Capriccio Cottage

Where do Grace Notes live?  In Capriccio Cottage!

I love making dollhouses; the simpler the better.  After being inspired by the dollhouse in "Knit and Crochet Garden,' by Arne & Carlos, Capriccio Cottage came into being.

The book and the dollhouse :-)

Capriccio Cottage began with two wooden crates and a handful of scrapbooking papers purchased at Michaels.   You could stain or paint the crates; I applied three coats of polyurathane varnish to the wood.

I took along one of the dolls just to make sure the crate would be the right size for a dollhouse.  The dolls are nine inches tall; makes the rooms a bit cozy, but it works.  It would work just as well for 16cm to 26cm BJD's :-)

Scrapbooking papers come in a wonderful array of colors and patterns, and are remarkably inexpensive.  I even found some great papers for flooring!

I cut cardboard for the floor and the back wall, leaving the sides unpapered.  Check the fit; it works best to cut the cardboard 1/4 inch smaller than the crate dimensions.

After the fit check, apply glue to the cardboard.  I squirt it on from the bottle, then use an old paint brush to smooth the glue out.  As you can see, it doesn't need to cover the cardboard completely.

Lay the glued side of the cardboard down on the scrapbook paper and smooth down, then fold the edges of the scrapbook paper up over the back edge of the cardboard and glue this down as well.

 

Your covered cardboard should look like this, with neat edges and a smooth surface.

Let the glue dry, then insert into the floor and wall into the crate.

Your dollhouse is now ready for the interior decorator!  

I made a couple of peg racks from scrap wood, spools, buttons and scrap paper.  Instead of glueing the racks to the side walls, I nailed them on.  It makes a nice place for the girls to hang their clothes.

Its nice to have plants in the house, and tiny cactus seemed to be just the right thing; they won't require much water, and they were the perfect size :-)

Here, the plant stand is a Willow ware candleholder, the rug from a Gail Wilson kit, and the chair and bench made from clothespins and popscicle sticks.

And finally, another Grace Note to move into Capriccio Cottage :-)

Ruby Grace, green-eyed with red mohair French braids

Making peace with Double Points

HarmonyAnn is my second Hippie doll from the Arne & Carlos book "Knit and Crochet Garden."  I've made my peace with double point knitting needles, and although the first few rounds of knitting are still a bity wonky, it is worth putting up with as the doll unfolds upon the needles.  Nice it is there are minimal seams to sew :-)

Hippie's Cardigan

Hippie Joy, from the Arne & Carlos book "Knit and Crochet Garden" is a delight to knit for.  She is 12 inches tall with a slender waist, so any outfit knits up quickly.  I've already made her a pair of overalls and pullon sweater from the book, but Hippie Joy wanted a cardigan sweater to wear with her pretty dresses.

I adapted a pattern from the 'Knitted Dolls' book, also by A & C, and freely offer it here for your very own Hippie :-)

Hippie Knit Cardigan

Now I want to work on a 'mini me' in Hippie style!

New Dolls: Jade and Joy

I've been making dolls and playing in the flower beds, now that Spring really has arrived here in the Midwest.  This is Jade, from Fiona McDonalds free 'Babe's Little Sister' doll pattern. 

Her sweater dress is stranded colorwork, using the template for raglan sweaters from the Arne&Carlos 'Knitted Dolls' book; the patterns are from Alice Starmores book 'Charts for Color Knitting'.  The sweater is knit to Arne&Carlos's instructions, but with worsted yarn and size 6 double point needles. 

Here is the colorwork pattern for the dress:

Sweater body

Sweater sleeve

Click on the link and you should get a gridded pattern for the body of the sweater and for the sleeve.  If necessary, enlarge the image so you can see the individual grid lines.  The body pattern is one half of the dress body; the sleeve  pattern is for the whole sleeve.  Best if you have Arne&Carlos's book for the sweater construction directions.

Planted some of my favorites, violas, in a clay strawberry pot.  These are city cousins to violets, another of my favorite spring flowers.

And rejoiced that my hellebores survived this cruel winter, even to bravely blooming through the last snow of the season :-)

And finally, a new Arne&Carlos doll!  This is Joy, from their Hippie pattern from 'Knit-and-Crochet Garden.'   After making their dolls from the 'Knitted Dolls' book, I thought I would NEVER knit another doll on dpn's.  However, this little doll just had to be made, and amazingly, she made up quite easily.  Perhaps two years and more experience with dpn's made the difference :-) 

Joy is smaller than the original Arne&Carlos dolls, about 12 inches tall.   I think she is going to have some Hippie sisters joining her soon!