Lazy tassels tutorial

Tassels. Who doesn´t love tassels, right? I do!

Sure, making tassels the normal way isn´t hard. But when it comes to mini stuff, sometimes it can be handy to have a wee shortcut or easier way of doing things. So, after I´ve spent a few hours embroidering a mini pillow, I feel like it should be pretty much over. I really don´t like finishing pillows...
Today, I´ll show you how I do finish pillows. It´s neat, fast, easy, decent looking and I´m quite sure it´s not in any way original.

And here´s our model piece, my own pattern again, and it´s the logo of my Etsy shop. Once the needlework was finished, I cut the canvas down to about 1cm or just under 1/2 inch around the picture, folded the allowance to the back and basted them in place with different, easy to see thread. It´s important to leave both knots on the face of the pillow, makes it easy to remove the basting stitches after.

Next, I prepared four pieces of stranded embroidery cotton in the colour of my choice. Obviously, this can only be done with stranded embroidery floss :) They need to be about three times the length of the pillow´s side, a bit more if you feel a tad clumsy. Hold two together and tie in a simple knot like in these pictures:

Next, place the knots on the pillow´s corners so that each of the stranded cottons runs along one (different) side. This creates a neat piping effect. Don´t forget to put a matching back to the other side of your needlework, ultrasuede or felt works great. Pick thread in a colour contrasting with the tassels, hide your starting knot on the inside of the pillow and go around the sides in vertical hemming stitch, catching both front and back side of the pillow and the "piping". When you get to the corners without a tassel, just stitch around it and leave the floss hanging. Leave one side opened and stuff the pillow - stuff it gently, you don´t want a fat ball with tassels! Sew it closed, carefully tie the two remaining knots. Remove the iffy basting stitches. Trim all your tassels to the desired length and fluff them up a bit. Voila, insta tassels!

In case anyone is interested in the cat and full moon pattern, I´ll put it up here with my next post. Have a sweet day!

No, I´m not dead yet :)

Belated new year´s resolution: blog a bit more! Once a month is my new goal. I have a bunch of tips and tuts and patterns to share with whoever wants to try them...

What was I talking about last time? Samplers! I´ve done a few. Very simple ones, but then - I like simple. Most of my private projects don´t really agree with elaborate designs anyway: sweets shop in DHE´s Magpies house was the only one that could use some and it´s now pretty much retired, since it stayed behind when I moved. What I´m working on now needs fairly simple things too, the Wee Witches cottage being the main project atm.
All of the samplers are my own designs so I´m free to share the patterns with you! This one was done in cross stitch on 24 count fabric. I forgot to take picture, but it has dark green frame and it´s hanging in the sweets shop kitchen.

It´s simple, fast and looks quite cute! The pattern:

And one more, for the haunted dolls´ house:) This was done on 34 count with a single strand of cotton, then framed with cardstock scraps and a piece of plastic packaging I alwas have lying around. Which is why my "studio" space is always so messy!

Again, super quick and simple. Pattern:

 And that´s it for now. And since it´s Sunday and for once it´s actually sunny over here, I hope everyone´s having a sweet day!

Busy busy busy

So, what have I been up to lately? Mini-wise, a huge bunch. Otherwise, not so much. My wee Etsy shop´s been quite busy lately. I finished sort of a new line of mini things, quite real looking witchy accessories. Here´s a lil sampler - you can follow the links to see more:

                          Smudge sticks and candles

                        Wands , potion bottles , crystal orbs and herb bundles
 
 Other than witchy stuff, I made some more sweets for Heavenly Delights, my cake shop:

Finally finished the bedframe for Winterfell´s master bedroom... About time! I tried to make it somewhat similar to how it was on the telly show. There´s gonna be candles on top of the half tester (hurray for beds on fire), and the matress is filled with straw. Now what to do with the pillows, blankets and stuff :/

And I started working on bday present for my Dad, who is an avid gardener, so there´s tiny crates of wee fruit and veg everywhere. It´s gonna be a market stall. Here´s the potatoes, for now parked in my cake shop´s upstairs kitchen:

And since I managed to hurt my ankle while redecorating the kitchen, I did a bunch of sitting on my bum and embroidering. I made two cross stitched pictures (cuz they can´t really be called samplers, I guess) for my dollhouse. They are very simple but rustic looking and since I designed the patterns myself, they will appear here sooner or later. Probably later, because I need to find out how to work with some sort of cross stitch software. For now the patterns are hand scribbled on paper and look quite confusing :) And now I´m elbows deep in bats, haunted houses and black cats in needlepoint, coming soon!

Well, hope everyone is havin a great summer!

Project: Rebuilding Winterfell in mini

Ever had the feeling that you have way too many ideas for the time you can spend on your hobby? Ever since I started mini-ing - and that´s been a fair few years - "time-consuming" got completely new meaning for me. It´s worse than time spent on World of Warcraft and useless staring into the fridge, combined!

