Medieval Clothing Patterns: I have some medieval patterns of the 'easy' type on my web site (for my other hobby, historical costuming). They are on a grid,so they can be scaled up, which I imagine means that they could be scaled downas well.
http://chimericalgirl.net/costume/costume/scapatt.htm

Maura Bass

Knitting Socks: Linda: You requested information on a pair of knit socks for Santa and I took a workshop a long time ago on socks to hang on a fireplace at Christmas, but I have used it for socks for a long time. You will have to determine the size you will need as feet, of course, come in many sizes. Using a knit fabric and I find tee shirt type knits to be especially good as they have a good deal of stretch and memory, cut an oval. Just to get the handle on size, I would cut an oval about 2 inches top to bottom and about 1 1/4 in diameter.

Fold it in half horizontally and cut on the center line. Now you have a pair of socks. With the flat side to the top, fold the fabric vertically, with right sides together. Now you have a quarter oval with the flat side on the top and the fold on the left. Using a complimentary color of thread, start at the bottom point and make a small running stitch from the tip up the curve. The smaller the sock, the finer the running stitch (about a 1/8 inch seam). Tack securely at the top.

Turn the sock right side out and finger press it. When you slip it on the foot the sock will conform to the foot and look like a regular sock. The seam will be from the toe to the heel and up the center back of the sock. If this size is too small, try again with a larger oval or smaller if necessary. Warning: having a seam in the center sole of this tiny sock may cause tiny blisters, but my dolls don't seem to complain.

This same technique can be used for the Christmas stockings I mentioned earlier. Just make the sock as explained above, but cut from card stock a stocking shape. After you turn the sock right side out, you can insert the card stocking into the fabric sock and it will become shaped like a real sock and you have an open top to insert candy canes, etc.

Joanne Trainor

Pleating: You can make cartridge pleats as follows: (these will work for drapery because the pleats are not pressed flat). Cut a rectangle of fabric about 3 times as wide as the finished width plus the width of your hems and the length you need plus hems. Unless you want a raw edge for some reason, make your hems first. Run two rows of evenly spaced basting stitches along one long edge of the fabric. For both rows, the stitches should match, both running on right or wrong sides of the fabric together. The width of each stitch will determine the size of the pleats. When you have sewn both rows, pull the threads evenly to gather to the width desired. Now tack the points along one side of all the pleats evenly to a strip of fabric or interfacing to hold the pleats evenly. Cartridge pleating was done on skirts' waists during the 19the century instead of gathering because less bulk is created when the fabric is evenly folded.

I have seen diagrams in books showing how to make a home-made pleater, but you can hand pleat (tediously) knife pleats as follows: You need about three times the final width of your fabric plus the width of any hems. Work on a pinning board or ceiling tile. You will need your iron, pins, and 4 very flat, thin sticks (the width of one pleat to gauge the pleat widths and the length of your fabric). You might try slicing up a stiff piece of plastic that is about the thickness of a credit card instead of the sticks. Make any necessary hems before you begin pleating. Work with the fabric wrong side up on a pinning board or ceiling tile.

1 Lay gauge #1 near the right edge of your fabric. Lift the left end of the fabric and fold over the gauge so that it hugs the gauge in the fold and crease.
2 Lay gauge #2 directly on top of the first gauge (with the folded over fabric in between). Now fold the fabric over the second gauge (right to left) and crease.
3 Leaving gauges #1 and #2 in place, place #3 over the fabric directly to the left of the stack of #1 and #2. Fold fabric to the right and crease against gauge #3.
4 Now place gauge #4 directly over #3 (with previously folded over fabric sandwiched in between). Fold fabric over to the left and crease over gauge #4.
5 Leaving the gauges in place, press the 2 completed pleats.
6 Carefully remove the gauges from the 2 pleats and tack them to hold.
7 Moving to the left, follow the above instructions again to make 2 more pleats.
8 Repeat until you have the desired number of pleats.

