Doll House — That Neck of the Woods

Oct 15

Oct 15 Doll House

This is the ongoing story of things I work on for this dollhouse. I had no idea the world of miniatures was so much fun!

These pieces are meant to fit the Calico Critters dollhouse dudes.

Camping Set

Materials:

fabric
wooden dowels
yarn
twine
felt
batting

For the tent, I cut four dowels to the same length, twisted some twine around the top as I had them as evenly splayed as I could, then used a hot glue gun to secure the twine in place.

I cut a semi-circle of fabric, sewed a 1/4" seam along the flat edge, draped it around the posts of the tent frame, and hot-glued them in place from the inside. I then pulled the corners of the opening of the tent back and secured them into place with hot glue.

For the sleeping bag, I cut two pieces of felt about the same size. I sewed a 1/2" seam along the edge of one of the bags, then sewed them together with the flat seamed edge on the inside. I flipped the sleeping bag inside-out, trimmed the corners so they were rounded, and that was it!

Following a pretty standard pattern for a throw pillow for this little one. Two pieces of fabric of equal size, 1/4" seam, leaving one side open. Stuffed with thin quilt batting, and sewed the opening shut.

Lounge Chairs and Awning

There are a few other craft projects in this picture as well!

I decided to create a little seating area for the dollhouse, complete with lounge chairs and a nicely decorated awning.

Materials:

fabric
popsicle sticks
wooden dowels
fabric
scrapbooking paper
eyelet screws (x2)
hot glue gun

For the lounge chairs, I followed a real chair pattern online meant for reclaimed pallet chairs. I didn't even need to trim the popsicle sticks. I used thin dowels for the support beams, and used hot glue to secure it all together.

The seat of the chair is actually just folded scrapbooking paper, secured with hot glue.

For the awning, I initially cut some custom brackets (pictured above) for the dowel that would hold the material, but later found it wasn't secure enough. The whole awning would come off to easily as it wasn't meant to be secured in one place or another. So I decided to use a couple little golden eyelet screws I had laying around from a picture hanging kit. The dowels fit perfectly in them, and served my purpose exactly.

I created two posts for the ends of the awning to sit on top of. And rolled the fabric around the dowels to create the cover.

The purpose of the eyelet screws becomes obvious when you see someone roll up the fabric and open up the awning!

The little flag banner I created with some yarn and little scrapbooking paper triangles I cut out and glued together with hot glue.

Picnic Table

The picnic table was an obvious choice for one of the dollhouse projects. This followed the exact same pattern as a full size picnic table.

Materials

popsicle sticks
hot glue gun

Dining Set

Jesse had previously made a little table (the white base you can see above), but there were no chairs or anything so I decided to make some. I got through two chairs and realized it was way too much work and ended up making a bench for the other side. Which actually came out cooler than the chairs!

Materials

popsicle sticks
wood bits (for the table base)
wooden dowels
hot glue gun
stain
white paint

I didn't have much of a plan for the chairs other than HOT GLUE ALL THE THINGS! I did spend a lot of time before constructing everything and glueing it all together that I was going to sand down all the hard edges from trimming down the popsicle sticks. The end results is a lot of very soft corners.

And feeling really weird about sanding popsicle sticks...

In any case, the chairs eventually came together. Then I moved on to adding some 'hard wood' to the top of the table. Then creating the bench with just some popsicle sticks and hot glue.

There was a fair bit of 'hacking' to get everything to not wobble. The trick? Hot glue the bottom of everything, then, using an exact-o knife, trim each leg down until the wobbling stops!

I then just used a little paintbrush to stain the chairs and the tops of the table and bench. Then painted the base of the table and bench a nice creamy white.

Four Poster Bed (and quilt!)

This one looks quite a bit more ambitious than it was. Okay the quilt might have been a little over the top...

Materials

popsicle sticks
fabric
batting
felt
wooden dowels
hot glue gun
stain

To creat the headboard and footboard, I organized the popsicle sticks in a pleasing arch, marked where to trim, and got to cutting. I secured both the headboard and footboard with a glued cross beam, and made a couple rails to secure them together (making sure to measure the calico critters and their pesky ears!). I glued the rails to the posters, and glued the ends of the bed to the posters, and we had a bed!

I also added a little extra touch to the posters by engraving some decorative detail to the top of each using an exact-o knife.

Once I had the frame finished, I painted on a thin coat of stain to give it all a classic look.

I used trimmed popsicle sticks as the 'mattress' of the bed and glued down some fabric on top so it didn't look so uncomfortable (haha), and then got to work on a quilt!

The quilt (if you know how to make quilts) was actually very easy despite how neat it looks. I scrounged up some leftover scraps and made a little quilt with batting and everything. I then frayed the edges of the quilt so it'd look a little more 'cottagy'.

I made a few pillows (see the Camping Set on how!), and finally cut out a circle of tan colored felt as the 'area rug' for the bed.

Real Shingles!

I found a place online that sells birch shingles for dollhouses. It took around 4 hours total to get them all finished. I have a great trimmer for fast cutting, and after one emergency trip to Michaels to replace a very dangerous hot glue gun, I got it all done very quick!

Materials

Shingles
Hot Glue Gun

Bricks

I read a tip once on a miniature forum that the easiest trick for fake bricks on a dollhouse was cut up egg cartons. They have the right texture, they're easy to collect and cut up, they're light weight so won't add anything to your dollhouse, they can be painted very easily, and they're easy to use with hot glue!

I also made some custom popsicle stick shutters with dowels as the little handles.