Kimono

This is the visual saga of my kimono making endeavor. I still need to handstitch the collar in place and find an obi that works. The one she has on is an old tie I tried on her to see what it would look like. This was the first garmet I ever made and I picked brocade and a silk-wannabe fabric. Oh, the beautiful naivety of that choice. Live and learn. Not to mention it is a lined garment and I had to read a book and create my own pattern. I then had to refer to a picture book of kimonos, written in Japanese. Finally, I dug out a child's silk kimono that I had forgotten I had and referred to it for clarification.I was seduced by this pink and salmon fabric with chrysantheumums and butterflies. I should have been suspicious when the book called for taking 8 zillion body measurements and creating a neck template.
These are the two books I kept beside me at all times.
Here's the doll I bought off e-bay a few years ago. Naked and bald, that's the way I like 'em!
There is no shoulder seam. The fabric is long and folded and half and then the neck hole and center fabric is cut out. (It looked so easy in the book.)



This was the bright hot pinky salmon linen fabric I used to line the sleeves. I swooned when I picked it out to go with the brocade. I loved it that much. It was in the remnant section at Jo-Anne's.

This is the sleeve sewn-up and ready to be attached. Did I mention it was nigh on impossible to iron this stuff. It won't take a crease and laughs at the iron.

The morning sun coming in the kitchen window made it very hard to work, but I loved the patterns. Her shape is echoed in a shadow in the center of the table. She looks like she has wings. Very Icarus-ish.



This is the light salmon pinky fabric I picked to line the inside of the kimono. It was also a remnant and there wasn't enough to do the sleeves. When I put the 3 fabrics all together in my cart at Jo-Anne's, I did inadvertently start to drool just a little bit.

Here it is ready to have the collar pinned on.
This is the collar pinned in place and needing to be handsewn on.

This is the kimono on the doll.


This is the tie/obi wrap. I went to the Salvation Army and picked up two old shirts today--one linen, one silk--and am going to see if they might work.

Ghosts in the Garden

I like to start a quilt, riding high on an inspired wave of enthusiam, then get bored, put it away and come back a year or so later to finish the top.(I also like to wait another couple of years or decades until I get around to having the whole thing put together and quilted). That's what happened with this one. I learned to make the circles and had heaps of fun doing that, but then I almost decapitated my index finger with my rotary cutter, so that put an end to my pleasure with this quilt. In fact, it put me off quilting for awhile. It took 1/2 a year for my finger to heal and almost a year before I got feeling back into the part that was severed. So this quilt sat in a neat little stack in a basket until yesterday when I pulled it out and decided to finish the putting the top together. I then went into hyperfocus mode for about 4 hours--ignoring everyone and everything else. I did take a short break to root around in the basement for the Halloween decorations so the kids could put them up.

Early Frost

My bestfriend, Drue, handquilted this whole quilt. I see that as nothing short of a miracle. What a wonderful surprise to open up a package and pull out a quilt you made that looks heaps better than when you last saw it.

Hornet's Nest

Now how did this happen? All summer I have gone about my business and unbeknownest to me, the hornets have quietly gone about theirs. How did I miss this miracle of construction going on right outside my window? How did days come and go and I not notice something was afoot in the crabapple tree? Well, it just goes to show I am totally disconnected to the natural transformations going on around me. What a ninny I am. But maybe it is better I didn't know. Maybe I would have felt like I needed to eradicate them to protect my children or dogs. As it is, we have not disturbed them and they have not disturbed us. Only now that the crabapple has started to drop its leaves did the nest appear. What a marvelous and ingenious structure. It hangs there like some giant, papery fruit.

