Crooked Cottage

I spent the better part of August working on this little cottage for the tiny bead dolls.  Amazing how insistent a tiny doll can be!

I love using cardboard, partly because my woodcrafting skills are nill, and partly because there is so much of it around for free.  And, making dollhouses keeps it out of the landfill.

This wee house was made from one cardboard box, with a couple of strips of cardboard glued to the side to make a ledge for the second floor.

There is always an incredible mess when I start playing with cardboard and glue and paper and paint.  This is laid out on the floor, and you can see the basic doll house shape already done.  I painted the entire thing with gesso, then used scrapbook papers to paper the inside walls, and sponge painted a fern green to the outside walls.  The floors are carpeted with felt, and the roof is shingled with old dollhouse shingles I've had for decades.

You can see the sponge painting on the sides; striving for a look of moss on stucco, and the shingles glued to the roof.  I tried to glue long twigs to finish the raw edges of the house, but the glue wouldn't hold.  In desperation, I looked around for another way to fasten the twigs to the house, and found some waxed linen used for macrame jewelry that I could tie the twigs to the raw edges.  I used a pinvise to drill tiny holes in the cardboard and threaded the cord through these and around the twigs.  If you look at the picture below, you can see what I mean (better than my trying to describe it).

A bit crooked, but sweet.  And quite a mess!

Tiny furniture for our tiny house; chairs and a bench from wooden blocks and twigs; table from spools and wood cut-out; quilt on a bed from spools, twigs, and a piece of cardboard.

Something to hang on the walls!

Living room, furnished.

Bedroom furnished.

A bit cozy, but we're happy.  And so is the owl in the attic!

And looking a bit spooky with some camera manipulation.

I just grabbed and box and started playing.  Bet you have plenty of boxes to play with as well.  The wood bits are easy to find at the craft store, and the twigs came from our own tree trimmings ( a brush pile is a wonderful thing).  It is great fun to make something from nothing!

Knits for your tiny tribe

Knitting does not come naturally to me, but I love it just the same.  Tiny knit sweaters have a sort of magical charm, so I made some for my tiny tribe.  I used fingering weight yarn, and size 00 needles.  About as tiny as my fingers and eyes want to go!

The girls also wanted a knit sundress and rompers, which are basically the same pattern, with a divide for the legs for the rompers.  These patterns are all included here, if you want to make some tiny knits.  The only ones that require dpn's are the pullover, and the long sleeves on the sweater.  I used dpns on the skirt of the dress, but it could be made flat and hemmed up; the legs of the rompers are really easier to make on dpn's.

Knits for tiny tribe

Have a delightful dollmaking day!

Bead and Dowel dolls revisited

About a year and a half ago, Joyce and I collaborated on a doll design that used wooden beads for the head, dowel rods for the limbs, and a very simple crocheted body.  The doll was about 5 1/2 to 6 inches tall, and a nice, slender companion to Hitty.  You can find the pattern here:

Hitty bodied peg doll

Some Facebook inspiration got me interested in making a tinier doll, that could stand on her own.  So now, I have another pattern to share, for this little bead and dowel mite.  She stands (on her own!) right at four inches:

Tiny bead and dowel doll

The pattern includes, hopefully, all the tools you will need to make this doll.  In addition, there are patterns for four different wigs made from fingering weight yarn and a size B crochet hook:

And three different outfit plus a sunhat, made with size 8 perle cotton and a size 6 steel hook:

You can use the nightgown bodice or the camisole to make a sundress, and I have some other ideas for outfits in the making.  Here is a list of what you will need to make the doll.  This list looks long, but these are pretty simple tools and supplies.  Hopefully you can get them at your local hobby shop, or if not, they are available online:

Materials, for the doll: 

-An exacto knife for very minimal shaving of the wood dowel and spools

-Small saw and miter box for sawing the dowel rod pieces

-Pin Vise (tiny hand drill) for drilling the dowels to string the limbs to the body.

-200 grit (fine) sandpaper for minimal sanding

-Black paint for eyes and boots

-Pastels in shades of pink for blush

-Modge Podge to seal wood pieces

-Glue

-Toothpicks for painting eyes.

-20mm (3/4inch) wood bead with at least 3/16 inch hole

-One 12” long ¼” diameter dowel rod for body support, arms and legs (will make one doll)

-Two ½ x ⅝ inch spools for boots

-Strong craft thread for jointing the doll’s limbs

-Four  ¼ inch buttons for jointing the doll’s limbs

-Size 3 crochet cotton to make the body

-Size B crochet hook.

-Embroidery needle that will fit through the holes drilled in the dowel rods.

-Craft or carpet thread.

I'll end this post with my favorite picture. I love making dainty undies!

Looking for Spring

March has come and gone...it brought the most snow we've had all winter, but the flowers continue to bloom.