While this method is quite tedious, it works. It is much easier on a narrow piece of ribbon than on a long piece of fabric, but it can be done.

Rachelle

Siding: I assume that your using the wide boards and not the individual strips. Start at the bottom. Use Quik Grab glue. Put glue around the board, especially along the edges. Press the board against the house, then pull it a few inches away from the house, and then press the board against the house. Move quickly as it does dry quickly. Don't use too much glue. I put it around the edges and a couple of strips in the center lengthwise. You don't need to cover the whole board with glue. You will notice an overlap at the bottom of each piece. The piece that you put on next will be right above the first piece you did and you should overlap the top piece with the bottom.

Carol

Knotty Pine: Being a bit of a perfectionist, I would feel compelled to make my Knotty pine walls with basswood strips for realism. If you look at the real thing, you can see some grooves between each of the boards. You can duplicate this by rounding over the edges of each strip of wood so that when they are laid next to each other there is some dimension to them. Then for the knotty pine effect, I'd use a wood burner or fine tipped soldering iron to add the knots. Afterwards, you'd want to stain all your boards appropriately to match what you are duplicating in real life. Most Knotty pine has a warm yellowish glow. You also would want to spray them with a satin sealer or something and put a nice finish on them. Then install your boards one at a time. Shoot- this sounds like so much fun I may just have to make a cabin scene. Granted, this is probably the hard way to do things. Just depends on how much realism you are trying to get and how much time you are willing to put into it. Maybe someone knows of some great product I'm not aware of to do the same thing easy.

Bonnie Gibson

Knotty Pine: If you are fortunate enough to find someone stripping away a full sized "bottle brush" shrub from their full sized garden - - - - The wood makes excellent scale knotty pine. Takes time to season (about a year and a half) and then must be milled to mini sizes.

Mel K.

Knotty Pine: Called the store here. They do mail order to the U.S. She wasn't sure what exactly knotty pine would look like (and I'm not too sure) but she said they have a web site http://www.madscrappercda.com She's pretty sure the supplier is American so you might want to try searching for something like scrapbook+paper+wood on your favorite search engine. Haven't checked it out myself. The sheets (9" x 12") are $4.59 Cda (So about $3 US) I did tell her it was for minis and she said that she had used it herself (not for minis - but to get smaller wood effect) by tearing pieces along the grain to get the effect she wanted. I'm a great fan of scrapbooking pages - Acid-free, easy to work with.

Maureen

Knotty Pine: If you take the piece of wood you are using and use a small drill or punch to make small holes a bit larger than the thickness of a toothpick randomly over the entire piece of wood. The more holes, the more finished knots. The holes are best a bit diagonal through the wood (not straight through like a nail). Then, insert a toothpick dipped in glue in each hole. Let the glue dry. Cut the toothpick flush with the main piece of wood. Sand the panel smooth. You now have a knotty piece of wood. If you are using stain, you will want to test the stain on the knots to make sure that you are happy with the way the stain "takes". I have found that the long skewers give a more "rough" look than the toothpicks.

Whui

Aging Wallpaper: I would try mixing some antiquing medium with water (probably about half and half, maybe thinner) and "patting" it on with a soft cloth, then ever so carefully, dabbing it off with another soft cloth. Be very careful not to rub it on or off as it may damage the paper. And, if you have some of the scraps of wallpaper left over, I would recommend you try it before going to the dh wall. Remember that when "real" walls and floors age, they do not age and discolor evenly. The area just above the baseboards, in the corners, etc. age faster than the rest as these are the areas that tend to collect grunge.

Sloan

KFC Bucket: Anyway when I was there I saw a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. I can't remember who was looking for it but Laura Dubois had it. Her web site is http://www.Minis2.com I checked out the site and it seems like she is trying to get it up and running, but her phone number is on there so if you are still looking for the bucket (It had chicken pieces in it too) give her a call!

Kate in CT