After a little research, I discovered that these are bald-faced hornets,

"Dolichovespula maculata is not a true hornet; hornets belong to the genus Vespa. Bald-faced hornets are more closely related to wasps called yellowjackets in the genus Vespula. Bald-faced hornets build colonies inside large enclosed carton nests that hang from trees, bushes, low vegetation and occasionally from buildings. A single mated queen starts a new nest each spring by laying eggs inside a small carton nest. The eggs turn into larvae and the queen feeds these larvae until they become pupae and then workers. It is the workers that gradually expand the size of this nest until it is larger than a basketball by the end of the summer season.

Workers can be identified from the large patches of white on their face; this character gives them the name, bald-faced hornet. Their abdomen is mostly black with white markings at the posterior tip. This hornet is the largest endemic yellowjacket in North America and it can build nests containing hundreds of individuals. The single queen is deep inside the nest protected by a retinue of loyal workers.

Biology
Bald-faced hornets are common in both wooded and urban areas in New England. Queens start a new nest each spring after the weather warms up in late April or May. The queen finds loose bark, and other paper strips to start a small nest into which she places her eggs. She adds saliva to the paper bark and forms a smooth carton. When painted wood is used to make carton, you can see the color on the outside of the carton nest.

Inside the carton are horizontal layers of comb or hornet cells divided into circular platforms. The outer carton shell is very thin. This means that if this nest is accidentally damaged from the outside by an animal, the paper covering is easily stripped away and a large number of angry, aggressive wasps fly directly toward the intruder and begin to sting. Since the sting is not barbed, a single hornet can deliver a series of painful stings. It is the venom in the sting that is the cause of the pain. Once a victim is stung, the best response is to distance oneself from the hornet nest as quickly and as far apart as possible. Multiple stings often occur close to a nest.

Workers are beneficial in nature, bringing back many caterpillars and other insect prey to the nest. Its historical enemy is the bear and raccoon, and thus these wasps have a very strong sting and aggressive response to protect the nest.

Control
Since there is always a danger from anaphylactic shock from the venom of a hornet, it is good policy to leave pest control of colonies to a professional. Try to find hornet nests as soon as possible in the spring and summer because they only become larger and more aggressive with time. At the end of the season, the carton nest often remains hanging from a tree but the workers have all died out and the newly mated queens have left the nest to over-winter behind the bark of trees.

Tricking Out the Kitchen Box

I've been toying with my kitchen box, cluttering it up. I can't help myself. I long to be a minimalist, but my eyes are too greedy for color and clutter.

Weekend Projects

This is a little robot I embroidered and was going to turn into a pin, but now I've misplaced him. The dogs look away guiltily when I ask if they have seen him. Hmmm.
So after a week of high-pressure back to work frenzy, I devoted my whole Saturday to making a strip quilt top. Jim took the kids grocery shopping and out to the dollar store. I listened to books on tape from The Teaching Company (Origins of Ancient Civilizations) and quite happily sewed away the day.I'd been carrying around my little piece of paper that I gluestick scraps of fabric on so I can get all in a tizzy over my quilt-to-be while I drive back and forth to work. I liked the wallpaper strip quilt in Kaffe Fassett's book because it looked very, very quick and easy. Plus I had the mood to do the ultimate quilter's no-no which is to rip fabric into strips. I know I am supposed to cut them neatly but life truly is so much better when you can just rip and let out all that stress and aggression.
I'm not in love with it, but I like it well enough. It goes with my bedroom and maybe when I finish it, I will look more fondly on it. I'm trying to decide on a border for it. I feel like this is too dark, but maybe it needs something dark.
I've been thinking of doing a pink one with green, brown, and turquoise accents.

School has started back, and I'm so busy I sometimes forget to breathe. On the way to and from work I've been listening to The Teaching Company's Classical Mythology. I've got a little addiction going with these audiotapes.

