sketchbook 2/3 – 2/9
miniature dish tutorial : make tiny teacups and plates
The original plan was to not have handles. It felt impossible and Miss Thistle didn’t seem like a handle kind of doll anyway, what with the no fingers and all. But once I figured out how to make a cup I had to have the handle. The handle quest was long but the solution is easy and makes a truly awesome tiny handle. Really, it is magic.
The little plates are simple too. In my first (and many) attempts I struggled with getting shapes and edges I liked. Lots and lots of failed tiny plates led me to an easy solution for that too.
revelations:
- it’s easier to cut paper clay after it dries a little
- octagons are much easier than circles
- at this very moment your house is full of things that will stamp adorable patterns on tiny plates – soon you will be looking at the bottoms of everything…
Before we talk about how to make the tiny dishes and cups let’s jump ahead to the finishing. Paint your tiny cups and plates and saucers with acrylic paint.
I vote for heart and sweetness over perfection in decorating your miniature china. The more I relaxed the more I liked what was turning up.
*Some links are are affiliate links – meaning I get a tiny commission if you purchase through the link – they are marked with an astirisk *
You can thin the paint to make washes. The effect of painting it on and wiping it off is nice, so is splattering using a toothbrush.
For little details and lines I use this brush*. It’s handy for lots of things.
And optionally finish each with a coat of nail polish. Using one that is not quite clear (mine has just a hint of shell pink) makes a lovely surface.
how to make the teacup
You will need:
- paper clay*
- a sharpie marker (or a few)
- white glue
- embroidery thread (I used – dmc 8 pearl cotton*)
- scissors
- paintbrush
- plastic pencil
- a little cornstarch
- sandpaper
- tooth pick or skewer
Double a length of embroidery thread ( I used dmc 8 pearl cotton – you could experiment with other floss or twine as long as it is a natural fiber). Saturate the doubled thread with glue (I used my fingers) and wind it around the end of the pencil as shown. Let this dry completely
When the thread is dry remove it from the pencil and snip off a small section of one curl. Coat the end of the sharpie with a little bit of cornstarch (just a very light dusting – you don’t need much).
sketchbook 1/27 – 2/2
make a miniature stone hearth : the miss thistle society
She has been speaking to me for a long time. Little whispers of her origins, her tidy house, her hearty ancestors. This is what I know about Miss Thistle.
I’m sure she cooks on an open hearth and has a cozy spot by a window for sewing and correspondence and daydreams and tea.
She tends a medium size garden and keeps chickens and goats and bees. And she has sweet miss-matched china – passed from aunts and grandmothers and friends.
My way into Miss Thistle’s world is the hearth. Your tiny rag doll might need a hearth too.
It’s not hard to make. And before we dive into how I want to tell you about the next Miss Thistle Society project: her mismatched china. I have a trick that makes it pretty easy and spectacularly fun to make her tiny hand-me-down plates and cups. Look for that next week.
You probably have most of the things you need for her dishes, except maybe the clay. I use paper clay – this is my brand and you can get it here (The Miss Thistle Society gets a tiny commission if you purchase through this link). I use it for lots of things but I always buy the small size because it does not store well after opening.
To make the hearth you will need:
- paper egg cartons
- light cardboard
- elmer’s glue
- mat board (or a thick cardboard (not corrugated)
- exacto knife and scissors
- masking tape
- spackle ( Find it at any hardware store – I like Fast ‘n Final Lightweight Spackling)
- craft paint
- brushes – a variety of sizes
- toothbrush
- a sponge and a soft rag
- fine sand paper
And you will need a hearth. A shape to work on. I made my shape out of foam core and mat board. It’s assembled with hot glue mostly. So many burns… And I made a giant hearth – you don’t need to. A small one is sweet and quick to make.
This tutorial is concerned with making the stone finish but I will offer a couple tips on making your foundation shape.
The easiest thing to do is start with a box (a sturdy corrugated box). The box above is about 6 X 9 inches and 1 and 3/4 inch deep. Mark the opening and use your exacto knife to cut all the way through the lines marked in red and score (just cut the surface of the cardboard) the lines marked white. Fold back the sides to make the inside walls of the hearth. Glue the hearth walls in place and cover the scored areas and edges with making tape.
If you make your own shaped foam core is great – choose white or black.
