Miniature dollhouse scale needlepoint by my talented customers!

My customers sometimes send me images of the miniature dollhouse scale needlepoint that they’ve made from my kits, and I always love to see them, as I’m amazed by the talent and ingenuity of people to incorporate the kit designs into their own dollhouses.

Here’s a few examples of images that I’ve recently been sent:

This first one is of the ‘Judith’ rug, sent to me by Helen. She has created this amazing room to feature the rug in. The rug itself is stitched on 18 count canvas with Appletons crewel wool, and measures 9 x 7 inches.

Helen also stitched this Strawberry Thief chair seat design – this is an Arts and Crafts design (i.e. from the late 1800’s). It’s available as a full kit with woodwork to make a chair (in a different design to this one – this chair is one of Helen’s own), or as just the materials to make the chair seat, if you already have your own woodwork. The stitching is done with one strand of Anchor stranded cotton floss, on 32 count silk gauze.

This is a little sampler called ‘Hearts and Flowers’. The kit itself was won by Sarah S., on my Facebook Chat Group page, and when she had stitched the kit up, she posted the image of her completed sampler. It’s stitched with one strand of Anchor stranded cotton floss on 32 count evenweave fabric. The wooden frame is included in the kit.

This pretty round rug called ‘Bella’ is shown in a nursery with some wonderful little dolls and teddies. The rug measures six inches diameter, and is stitched on 18 count canvas with one strand of Appletons crewel wool.

This cute little tiger-skin rug was stitched by LeeAnne. It’s the first miniature needlepoint kit that she has ever stitched of mine. Hasn’t it come out great? It’s stitched on 18 count canvas. Once stitched, it is glued on to an interlining backing, so that the interlining shows a little around the edges of the stitching, to resemble the ‘skin’.

Thank so much to the stitchers who sent me pictures of their stitching  🙂

If you have any images of stitching that you’ve made from my kits of charts, please email .jpg files, as large as possible please, to janet@janetgranger.co.uk, as I love to see what you’ve made!

If you’d like to have a go at some mini stitching yourself, than take a look at my website  to browse around 300 dollhouse needlepoint kits, plus chart packs, fabric packs and accessories  🙂

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How to make a 1:12 scale display shelf from a bookcase for a dollhouse toy shop

I haven’t made any dollhouse scale furniture for years, but I recently saw this bookcase kit by Mini Mundus, and felt that it would be just right in my Edwardian toy shop, if I kitbashed it a bit, to put my tiny doll collection on!

Of course, once I opened the box, I kind of had second thoughts, as this was what was inside:

Hmm. Bit scary! So many little pieces! Still the instructions were good, so I checked that everything was included, and got assembling…

What I knew I needed to do was to leave out alternate shelves on this bookcase, as I wanted it to be used for displaying my ever-growing collection of tiny dolls for dollhouse dolls (most of these little tiny dolls are under two inches high). So, the shelves needed to be just over two inches apart – which would work OK if I left alternate shelves out.

This is what it looked like part-way through the assembly:

The part I had trouble with was putting the doors on the little cupboards in the base of the bookcase. They don’t have ‘real’ hinges – the doors are held in place with pins. Really small pins. The holes for the pins had been pre-drilled, but not quite deep enough, so I needed to use a small drill bit to drill them out a bit more. Not easy, as I has assembled the bookcase by then, so access to the top and bottom of the door frames wasn’t that good.

So, what do you do in times like these? Get a man to do it! Fortunately, my husband likes a challenge, especially a woodworking one. He trimmed the frame so that the doors would fit properly (Mrs Slapdash hadn’t been all that careful about that bit), and drilled out the holes for the pins.

Then he put the pins in place and attached the doors. He’s got a lot more patience than me!

Doesn’t it look fantastic in my dollhouse toy shop though? This takes up most of the back wall, and really dominates the room, which is what I wanted it to do. The dolls on it fit perfectly, and I’m so pleased with it  🙂

This toy shop room isn’t finished yet…but I’m getting there! For one thing, it needs a shop assistant. And the small glass-fronted display cases need some contents. And I want some 144th scale dollhouses in there too…

Making and collecting for a dollhouse never ends!

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FINALLY I’ve got some 1:12 scale dollhouse doll wigs for my porcelain dolls

How long does it take to get wigs for dollhouse dolls made? Well, in my case, I’m ashamed to say, it takes……34 years!! Yes, you did read that right! I bought my dollhouse in 1983, and very soon after, I bought some undressed porcelain dolls for it. But they needed wigs, so I put them away, to do later. That was in 1986. Hmmm…….

So, I recently found them again, and decided it was about time that I got them finished! I tried looking in my dollhouse books, to see how to make my own, but very quickly realised this was not my thing, so I hunted around and came across Josephines Miniatures on Etsy. Josephine makes 1:12 scale wigs to order for dollhouse dolls (as well as beautiful miniature tatting).

My dollhouses are Victorian/Edwardian in style, so I looked online for some images for her to use as inspiration, and came up with these:

I sent off my dolls (so that the wigs could be made to fit properly), with detailed instructions about the hair colour that I’d like for each wig, and Josephine was amazing – a couple of weeks later, I got a little parcel back, with each wig labelled for the relevant doll, and everything packaged securely.

Here’s the dolls that needed wigging:

And here’s what Josephine made, from the images I sent her:

And here’s a view of the back of each wig:

Aren’t they amazing? I just need to get the time to make clothes for the dolls now. Better not leave it another 34 years!!

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Save money on dollhouse needlepoint chair kits until Sunday this week!

All dining chair kits are on sale this week – don’t miss out!

Save money on all dollhouse needlepoint dining chair kits on my website this week – simply use the coupon code CHAIRS10 at the checkout to get 10% off!

This coupon code also can be used for the multi packs (of two chairs, and four chairs) which are already discounted – so you get to save twice over! And the coupon code also works for the ‘chair seat packs’ – these are packs that include the stitching components (chart, threads, silk gauze and needle, but no woodwork pieces – perfect for if you already have a chair to make a seat cover for).

 

Simply visit the chair kits page to start saving now!

These lovely chairs look beautiful not just in the dining room of your dollhouse – place one in the hallway, study, bedroom or drawing room too!

The kits include 32 count silk gauze fabric, anchor stranded cotton (floss) threads, colour block chart, tapestry needle, wooden components to make the chair, and detailed instructions.

The usual kit price is 22.95 GBP. The sale price is 20.65 GBP – so, you can save 2.30 GBP on each kit (more, if you buy the multi packs of one design).

This chair below has been stitched by one of my customers, called Chris – she used her own chair, and stitched the Strawberry Thief design for it from a chair seat pack.

 

For tips on how to make and assemble the chair kits, see the tutorial on my

website here.

The sale ends at midnight on Sunday, 13th October, so don’t forget to use the coupon code CHAIRS10   on my website before then!

Postage & packing is a flat rate of 2.25 GBP for UK orders (4.50 GBP overseas) up to 50 GBP order value. Orders over 50 GBP are sent post free, worldwide.

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