Remains of the Day

We spent the last day of summer at the beach. It was a beautiful day, and we went with a friend and her two sons.I haven't been to the beach for a full day in years, probably 30 at least. I've never been a beach person and get bored lying in the sand. However, my children adored it.
Except for the fact that my daughter got 10 mosquito bites when we hiked up to the rocks and she and I had to do a drugstore run for benydral spray. And that turned out to be quite fortuitous because my son then got stung by a bee on his hand, his first bee sting ever, and that benydral spray came in quite "handy."
Their friends taught them how to go crabbing and catch little crabs that hide in the rocks, using hot dogs and string. They saved them in a bucket and then let them go when they were finished.
They swam in the sea for the first time, clambered over huge rocks, dug in the sand and picked up seashells. I had forgotten how much fun it was to be a kid at the beach.

Boxing Match

I have been lusting for quite some time for an old German kitchen roombox. Sometimes I have to sit myself down and say, "Remember now, you're an adult. You have children and a job and a big-girl house with a real kitchen. And four dogs. Life will go own if you don't get this toy." But Myself just wouldn't listen. Oh, sure, for a few minutes Myself would listen, or at least play like she was listening. She would nod her head sadly and sigh and as if she was making a concentrated effort to be brave. Myself would even tut tut disgustedly when looking at the exorbitant price tags on these roomboxes, as if to say, "What fools people are to pay good money for old, whipped up looking junk when new is so much cleaner and nicer." Myself even had me fooled. Then one night, when I wasn't looking, Myself went on Ebay and bought a lot of German kitchen furniture and a German stove!
We almost came to blows! When I confronted her, I was told that Myself would be building her own roombox for a fraction of the cost of the ones we had seen for sale. What could I do? So the illicit booty arrived yesterday and Me, Myself and I convinced Jim to help us cut the wood (from old shelves I once had in the pantry) to size for a roombox. Fortunately for us, Myself had tucked away some old, antique dollhouse wallpaper from Germany she had bought on Ebay some years back. It would seem that Myself had been plotting this for some time. I went to Staples and made color copies of a border I found as a free download from the internet (www.kawarthalakesminis.com/1920samples.html). I blew it up some so it would work with the walls. Most rational people would have taken measurements and thought things out, but Myself was so excited, she didn't. She found two boards of equal length and said, okay, these are the sides. She found two other boards that were the same size and said, okay, these are the back and bottoms. She then got Jim to cut off the areas she had marked on these two pieces.

I wallpapered each panel before putting all the parts together with wood screws. The two sides were a little warped and bowed outward, but we were able to pull them tight and put in the screws and it all worked out. I've got to find some finish molding to put along the front and top. I considered putting in a door or window, but decided as I didn't have a clue how to proceed that it might just be a bad idea (although that normally does not stop Myself).
However, I couldn't wait to put in the furniture. I used brads to mount things on the wall. Myself is still on the lookout for a sink and another kitchen shelf.
Now I have to make little towels, a tablecloth, chair cushions, and a rug. I get all swoony just thinking about it! And now, of course, I need a doll to go in it. I'm trying very hard not to put too much stuff in there, but Myself can't wait to cram it full of interesting junk!

Here's a link to the Museum of Childhood: http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections/dolls_houses/index.html

Picture This

I copied a picture onto fabric and then used Mod Podge to make it look a little like a painted canvas. I then cut some molding with my trusty little miter box and saw and made a frame. I painted it brown and then glued it on top of a piece of cardboard with the fabric sandwiched in between
This little picture was cut from an old greeting card bought at an antique shop and framed up the same way as the above picture.
Visitors from China have come to visit the dollhouse. I made them a little quilt with Japanese looking fabrics (cut from two old shirts). Although they are Chinese, they originated in Japan.

Oh, For Tiny, Nimble Fingers!