Whether you build the shape or use a box, re-enforce the corners (inside) with little triangles of mat board glued in. A few in each corner will make everything stable and sturdy.
I’m demonstrating the stone texture on my huge hearth. Cut shapes from grey cardboard and tear shapes from a grey paper egg carton (the flat parts) to create a little variety in texture and edges. Glue them to your structure with elmer’s glue. I made my structure out of black so you could see but it does not matter – white grey or brown is fine.
Cover the entire structure (I left a small section of my hearth un-stoned because I have a wood mantle I want to add). Let the stones dry in place. Read More
sketchbook 1/20 – 1/26
10 ideas for your scraps
Did you know it is national scrap week? It is not. I made that up. But it should be a thing. I’m making it a thing. A bag of scraps is food for thought, inspiration, an invitation to happenstance, possibility thinking. It always has been for me.
I’m in organizing mode here and sorting through pretty much everything but mostly fabric scraps. Choosing what to keep, what to let go of and making what I keep as tidy and orderly as scraps can be. I’m ironing my scraps. I secretly love to iron. Not my clothes, I’m permanently, slightly, comfortably disheveled. I like to iron scraps. It’s a little ridiculous. Lets call it meditative. Or it could also be called productive procrastination…
And sometimes not so productive procrastination. It frequently devolves into spending a lot of time pondering a very small and fabulous scrap. I love this scrap. Now I have to make a tiny pair of pants so I can add this patch to them. And then I have to make a lamb to put in the pants. You see how this goes…
There are some pieces I can’t call scraps. Some are so exquisite I call them fragments. Something left over from a life with marks from other hands and days.
10 ideas for your scraps
If you have found your way here it is likely you have scraps too. In celebration of the inaugural scrap festival I’ve collected 10 ideas for your scraps. Let’s start with 3 projects for your most special scraps, your fragments.
1. sweet needle books – for needles and ideas and memories.
2. amulets – little stitch experiments I started making last summer. I begin with no shape in mind, just layering my favorite fragments, experimenting and playing with compositions. Then I trim them and sew a backing. I find the compositions are more interesting if I approach them this way rather than beginning with the shape. I made a little template of the shapes I use for you – you can download that here. And for cord I usually use this waxed thread (PS I get a tiny commission if you buy it through that link, you can also find it in craft stores).
3. ethereal garlands – for the tiniest scraps, the un-sewables, the little whispers you can’t let go of.
4. string quilts- there is a full tutorial here for this quick and easy flip and sew technique for your longish scraps.
5. Once you have pieced together a bunch of scraps you can make a fabric basket – you know what you could put in it? Scraps.
6. marvelous fabric compositions – let happenstance be your guide and find inspiration in these stitched pieces by Specks and Keepings. The left-overs from garment sewing are used as is. I love the compositions. There is magic in those accidental shapes and relationships.
Check out the sewing pattern and supply shop!
7. french seam pillow cases – for your larger scraps. This is on my domestic sewing list.
8. jar opener – so clever – made from fabric scraps and rubber shelf liner.
9. fabric twine – for your tiny scraps. And netflix. And wine.
10. And finally – it is illegal to do a blog post about fabric scrap projects without including fabric bunting. Plus I love it – so sweet to make for little folks.
Find 4 more scrap project ideas here. And if you have a project to recommend please leave it in the comments.
P S – Do you get my free weekly-ish newsletter? There are tips and tricks, ideas, stuff to try, all the latest news and blogposts and extra stuff, just for subscribers, delivered mostly on Friday. Pretty much.
1/13 – 1/19
the world’s sweetest needle book : a free sewing pattern
This little book will certainly hold your needles. It could also be a repository for the scraps you can’t part with. It could tell a story, mark an occasion, like a birth or anniversary, or be a sort of travel journal, the pages filled with little things found along the way and saved.
I always travel with small sewing and it is always a mess of ziplock bags and other aesthetically unappealing containers with sharp things poking out of them. This started as a practical project and turned into a whole other thing.
I made this needle book for future me. Future me is the sort of person who is packed a week before travel, has extra light bulbs and never runs out of toilet paper.
I’m in love with my little needle book and plan to take it pretty much everywhere for the rest of my life. There are more of these books in my future, for needles and ideas and memories. It is good winter evening sewing.
pin it for later
I’ve put together a tutorial for you below. And subscribers will have a link to a pdf download emailed to them.
