Thread cutting on the go: For those who are concerned about how to get by without scissors/nippers when traveling: Clover Products makes a round cutter that hangs on a ribbon around your neck. You supply the ribbon. I used 1/8" satin ribbon. This little cutter is about 1 1/4" in diameter. It has little notches in the casing where the blade shows through. Just run your thread over it and it is nipped off. They have them at most stores that carry sewing notions,   or http://www.clotilde.com   or http://www.nancysnotions.com     They run about $5.00 here in MT at Joann Fabrics.

Marcie, Kalispell, MT

FABULOUS web site on Costumes, etc.!!!! I don't know if this has been mentioned before but I have found a web site that has EVERYTHING anyone would need to know about costumes and dress from Pre-Historic & Babylonian time through now.   The pages take a long time to load, in some cases, because there is SO much information but it is worth it!   There are also tons of links from these pages.

Information is there on everything from underwear to shoes and just about anything else you can imagine including listening to music of that time.   Just too much to mention here so get yourself a fresh cup of coffee and settle down for about 2 hours (at least) of browsing.

There has been a lot of discussion on "Egyptian" ... it is on this site.

My husband and I also deal in antique portrait miniatures and this site is excellent in helping us to better date the time period of sitters.   I can't think of anyone who wouldn't benefit or get ideas from "The Costume History at The Costumer's Manifesto".   Go to http://www.costu mes.org/pages/costhistpage.htm 

Bobbie

Bargello: According to the Bargello home page, http://hal.ucr.edu/~cathy/barg/barg.html   the pattern dates back to the 17th century.  Well actually, the website says it was common in the 17th and 18th centuries, so who knows--it may be even older. The point is, like most good things it's enjoyed revivals from time to time, so I say if it looks good with your over all scheme, go ahead and use it.

Jeri Moriarty

Needlework Supplies & Patterns:  Coats have a website, multilingual with links to USA as well as European, Fun site also    http://www.coatscrafts.co.uk/en/1/procro.html

Mary Jane Doyle sells on line at http://www.minknit.freeserve.co.uk/Default.htm   Also   http://www.crossstitch.org/  Links to www.sewandso.co.uk site with more.

Not forgetting the groups with information help like Jeanette's group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MiniKnittingandCrochet/  She has book marks to sites as well as advice.

There is a good site with fun free projects at http://www.kreinik.com/HTML/freebies/kreinik_freebies.html   lovely snowflake pattern amongst so many freebies

Pauline, Mansfield, UK

Miniature Knitting: Having just spent a number of days in bed nursing an annoying cold, I managed to get some miniature knitting done and I made an interesting discovery.

Sewing up seams in miniature knitting can be a problem because the seam can add to the bulky-ness of the garment which can also reduce the quality of the finished piece.   So, a lot of miniature knitting pattern makers have devised a way to knit these patterns, for the most part, all in one piece, thereby avoiding as many seams as possible.  Still, there will be sleeves to seam up and shoulders to attach, etc.

Well, my discovery came about in sewing up a knitting bonnet from a Joy Parker pattern.   There are 2 edges of the bonnet where a cast off is done and those edges are later sewn to two other edges which "form" the shape of the bonnet.  My discovery was in sewing up the seam on the right side of the garment as opposed to sewing it up on the inside.   Because the stitches are so small when sewing the seam, it turned out wonderful.   Previous to this I had tried sewing in the same manner on the inside of the garment, using small stitches and just catching the selvage edges of the piece with the yarn.   I still ended up with a somewhat bulky seam.   It was passable, but not as flat as I would like.

So, I tested this method again on another piece, knitted shorts, again from a Joy Parker pattern.   The shorts are knit in one piece and there is a seam up the back, then the crotch and legs are sewn.   I sewed the seam up the back the regular way, but the crotch and leg seams I sewed on the right side of the garment and again, it came out great.  It appears that cast off edges sew up the best for miniature knitted garments on the right side than for a selvage edge.   Mind you, this worked well for me, I can't say it will work well for you, but you might want to give it a try. Keep your stitches small and catch as little of the cast off edge as possible when sewing up.   And of course, always use the same yarn/thread you knit the garment with to do your sewing.   It's also possible, some of you may have already done this or know this, but for those of you who don't then it could be good news for you!

Also, within the next couple of weeks, I will be launching a new site on Miniature Net.   The site will be about miniature knitting.   It will provide an extensive Resource section telling you where and how you can find miniature knitting supplies.  There will also be write-ups about knitting patterns, tips for miniature knitting and hopefully as I continue to build the site, I'll also add knitting patterns of my own.  Once the site is launched, I'll write the list to let you know.

Joy in Pointe Claire

School room: Perhaps the room needs a teacher bending over a student working at her desk. Maybe the other students should be clustered at the different areas working on the different projects. Some sorting the flora and fauna or making drawings of them or looking through a microscope at the cells of the plants. Some building a model of the pyramid or drawing their own map or flag.

There should be book bags on the floor where each student's desk is. These should be well-worn and look full of books. Some of the desks can have notebooks open on them, there should be a stack of quizzes or homework on the teacher's desk to be graded as well as a grading book.

