Making a Victorian Dolls House.

Greetings!

Just two weeks ago I discovered that my favorite designer Jeangreenhowe, has written a dolls house book. It's called 'Making a Victorian Dolls House'. As soon as I learnt about this book I started looking for it. Before Jean started designing knitted dolls, she has written different other books, which were published by different publishers. Unfortunately, all these books are out of print now. But some of the second hand books are available on Amazon. I found this book on Amazon. This book was published in 1978, so most of the pictures in the book are black and white, with very few color photos.

As usual, I don't have words to praise Jean. One might feel the same thing by seeing the cover photo of the book. Her books are always simple, beautiful and easy to make. In this book, Jean has shown that the most ordinary everyday odds and ends can be transformed into delightful miniature ornaments and furnishings. Instructions and diagrams are given to construct a miniature Victorian house with three rooms, and for making each floor and for adding suitable decor for the kitchen, parlour, master bedroom and nursery. The inhabitants of the house are not forgotten. Instructions are given to make the peg dolls and the flexible dolls. There are ideas to make 1890's Milliner's shop, and market stalls along with a peg doll dressed as a street vendor.

I enjoyed making 'The Victorian Kitchen' from Vivienne Boulton's 'The Doll House Decorator'. I am also planning to make other rooms from the book, but I am quite sure that I will definitely enjoy jean's wonderful ideas from this book as well. 

Among all the rooms in a doll house, kitchen and dining are my favorite rooms. I always wanted to make a very simple kitchen. This is one of the pictures from the book and I just loved the simplicity of the kitchen.

I will soon be trying some of the projects from the book :)

My all time favorite Jeangreenhowe........

Greetings!

It's time to talk about my favorite designer Jeangreenhowe. Actually there are no words to express how good she is. Her degins are clever, attractive, colorful and easy to knit. She gives so much details to all her designs. The instructions are so clear and there is so much spoon feeding in her books. If you look at her patterns you might feel they are quite complicated to knit but once you start making you will be surprised how simple they are. 

Piece by piece put together you will get one beautiful doll..... She is amazing and I have 14 booklets. Every year I look forward to see her next book. 

All her booklets come with a paper back they are 28 to 30 pages but, in such small book there are lot of details and no mistakes ever.....

http://www.jeangreenhowe.com (this is the link to her website)

There are many free patterns as well. I just pasted this page from her website. You can find all these beautiful patterns......

If you knit dolls, you must own Jeangreenhowe's knitting booklets..

Enjoy!

MY RAG DOLL...

My next favorite book is 'MY RAG DOLL' by CORINNE CRASBERCU.

 This book, in my opinion is for intermediates, but beginners can enjoy the book as well by putting some efforts. I am a beginner when it comes to sewing. I am still learning how to read a sewing pattern, I sewed a doll from this book and I had to undo the dress few times. I could not achieve perfection, but my doll did not turn out too bad either. This book has beautiful dresses for dolls and I want to make all of them. If you enjoy sewing dolls, this book is a must have. I was looking for a Waldorf style doll book, but I am glad that I found this one :)

Even if you are a beginner, you can still sew but might or might not put extra effort. For  intermediates I guess, this book will be a walk in the park.

Will be back with my next favorite book.

Rev Burgundy..

Doll house books....

Greetings,

Yesterday I paid a visit to 'The Half-price book store', in downtown. I found two great books one is 'The Doll house Decorator'  by Vivienne Boulton. This book provides the complete guide to DO-IT-YORSELF furnishings for DOLLS and DOLLHOUSES. 

Most of the things are made out of clay, wood, cardboard etc.. The loved the book and many things are quite easy to make and materials are easy to find.

Another book that I found was 'EDWARDIAN STYLE HAND-KNITTED FASHION FOR 1/12 SCALE DOLLS' by Yvonne Wakefield. 

Knitting these miniature outfits will be a great challenge. I was quite happy to find this book. All are knitted using very very tiny needles, crochet thread and embroidery yarn. I have not used anything else other than worsted yarn or double knitting yarn. All the pattern are complicated lacy patterns and looks quite elegant and sophisticated. Can't wait to start knitting these! 

