various knitted outfits.  Well, the bear knitted up very nicely but the clothes turned out miles too big for the little bear.  What is the point of making anymore from that pattern book if the patterns don't work how they should, a waste of my time and money.