I fell in love with Dala horses this month!  A Dala horse is an artifact of Swedish culture: a carved stylized horse with lovely painted details.

These three are from Etsy.  The largest is 6.5 inches from toe to ear, the smallest is 5.0 inches.  Since carving and painting are not my strong suits, I looked around for a crochet pattern for this style of horse.  This is what I found:

The basic horse pattern is for an Icelandic Horse, freely available on Ravelry by K. Godinez.  

I tweaked the pattern slightly by adding a stitch to both legs (making them slightly wider) and inserting a thin wooden spool in the bottom of the leg to make them stand a bit better (a piece of dowel rod the appropriate diameter would also work).

I then decorated my horses with crochet flowers, lace, and doilies.

My bead and dowel doll Diane was very happy with the result, so I made her a Swedish inspired outfit to go with her horses :-)

The pinafore is from a pattern for crochet Hitty that you can find on this blog on the left sidebar.  The bonnet is from a pattern designed by Joyce and is available on her Flickr site.  The dress is a fitted waist crochet Hitty dress that you can also find on this blog.  Look for Crochet Hitty on the left sidebar and you should find several outfits to make for this doll.

Here is hoping that spring will decide to come and stay!

Kitties for Hittys...and other tiny dolls

We love cats!  And so does Hitty Twig.  If you knit, Rabbit Hole Knits on Ravelry has two freely available and delightful knit kitties; one of which you see here in grey on the right.  This is the Tiny Window Cat.  There is also a Tiny Parlor Cat.

I do knit, but it is not my strong suit, so I used the inspiration of the Rabbit Hole Knit kitties and created two crochet kitties.  The ones you see in Twig's lap, and the one of the left.

Crochet Kitty for Hitty

So now, you can have a tiny cat for your tiny doll, whether you knit or crochet.  Enjoy!

A great week!

Last week was a great week!

First, I cleaned up my workroom...the last time was in 2014.  Really, my Mom did raise me to do better than this!

After everything was nice and clean, I made these simple, inexpensive, fun little curio shelves from cardboard boxes.  The perfect place for my little bead and dowel dolls to live :-)

And the girls got some new dresses!  These are based on clothespin angel patterns published several years ago by Leisure Arts

And these are made from size 10 crochet cotton.  The dress is a length of lace from a Leisure Arts pattern; the pattern for the rompers and the cardigan sweater is here:

Twiggie Rompers and Sweater

And finally, more friends in the making, including a Hitty!  Meet Hitty Twig :-)

And patterns for her undies in size 10 crochet cotton:

Twiggie Undies

So listen to your Mother!  Extraordinary things happen, when you clean your work room :-)

Dolls from dowels and beads

This post is especially fun to write, as I get to share with you a dollmaking collaboration between Joyce and myself.

Several months ago we both became enchanted with making dolls from clothespins.  Simple wooden dolls have been made for centuries, either whittled from wood, like Hitty, or made from what was easily available, perhaps a wooden spoon or a clothespeg.   Working with our talent for crochet, and our admittedly limited ability with power tools,  it seemed that a marriage of crochet, beads, and dowels was in order.

And so, the soft-bodied Peggies were born!

Joyce has created a pattern that uses a pillow shaped crochet body with jointed arms and legs from 1/4 inch dowel rods, and the head and neck from a wooden bead and another dowel.  The parts are cut, drilled, sanded, and painted. Tools necessary are a pin vise for drilling tiny holes (this is a hand held drill and NOT a power tool) and a small miter box used for dollmaking.  You can find them here, or at your local hobby shop:

Small miter box for dollmaking

Pin vise for drilling small holes

 Assembly is as easy as threading a needle with carpet or craft thread and jointing the pieces to the body.  You can crochet your outfit directly on the doll, or make them remove-able.  Here is Joyce's pattern for the doll body:

Pillow Body Peg Doll

Another variation on this theme is to use a Hitty inspired crochet body, which is what I have done.  Here is my pattern for the Hitty bodied peg doll:

Hitty Body Peg Doll

If you wish to make remove-able clothing, you can do a Google search for crochet clothespin dolls and find some free, and inexpensive, patterns that will fit these dolls.  Etsy has several sellers that carry these old patterns.  Here is a link to one free pattern, using size 10 crochet cotton.  In the interest of complete disclosure, I have not tried this, but Joyce has!

Free clothespin angel pattern

I have a couple of patterns for the Hitty bodied doll, worked in size 8 perle cotton and a size 8 steel hook.  Worked with a slightly larger hook they will fit the Pillow bodied doll as well:

Undies and  wigs for soft bodied dolls  this pattern includes the three wigs you see here as well as the undies.  You can make an entire wardrobe with these patterns.

Nightgown for Peggy Jane

And finally, look at the adorable ways that Joyce painted her Pillow Peggies!

Let your imagination run wild with these delightful and easy dolls!  Enjoy!