You will need a basic sewing kit and the templates.
download the templates
materials :
- cotton or light linen
- scraps for details
- matching and contrasting thread
- button
- embroidery thread
- batting or felt
- light weight cardboard
- ribbon
- gluestick
Cut out two each of the A, B, C and heart pattern pieces. One side of A will be your cover page. Add patches, embroidery, appliqués, and other details to your pages. Also cut out 2 cardboard support pieces from light weight cardboard ( a cereal box is great). Use a glue stick to glue the cardboard to pieces of batting or felt and cut out.
Note: Piecing fabric together before cutting the pattern shapes creates a nice variety in the pages.
Cut a 3 and 1/2 inch length of ribbon or trim and fold in half. With the right side of the cover fabric facing you pin the folded ribbon to the center of the left side. The folded edge should extend 1 and 1/4 inches from the seam line. I’m using 1/4 inch cotton twill tape.
Pin The A, B, C and heart pieces with the right sides together and stitch the seam lines. Leave a small section on each open for turning. Be sure that the opening on A is large enough to insert the cardboard supports. Clip off the corners of the rectangles close to the seam. Clip the bottom point of the heart and clip notches around the curves at the top and at the center.
Turn your sewn and clipped pieces right side out. Use a chopstick or similar to push the corners and curves all the way out. Add any additional appliqué or other details.
Insert the cardboard and batting pieces into the cover page. The batting side should be facing the inside and the cardboard facing the outside cover. Push the cardboard all the way to each side, there should be an empty space between them. Leave the cover open at the bottom.
sketchbook 1/6 – 1/12
sketchbook 1/1 – 1/5
domestic sewing : confronting the throw pillow situation, a re-write and little paintings
It’s pretty New Yearsy around here. I’ve got all sorts of plans and aspirations for the year ahead. Before the end of 2018 I made myself finish a personal project, I confronted some domestic sewing.
Like you, I wanted to start the New Year with a solid throw pillow situation. It has been kind of a mess for a while, definitely not bringing me joy. I had a bunch of ideas to make it better but they had been lingering on my someday list. For years. Deadlines are awesome. Making the dawn of 2019 the due date got me motivated to churn out some decorative pillows. Once I got going it was fun.
And I made a cover for the seat too, from grain sacks I got in France last summer. They got super soft after I (machine) washed and dried them and I pieced my favorite parts together. They have lots of beautiful mending and I love the colors.
I made the pillow covers from old fabric from friends (including some glorious and ancient things my friend Ching sent me) and more things I picked up at French flea markets last year. By the way there is one spot open in each of my trips to France this summer – click here for June 21-28 and click here for July 1-8. Come to France with me! And then go home and make some throw pillows…
With the couch in happy condition my first official work project of this year was a long overdue re-write of my about page. Especially if you are a new visitor it’s a good place to start.
And also in the New Year’s department I re-committed to my daily painting and drawing project. So far so good. Daily practice is no joke, it’s brutal sometimes but I know I’m better off doing it in lots of important ways. The positive effects on my thinking, creativity, idea generation and focus are huge. I’ll scale back to drawing when traveling probably but if I flake on this again you should yell at me.
The holidays were unusually happy and slow and peaceful for me. I spent a lot of it in pajamas eating cookies with a cat on my lap (I regret some of the cookies). It was pretty nice but I’m happy to be back to business as usual now. How bananas are you? I’m pretty bananas. I require huge amounts of time by myself to think and work and I like routine a lot. I’m luxuriating in time and space and ordinariness now, percolating all sorts of ideas….
tiny sewing for good mental health
There is always something and often someone in my pocket waiting to be stitched. I’d be lost without this sort of thing. When I wander away from it for too long things go badly, when my pace gets too frantic the magic evaporates.
It’s the thing that steadies and focuses me, all the tiny sewing. This is a pile of mental health. A little stack of tiny pinafores and nightgowns and satchels and jackets and bloomers. I’ve been sewing little folks here and there for the past few weeks. I take them with me for the in between times.
Wear them high, wear them proud lamb friend. The lambs in pants crack me up every single time. Something about those little trousers and how happy he seems to be in them…
The tiny pants pattern is free! it’s quick and easy and you could scale it for other dolls too.