The Dressmaker's Cottage Finished: Part 2

Here is Part 2 of the Dressmaker's Cottage, the downstairs rooms!

On the left is the kitchen, with a blue Aga stove and porcelain sink.

My daughter loves baking, so I had to include an apron (from Mondina Dollhouse) and a baking scene on the table :-) 

The gorgeous cannisters on the shelf are from A Lavender Dilly, and the cutting board is also from Mondina Dollhouse.  The pink KitchenAid and casserole dish were from eBay.  The fabulous filled dish drainer is from PinkabellaMinis.

Looking across to the sewing room from the kitchen.

The sewing table.  The pattern and cute little buttons card are from Mini Fanaberia.

The bolts of fabric and the sewing book are also from Mini Fanaberia.

Mini sewing patterns, also Mini Fanaberia. She had a sale on her mini sewing items and I couldn't resist!

Lastly, the sitting room.  The side table contains another sewing book, a pair of scissors and a packet of licorice allsorts, my daughter's favourite sweets :-D

The Aubusson rug and pillow are from Mondina Dollhouse. So pretty, the photos don't do them justice.

The blinds and curtains are from MiniMaisonMiniatures.

Thanks for having a look around!

The Dressmaker's Cottage Finished: Part 1

I don't think any project is ever 100% finished but I am happy to hand over this one at this point to my daughter!

Let's start with the outside!  This was what it looked like once I had finished the exterior (see the rests of the exterior here).  I had done basic landscaping.

I had paved a path and added a fence and some vines and grass.

Once I had stopped fiddling with the interior, I could add the rest of the landscaping without fear of losing it every time I moved the house, lol (although they are all attached with museum wax!).

The daughter loves her bike, so of course the garden had to have one.  The I added flowers and plants, chair, hat and garden tools, amongst other things.  I love the leaves, although I didn't make them, they came in a set with the rake.

The hydrangea and strawberry are from LoveratsMiniMishmash on Etsy, and the parsley pot is from PinkabellaMinis on Etsy.

Moving onto the interior!  Here it is all in one shot.

Just the downstairs:

And the upstairs:

The upstairs consists of the bedroom and bathroom.

Here is the Dressmaker's bedroom!  The dressmaker herself is a Heidi Ott doll, in a gorgeous dress and shoes from Into the Blue Couture on Etsy.

The hat is from Mondina Dollhouse on Etsy.

The fur rug, skates and basket are from Minimum World.  My daughter has ice skating lessons each week :-)

The bedspread is from Beautifully Handmade on eBay.  The pillow, tray and rug are from Mondina Dollhouse, and the tea cup with lemon slice from A Lavender Dilly (Etsy).

Her dress has lovely details and does up with teeny tiny buttons in the back!

Here we have the bathroom:

I love the tiny little bottles of nail polish!  So sweet!  The nail polish, hair straightener and hair dryer are from Delph Miniatures.

I'll continue with the downstairs rooms in another post :-)

The Dressmaker's Cottage: the last additions!

The very last things I needed to do to the Dressmaker's Cottage before decorating were to finish all the curtains, painting the furniture, and installing the lights.

I was stalling on the curtains for weeks as I didn't have anything suitable in my stash.  Eventually, I buckled down and found a piece of pink lace from an old slip, and ordered two more blinds from Etsy.

 Bedroom dormer window, three layers of lace glued to a small piece of card:

 Bedroom window blind (Mini Maison Miniatures):

Kitchen blind (Mini Maison Miniatures):

Once the blinds were done I moved on to finishing up the furniture.  The bed and wardrobe were both bare wood, so I painted them with an undercoat of pink, followed by crackle glaze and a white top coat.

The hat stand, ironing board, pie crust side table and bookshelf were mahogany but they needed the shabby treatment, so they got an undercoat of grey and then a top coat of white, before they were lightly distressed with sandpaper.

I decided to add pretty paper to the inside and outside of the wardrobe, and I replaced the handles with crystal knobs.

Finally, I decided to add battery lights as they are so simple and easy to install!  The sewing room got a chandelier, and the kitchen a textured dome shade, and I was pretty happy with those so I ordered a wall lamp for the bathroom, and table lamp for the bedroom and a floor lamp for the sitting room.

Ta da! Everything in the house!  I'll do a pictorial review tomorrow to look at everything properly.

The Dressmaker's Cottage: Bathroom Progress

I've been playing with the bathroom for the last couple of days.  I started by making a faux roman blind for the dormer window.  I cut a section of fabric with lace trim to fit the window from an old handkerchief, and glued a short piece of white-painted trim (skinny sticks) either side of the top.  I added a couple of folds, which I glued in place, and then glued the blind to the top of the dormer.

Next, I used most of the remainder of the hankie to make a shower curtain.  I folded the top down and threaded 4mm jump rings (in antique bronze) through the lace to act as curtain rings.

The heaviest gauge wire I had in my stash was only 20 but I used it anyway! I cut a length to fit and painted it with tarnished brass distressing paint. Then I threaded the curtain onto the rod, and glued a jewellery spacer on either end.

Using pins, I pleated the curtain roughly and sprayed it heavily with hair spray and left it to dry overnight.

Here is the dormer blind and shower curtain in place - please excuse the dark photos as it is over cast today :(

Of course then I had to check how the curtain looked with the bath tub!  The bath tub as is, is pretty boring and uninspiring:

I used the tarnished brass paint again on the taps, and the legs but the outside was bothering me.

I only have acrylic paints on hand, which obviously won't adhere to the porcelain so I was stumped for a while, until I remembered that I have a porcelain pen in my stash.  It needs to be baked on to ensure a permanent finish - which I didn't want to do for fear of ruining it! - but I think it will be OK as long as it isn't handled too much.  I was pretty happy with the shabby, mottled look of one rough coat with the pen.

I felt it needed a bit more aging though, so I went over the dry ink first with a Walnut Stain distressing paint dabber, and then a Weathered Oak (grey) paint dabber.  Not too bad?

I also added a bit of staining to the drain ;-)

And here it is in situ.

I think it is coming along OK, considering that Shabby Chic is NOT my thing at all, lol!!

This is the bathroom with the sink and toilet from the set the tub came from added in.

I'm not happy with the boring toilet as it is, but I am not sure what to do with it to help it tie in with the bath tub?  I was originally thinking of painting the seat pale pink but perhaps that would clash with the black tub?  Although it would probably clash less than the timber seat does now! 

I will also age the sink taps with tarnished brass to match the bath taps, and possibly mount a shelf above the bath for storing toiletries.  I also need to hang the mirror above the sink.  Then, once the stair railing is complete, the bath room will be ready for accessories :-)