Couple of additions

I've added a third Blog to my list of blogs which I follow called Dollhouse Miniature Furniture Tutorials/1inch Minis.   It is crammed with much more than that and, even better, does have wonderful tutorials for all kinds of things, so you can make your own stuff.  The owner Kris has just been absolutely brilliant ...  I sent an email asking if she had any tutorial (which I couldn't find) about finishing wooden furniture and immediately she wrote me three lovely emails absolutely bursting with help.  I can't wait to follow her blog to see what comes up next. She has even promised me a (mock) iron bed tutorial next year. (Yes, she is that booked up!)


I want to say a big thank you to Linda for becoming a follower of Wentwoth - I am so flattered as she is the owner of  Une Petite Folie which has to be the epitome of doll housing and a dream to aim for.  


It would be lovely to see other followers and it won't leave Linda all lonely out there.  Please sign up if you are a regular visitor as it is lovely to see who is popping in now and then.  From the Stats I collect I know readers (or visits to the sites) are in the hundreds and I even get emails from a handful of you so I actually do have names/personalities here and there but more would be very welcome.  

Handbag

This isn't a great photograph, the finished bag looks absolutely brilliant.  It really does look like animal skin (leopard?) and leather.  My mini-me in 38 Wentworth Court wouldn't have real leopard, of course, but she would have a jolly good fake and certainly leather.  


I hope it does show how fiddly it was to do.  The toothpick should give you some idea of scale and it is constructed like a real bag in several pieces, including the side gussets.  


I am very pleased with myself because I seem to be acquiring the biggest skill of all - patience.  I am the world's worst for chucking something which frustrates me for more than a couple of minutes.  I stuck this one out even though it took tweezers and good glasses to construct.


The two challenges were threading the 'leather' strap through the buckle; whoever made the one for the sample picture in the pack didn't bother!  That done the worst was to come.  I needed to add the tiniest (no-hole) beads I have ever seen as metal fasteners for the strap and one for the tongue on the buckle - again this was my invention.  The kit actually said the beads were for marking the holes in the shoulder strap, as the three straps I had bore no resemblance to what was going on in the instructions I just decided to make the bag myself - I know what a handbag looks like!


That said I'd still recommend the kits as they are beautifully laser cut and on great textured paper. I bought them at a show in the UK from an English stall holder who gave the distinct impression they were 'hers'.  She had a fantastic range made up in all kinds of fabrics and finishes and some kits which matched several of hem - I bought the kit (nearer to my budget).  Before starting to write this I thought I'd better find out who she was.  It appears these kits are actually made in America by Tiny Tailor who, for all my web trawling, I've been unable to find.  When I googled the kit itself I found a  handful of people who sell them - this is one of them:  Mini Doll Kits.  If you are not in the market for a handbag you might like to check them out any way as they have some other nice stuff.

Fans and fan boxes

Today's playtime was filled with making two little fans and their fan boxes.  It is hard to honestly assess the difficulty level for this one.  I skip read through stuff at great speed and then give it another cursory glance and think I know what I've read (a bad habit of a fast reader - useful sometimes!).  Any way, I did that with the instructions accompanying this kit and decided they were rubbish and it was best to go it alone. I then complained how useless the printing was because various bits and pieces didn't fit together and there were no tabs for gluing pieces together, etc. etc. etc.  When I re-read the instructions after the make I spotted a couple of things I hadn't really taken notice of some things then made more sense.  To be fair to me, I still think the instructions could be greatly improved and the notion that you can successfully join two pieces of cardboard without any tabs seems overly optimistic to me - although I haven't actually tried it.  All that said, this is a lovely little kit; the only thing you won't get in it is the embellishment I did on the right hand fan.  I have several of the tiny no-hole beads left over from the handbag kit so I thought I'd add them to the ribbon trim on the box and fan - waste not, want not.  The fan on the left actually folds up and will go in its box.  A nice idea would be to cut a split down the centre of the bottom edge of the bottom  of the box so you could pull the tassel through to the outside.  I think it might be a bit of a challenge to get it in the box with the fan.  The tassel is too chunky for my taste so I may return to this some time and change it for something else.  


They came from a glorious site which you really must visit called The Craft Pack Company.  I have an endless list of things I want from them.


I'm not sure where these will take up residence.  They were bought last year to finish Sally's fan collection in 38 Wentworth Court but they would be nice for a shop display in Le Tout Paris - first, of course, I have to find out if a fashionable shop would be selling fans in 1912 - I think perhaps not?  
NB: (This post is in Wentworth and LTP)