I have been sewing itty bitty dollclothes. When I bought these little naked darling three inch antique dollhouse dolls, I thought, "How hard can it be to make them clothes? A scrap of cloth, a little stitch here, a little stitch there. Piece of cake." And I stand by that thought. As long as you are a five inch fairy with tee tiny hands the size of birth control pills. My patience has been tested. Not to mention my eyesight. I made two of the outfits last night (it took hours!) and then this morning, I sat outside and made the one I embroidered. It was much easier working with the daylight than hunched over under a lamp.
This doll is about 3 inches high and I've made her look slightly rotund with this fabric choice. It was a scrap cut off of a piece of an old skirt and is linen. I used three strands of embroidery floss to put blanket stitch around the edges and to make the little flowers.
The little boy doll is missing an arm and has a chip in his ankle(he came that way). I strung him back together as best I could and then used an old silk tie from the thrift store to make him a housecoat. He's still bedridden, recovering from the amputation of his arm. I would just like to say that making that robe was a real bear! I had to improvise a little pattern and handsewing silk is a tricky endeavor! At first I thought everyone would get a couple of sets of clothes but after making the first outfit, I became very enamored with the thought of sewing the clothes onto the dolls permanently. It's much easier than trying to make them removable. The little girl in the middle is wearing the first outfit I made. I used a scrap left over from making the quilts and a piece of antique lace I had.
At least this morning when I worked outside, I had something pretty to look at.

To Bed, To Bed, You Sleepyhead!

So with the recent acquisition of the dollhouse, I now have an excuse to make itty bitty quilts. The blue and pink one I made from squares of 1930's reproduction fabric I had. The embroidered one is made from an old vest I had that I cut up and sewed to make a little bed cover.Oh, the fun I am having. I made the white pillow and stuffed it with rice. The pillow case is from an old handkerchief.

Solution for Clutter!!!!

I have come up with a way to solve the dilema of my prediliction for collecting clutter. I'm going to miniaturize it! Now that I have bought a dollhouse, I can focus my attention on buying teeny, tiny clutter and cluttering up my dollhouse instead of my real house. I'm thinking this is a stroke of genius. So the saga of the dollhouse is this. I had been looking for ages for an old dollhouse on ebay. Everytime I found one I liked (with that kind of clunky 1930's homemade feel, but really sturdy), the bidding would just get way out of control. It seems I have the same taste as everyone else on ebay looking for an old dollhouse. This one had a reserve price so that was a little discouraging. It also had two questions from bidders and 12 bids on it already. The only encouraging thing was that the auction was over at 8:30 Sunday morning, a time when I am actually up, as opposed to late at night. Also the seller lived less than 2 hours away so I could go pick it up and not pay for shipping (which is ridiculous on big things like this). So I bought it for $150 and the next day packed up the kids and the beau and went to pick it up. I was surprised at how huge it was! I had the measurements, but visualizing 40 x 25 x 35 in thin air is much different than seeing it in wood and paint. It was pouring rain the whole way and I decided to take a "short" cut home, but that is a-whole-nother story.
I am terribly excited about it! The kids are equally excited and we've had some territorial disputes. Today I helped them make quilts for their own dollhouse (which actually cost more than this one!)as a way to alleviate my guilt over indulging in my obsessive-compulsive need to make tiny dollhouse curtains and quilts and pillows and rugs late into the night.
This dollhouse is so perfect! It has electric lights which just gives me the goosebumps every time I turn them on. And on the side it has two more rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen, witht the sweetest little green and white tile paper. The kitchen has old linoleum on the floor and the bathroom has a little built in medicine chest. I can't stand it!
I couldn't wait to fix it all up before I put stuff in it. I still have lots to do and of course I had to go shopping today at the flea market, consignment shop, and antique store to see if they had anything the inhabitants of my dollhouse couldn't live without. And naturally they did.I had a great time cutting up an old vest to make the quilts on the pink beds. I cut around all the embroidered little bits to make it look like I'd worked a lot harder to make it than I actually had.
I'm making a polar bear rug out of an old collar off a child's jacket. I've cut it out but haven't finished yet. Still trying to figure out how to do the teeth.

I found this wonderful 1930's dollhouse slideshow while trolling on the web.

June 2006 Update of Favorite Old 1930s Dollhouse