The author of this book is a fashion designer and was attracted to the world of miniatures by the challenge of adapting her practical skills and her knowledge of fashion to an ancient hand craft using basic, unsophisticated equipment. This is her first book.

Other Doll House books that I like are 'DOLL HOUSE STYLE' by Kath Dalmey, this book provides step-by-step illustrated guide to making 90 Authentic Miniatures in 15 Period Styles.

And 'BIG BOOK OF THE DOLL'S HOUSE' and 'A BEGGINER'S GUIDE TO THE DOLL'S HOUSE HOBBY' by Jean Nisbeth. This book provides information about choosing your Doll's house, Period Properties, Planning the interior, Decorative detail, Practical gardening etc. there are some How-To's, but basically these books guide what exactly you need to make a particular style of doll house.

Will be back soon with my other favorite books. 

You all have a great week!

Make your own performing puppets.

Another interesting book I came across at the library.

This book, teaches how to make puppets and also to create props to have a puppet show. This book is great if you have a large and fun loving family, with many children. What fun it will be to have a Puppet show?

Everything is made out if cardboard, recycled items etc. 

I would love to try something out of this book. How bout you?

See you soon with my next favorite book..

Revs...

Playing with Plasticine.

Yesterday, I was at the library and I came across this book, I felt it was quite interesting so borrowed.

So what is Plasticine? Even I have not heard or worked with this clay before, but want to try this for sure.

Below is the history about Plasticine.

I have not heard of the author of this book before, but here is a quick info about the author.

If anybody wants to try some different type of modeling clay, may be you can try this. Since I have not yet tried this I have no idea about this clay, but once I try making something from this book, will blog about it in detail.

Until next time,

Revs....

Knitted Dolls by Arne and Carlos

Greetings,

Knitted dolls by Arne and Carlos is my other favorite book. Once you make a basic doll, there are wide variety of clothes to knit for the dolls. Everything is knitted in round using double pointed needles. It might be little hard in the beginning to get use to, if you have not worked using double pinted needles, but once you get hooked to it, it's quite easy and fast. Eyes and nose are also knitted as and when you make the doll. The best part is, the book is designed by Male designers. I get excited when I see guys knitting or crocheting :)

I knitted two dolls from this book, both were loved by people. Especially by my knitting forum.  Posting some of the pictures in the book to get a clear idea.

Some info about the designers,

I love this book and I Recommend this book, if anyone out there looking for a wide variety of wardrobe for your dolls and want to make a unique doll.

Revs...

Fairy tale knits....

Greetings!

There are many craft books available in the market. As a beginner it's quite confusing which book to buy, where to buy etc.. Even I have no idea about many things, so I decided to blog about some books that I like and the books which I have already tried. So that this information might help those who are looking for craft books. 

Today I will be talking about Fiona Goble's 'Fairy Tale Knits'. I bought this book one and half years ago from the UC DAVIS book store. When I saw the book first, I was not impressed. I went home with out buying the book. But could not take my mind off from this book. I kept thinking about the characters in the book. After thinking and rethinking, I felt indeed, this book is quite good. I love to knit in sets. Each story comes with three or four dolls. Well, 'Beauty lies in the eyes of a beholder', I realized it quite late. After two days when I went to the same book store, someone else had bought the book. Since there was only one copy I could not find another one. But the good thing is, if we request the UCD book store, they will order the book for us. I had to wait two weeks before I received this book. But, it was surely worth waiting.

I love this book. The instructions are easy to follow. Size of the dolls are perfect. Small amount of yarn is sufficient to make these dolls and all the dolls can be knitted quite fast. With in two or three days you can finish one fairy tale. Also each Fairy Tale comes with the story. I have already made, 'The Three Little Pig's', ' Little Red Riding Hood' and presently making 'Rapunzel'. There are many other enchanting fairy tales like,

Look at the beautiful colors! I am in love with yarn. There are so many beautiful colors, which make this world beautiful!

If anyone out there looking for a Fairy Tale book. I recommend this book.

I hope this is helpful, I will soon return with my next Favorite book. 

Until, next time,

Revs!