Soooo... Just for fun and because I can (hey, it´s cheap in miniature!), I finally got back to my Winterfell ideas. What can I say, I´m a Starks fan! There´s two roomboxes sofar, the master bedroom for the Lord and Lady of Winterfell, and a bedroom for Sansa. None of them is finished yet.
I doubt either of them ever will be.

The idea for Sansa´s bedroom was lighter, airy and more romantic than a typical Winterfell room would be. No stone walls, no tiny windows. Sansa would really need a window seat, right? Somewhere nice to sit while working on a piece of embroidery, singing, reading or just daydreaming...

A detail of the window seat. I´m quite proud of how it turned out, specially the leaded window.

The rest of the room is - save for a fireplace that still needs painting - still empty. The master bedroom is even worse off, there´s only "stone" walls and fireplace, all unpainted, and a bed frame based on what they had in the first episode of the TV stuff. But I´ll do something about that in near future. Have a sweet day!

Fast and Easy Mini Books How-to

 Isn´t it really weird that when you finally feel like you are doing fine and things are well... something bad happens and everything gets effed up again? Thinking about it, it´s not totally unexpected things, but you still get caught by surprise, I mean, you could expect older folks to have health troubles, and you can´t expect 15+ years old pets to live forever...

Anyway, no one cares about whining, right? I´ve been making mini books again and today I´ll show you how to make a very simple opening dollhouse book with decorative corset binding. Actually, if you add a jewellery eyelet and use extra layer of varnish for protection, you can use it as a charm or necklace.

The nicest thing about this is that you can use whatever scraps of card and paper you find around the house. I won´t give you any dimensions, just go with whatever you feel like a good size. Anything from 15x20mm to 35x40mm works just fine.
You´re going to need: a piece of card or just heavier paper for the covers, strip of light weight paper for the pages inside, paints/stickers/scrapbook paper to decorate the covers, piece of embroidery thread, bigger sewing needle and any kind of white glue.
Start by cutting two covers of the same size, use the needle to poke holes through one side of both pieces. You need odd number of holes - this is important. Be careful! Blood stains don´t look nice on the book covers, unless you´re making umm... vampire´s diary. Cut a long strip of lightweight paper a bit narrower than the covers and fold it like accordeon. You can glue the insides of the "pages" together, but it works just as fine if you don´t.

First, prepare the covers. Draw, write, paint, cover them in paper or cloth, anything - just dont forget to poke the holes through again if you used a second layer of anything. Next, bind the book. Using this diagram will help you avoid any unsightly horizontal threads in this pretty corset-like binding:

The dashed lines of course go along the inner sides of the covers. Tie the lose ends at the bottom of the book together. I added a tiny piece of amethyst on the violet book dor decoration. Don´t forget to glue two pieces of thread or ribbon the the inner covers so you can tie the book closed. The finished cover:

Now you just need to glue the finished accordion paper strip inside the covers. Check if it lies flat when opened. There you go, you just made a mini book!

If you´d rather avoid the hassle, these (and other) books are/will be available in my shop, together with more wee witchy stuff. Have a sweet day!

Miniature Witch Hat Tutorial

It´s not just that it´s Halloween time now, it´s that so many people (me included) simply love witchy miniatures!

Here´s a little how-to for a wee witch hat. It´s very simple, a kid can do that without much trouble. This and some thread/glue is all it takes:

Work with felt or any low-fraying fabric, slightly heavier fabrics are better in this case. Fine leather works well, too.

First, a simple pattern. You won´t need any seams allowance if you´re going to sew so cut straight on the lines. If you´d rather glue the thing together, cut a little extra on the triangular bit.

Now, start working on the top bit. Stitch or glue the straight lines together. If you wanted to decorate the top bit, it´s better to do it before sewing/gluing - like the patch on the black hat in my last picture or any embroidery.
 Next, stitch or glue the top to the brim part. Voila - you have a tiny witchy hat! You can either leave it plain (well, I consider stitches in contrasting colour an embellishment!) or add anything your heart desires: feathers, roses, lace, tulle, ribbons, spiders, anything... stuffed crow maybe?

If you´d like any of these, check my Etsy shop, they´ll be there for sale soon. Have a sweet day!

Hello!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to Wee Little Delights, a blog about dollhouse scale miniatures. I´ve been meaning to start this ages ago - but somehow never did. There´s always so many things on my mind - so many ideas for new stuff, and also so many unfinished projects lying around waiting for some love... I´m sure most of you know what I´m talking about ;)

I´m Lucie Min, miniature artist from the heart of Europe, and I´d like to share my love for miniatures, my tips and methods and my work with you through this blog. My journey into the mini world started with tabletop battle miniatures and gaming terrain, but it´s hard (atleast for me and my poor eyesight!) to create details in this tiny scale so after a few years I moved on to dollhouses. I work mainly in 1:12 scale, with the occassional trip to 1:24.
Other than miniatures, I love my cat, fantasy books, cooking, baking, and singing in the shower :)

I create one-of-a-kind miniatures and I especially love all things fantasy, witchy and dark, and miniature lingerie!
You can find some of my work on Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/weelittledelights
Check out my newest creations - 1/12 miniature drinking horns:

Thank you for taking a peek here! Have a sweet day!