Soft Toys for the Toyroom

I wanted lots of toys in the children's room of my dolls house and after I had bought most of the toys available with various miniature supplers, I still needed more. I found a book published about thirty years ago on making toys which had lots of lovely patterns in so I scanned the book, reduced the patterns to 1/12th size and printed them out.  Some of the pattern pieces were overlaid with one another so I needed to print out multiple copies so that I could cut out each individual pattern piece.  I cut the pieces out of very thin felt and then carefully over-sewed them together, following the instructions in the book and using tiny bits of stuffing to fill them.  When I do the baby dolls' nursery, I will use the same technique again for baby toys.
Here is a photo of the soft toys that I have made so far.....the Teddy was included in the previous post on 1/12th scale toys.

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January WeeCreations Swap finished

Today I finished the last of my twenty embroidered hand-towels for the dolls house swap, whew!!  So now I can add twenty hand-towels, ten pairs of red checked tea-towels and ten double bed sheets to the twenty boxes of soaps which I finished earlier.  Each of the nine swappers plus the swap hostess will receive a parcel as part of the swap and in turn, I will receive nine different parcels in return (including one of my own). This is my first swap with the group and I loved doing it and being part of the group.  So each swapper will receive a sheet parcel, two hand-towels, a pair of tea-towels and two boxes of soaps.

Here is a picture of most of the items seeing as I couldn't fit the last of the two sheets under the scanner.  But they are here with me and they will be sent with the other stuff.  I hope everyone likes what I have made for the "Linen and Bathroom" swap.

Here are the hand-towels (no two are the same), sheets and checked tea-towels for the swap.

Miniature Soap Boxes

This the result of my first session of making soaps in presentation boxes. It is part of a "Linen and Bathroom" swap with WEECREATIONS group.  I'm having fun with these little boxes which measure about one inch long and contain four cakes of modelling clay soaps. 

Each box has a free printie label on the top of the box, under the lid of the box and the four cakes of soap have matching labels. The photos show five boxes open and four closed to show the labels on the lids.

Toys for theDollshouse Nursery

The next room box that I am working on is the childrens' room or nursery.  I haven't got room for a girl, a boy plus a baby so the baby will have to go in with the nanny when I make her single bedroom because I want the girl Louise and the boy Michael to have lots and lots of toys. I was always of the mentality that everything for my dolls house had to commercial, bought on eBay or from one of the dolls house suppliers but since joining "WEECREATIONS" which is an on-line group for dolls house enthusiasts, I have found out that it is so much fun to MAKE YOUR OWN.........  While I agree that pieces of furniture and brass and glass and molded items will always have to be bought, I have been having a great time thinking of what toys Victorian children would have played with and then I have set about making them myself.

My list for Michael included a sailing boat, a kite, a Jack-in-the-Box, some animals for a farm or for Noah's Ark, paints with brushes and sketch book, a hoop, a teddy bear and a ball.  For Louise I think that she would have had a skipping rope, a doll on a stick from the fairground, lots of dolls, books, paper dolls, scrap book and scraps, a tea set and a blackboard and chalk.

Here are my first attempts at toy making.  I had a lot of trouble getting the wedges on the beach ball even and I think I will still cover the point where they meet with a coloured circle.  The ball started life as the roll-on ball in a small size roll-on deodorant which was 1 inch in diametre and a perfect size for 1/12 scale. The Jack-in-the-box was make from six pieces of wood which were 1/2 inch square, a wooden bead, some beading wire twisted around a satay stick to make a spring and lots of paint and pictures. I stitched the teddy yesterday morning while sitting in bed.........it is made of felt and took me four hours (I didn't get out of bed until ten o'clock!!)  I dressed the doll on the stick with some 1950s tinsel ribbon which I inherited from my aunt and it looks quite authentic.