The lady at the door with the baby is coming to "trick or treat". Mother doll is getting candy from the entryway table for them. The side windows at the door have curtains that are pleated silk with lace trim panels. The rug is one that came in a book of rugs printed on a fuzzy paper. I colored in the pattern with felt tip pens and then mounted it on course fabric that is fringed on the two ends. The figures on the shelves are porcelain.
I have decorations for three holidays ... Halloween, Easter, and Christmas. The only digital photos I've taken are these of Halloween.
I like to think that father doll is taking a break from carving pumpkins. I don't know who was playing cards.
Under the newspaper is an inlaid chess board in the center of the table. The chess set is stored in the highboy along with a lot of other things.
I made this easy chair from scratch. It's upholstered with silk fabric and trimmed with twisted floss. The protective doilies are motifs cut from lace, as is covering for the pillow. The window covering and valance are also pieces of lace trim and finished with the same floss twist plus tassels. The clock is made from a kit.
The corner china cupboard is also made from a kit. There are silver pieces, real glassware, and porcelain dishes.
I hope you're clicking on these photos to see the details such as father's pipe and pocket watch on the side table between the chairs. The smaller chair is where mother sits to stitch. There's a threaded needle waiting for her in the work in progress (embroidered by me with a single ply of fine silk thread ... but not with that needle). The hoop really does slide up and down the stand. Note the spool rack filled with threads on the end of the mantel.
The bird's name if Bob.
Philip is the young boy's name. He's in a rocking horse chair that I constructed, stained, and caned with silk thread. He's playing with his favorite toy teddy bear that I made from fine wool felt. The fur is embroidered in a straight stitch with a single strand of floss.
Lucia is playing with her dolls at the bay window seat. Her doll and trunk were made by me from kits. Although, I designed and made the doll's clothes. You'll see that up close in my next post.
Setting her glass eyes was the most challenging part to me ... she ended up a bit cross-eyed. Her hair is made from silk roving. Curls were made by wetting a small hank, wrapping it around knitting needles, and then baking it at a low temperature to set the curls. I enjoyed the process of creating her, but only needed to make one doll from "scratch". I purchased the already painted and fired porcelain body parts to construct the people and toy dolls for this dollhouse room.
She's also wearing a smocked silk chiffon dress with petticoats and leather shoes. As I recall, all the dolls shoes were made from old kid leather gloves.
You may recognize that I've done English smocking, which is a surface embroidery across pleated fabric. This scale is too small to make pleats by rows of running stitches. Tiny pleats were formed by drawing up threads in the fabric weave at even intervals. It was hard to see the gathering thread as a guideline for the embroidery, so I drew chalk lines to help me evenly space the smocking stitches.
I have decorations for three holidays ... Halloween, Easter, and Christmas. The only digital photos I've taken are these of Halloween.
I like to think that father doll is taking a break from carving pumpkins. I don't know who was playing cards.
Under the newspaper is an inlaid chess board in the center of the table. The chess set is stored in the highboy along with a lot of other things.
I made this easy chair from scratch. It's upholstered with silk fabric and trimmed with twisted floss. The protective doilies are motifs cut from lace, as is covering for the pillow. The window covering and valance are also pieces of lace trim and finished with the same floss twist plus tassels. The clock is made from a kit.
I hope you're clicking on these photos to see the details such as father's pipe and pocket watch on the side table between the chairs. The smaller chair is where mother sits to stitch. There's a threaded needle waiting for her in the work in progress (embroidered by me with a single ply of fine silk thread ... but not with that needle). The hoop really does slide up and down the stand. Note the spool rack filled with threads on the end of the mantel.