Most modern school rooms have those white dry erase boards instead of chalk boards. Some plants in the windows or one on the teacher's desk. Colorful bulletin boards and a tall file cabinet for the teacher.

Under the windows are usually cabinets which are window high. They have sliding doors and the top is a ledge which can be used to hold all sorts of student projects. Underneath would be supplies - - boxes of pencils, markers, construction paper, glue, copier paper, student texts for the next area of study. One of these could be left slightly ajar so what is inside can be seen.

Maybe a student at her desk using her math skills to calculate the number of stone blocks used to build the great pyramid or calculating the weight of just one of them or how much the whole thing weighs - that throws in another subject or maybe this could be used on a bulletin board. In these patriotic days, a flag standing in the corner of the room. There should be at least one computer in the room. Many teachers have a laptop or a PC could be at a special desk in the back of the room. A couple of students could be on the internet looking up Egypt.

Susanna from Indiana

Balloon animals: Well, after much research and development, I finally made some balloon animals I like! I thought I'd tell you what I didn't that didn't work, as well as what did! I tried air drying clay coated with stained glass paints first, looked too solid. Then I tried colored Sculpy mixed with translucent, STILL looked too solid!

Eventually I hit upon the following method:

I cut tiny lengths of clear 1/8 inch acrylic tubing (made by Plastruct and available in Hobby and Miniature stores). I cut them by rolling a sharp Xacto across them and then snapping them off with a pliers. For the ball shaped parts, I used a clear glass bead. I rolled the translucent Sculpy as thin as possible, and covered each piece of clear plastic or glass, with a thin coating, rounding the ends smoothly. Then I attached all the pieces together, using a TINY drop of Tacky glue for strength. (You don't want to use much or it oozes out and makes a mess!)

Then I baked the animals at about 275 degrees for about 5 minutes. Let cool.

Paint with several coats of stained glass paint, letting it dry well between coats.

I put the picture in a Webshots album I've started called "Assorted Miniatures". At present it is the only picture there, but I'm sure I will be adding more in the future!

http://cards.webshots.com/cp-19807422-IeUI- album/33320274APolyX Try it yourself, and have fun!

After I took that first picture of the mini balloon animals I decided I 'needed' one that was like a hat, you know the round base so a kid could slip it over their head? Obviously the hard, straight lengths of acrylic weren't going to work inside that, so I used clear flexible tubing, also worked just fine!

Alice Zinn - Pt. St. Lucie FL

Gutters and down spouts: I tend to question the use of drinking straws to represent downspouts. My own experience with full sized homes since WW2 has been that downspouts are usually rectangular rather than round in cross section. I have occasionally seen round pipes in some commercial applications and I am sure that this was sometimes used for early houses. But, even late 19th century photographs frequently show rectangular tubes or boxes leading to the cisterns. For fine scale modeling, it seems that the straws' primary advantages are that they are hollow and have very interesting corrugations at "the bend".

IN MINIATURE: Hollow is not so essential except, perhaps, at the very ends. Use rectangular wood with the corners mildly radiused. At the very ends where hollow may be desirable, carve down the last half inch by the thickness of thin brass shim stock. Wrap with the brass leaving an appropriate length of hollow overlap. At bends, miter and glue-assemble separate pieces then use a round jewelers file to grove for those corrugations. Hide brass to wood transitions with straps holding your spout in place. Where round metallic tube DOES prove to be appropriate, try an R/C model airplane and race car supply store for real copper or aluminum tubing which is more substantial than most straws and can really be bent to required shapes (NOTE: shove a piece of solid wire inside at bending locations to prevent crimping.) For wooden "pipes", use ordinary doweling. Soda straws do fit the ticket as "found art" which is a foundation of the joy in DIY dollhousing.

Mel

Log Cabin:   A couple of years ago my brother in law made log cabins for my sister and I..Hers was finished with Min Wax stain and polyurethane, with very neat rows of chinking between the logs...looks like one of the new log homes in the magazines...

Mine was coated with Thomas's Bug Juice to give it that old grey look and sort of pushed in chinking to make it look like it had been sitting in the woods for ever.

We both used a wood filler from Home Depot...can't think of the brand...brown white and black label...we used white...it dries to a dull pale off white. If you have seen old log buildings with chinking still hanging in there the color is perfect..Sometimes you just luck out. Both of them are great if I do say so myself and a little praise for my baby sister...You wouldn't believe to look at them now that they had started out identical.

Annamarie, Stuart, Florida

Applying Yes glue on wallpaper: I have two ways of applying glue to wallpaper.  One is to use a stiff bristled brush, and sweep it on.  The other way, which is much faster, is to take a tongue depressor, dip it in the glue, and put a glob on the wallpaper, then using the entire flat side of the stick smooth it out onto the paper. It is kind of like toweling with a stick.   This method gives good, smooth coverage, and you can slide it right off the edges of the wallpaper   onto your underlying paper (wax, newspaper, or whatever).

Carol