Crumpled Lingerie:   "display" miniature clothing is much easier to make than clothing that must fit on a doll. There were quite a few patterns with instructions given in past issues of Dolls in Miniature magazine. You can contact Viola Williams at   dollsmini@aol.com   for information on back issues. The new Dolls in Miniature magazine has printed some patterns for display clothing also.

If you really want the "crumpled" look, you don't have to work too hard, as a wadded up piece of fabric might look like anything - probably most wadded up items of clothing aren't readily identifiable.

A piece of pretty lace, sewn into a tube shape, with narrow ribbon straps across the top will make a nightie to throw on the bed.

Paulette in IN

Regency Fashions website: I don't know if this has already been sent in or not but here's an interesting site on Regency fashions. It's not a mini site but the outfits would be great for ideas on dressing a Regency mini lady. She links to a lot of different aspects of dress in this time frame. http://hal.ucr.edu/~cathy/reg3.html   

Jean in Maine

Doll's for Children to play with: I purchased a family of FP dolls when I was in Canada last year and they are perfect for my little girl (age 4) to use in the house that I am building for her.   She gets so much fun out of them.   As you mentioned, they are a bit larger than 1:12, but she doesn't mind a bit, and they are rugged enough to stand a lot of play.   I would really recommend them to anyone with small kids.

David in Santiago

Linen patterns and directions, once again try Dover Books: Shep Stadtman's   Dollhouse Furnishings for the Bedroom and Bath. Mattresses, pillows, sheets, pillowcases, comforters, quilts, curtains, plus towels, shower curtains, and even a bathrobe. Some of the designs are a little clunky by today's miniaturing standards, but the problem is the scale of the lace and other trims used.  The linens themselves are good scale, with clear instructions, and better trims are available now.   And as usual with Dover, you get excellent value for a low price.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Bedspreads: When making bedspreads, I find that by lining the fabric with a fine cotton, it makes a perfect place to put nickels - The nickels weight down the fabric and allow the spread to drape nicely over the bed.  I made a pink and white checked one and then hand quilted squares, so the nickels wouldn't slide.   It worked really well, so I thought it might be a good tip to pass on.

Kathy

Needlepoint Carpet Kit: You can find kits and/or charts for my needlepoint carpets and rugs on my web site http://www.micro-stitchery.com

You can also find kits and charts for Christmas stockings, doorstops, footstools, pillows, purses and other things too.   I also have silk gauze and needles on my Supplies page, if you prefer.

Bobbie Schoonmaker, IGMA Fellow

Pillow tassels:   Have you tried silk? Cotton of embroidery thread is stiff by comparison. Even  if just the stem of the tassel is silk it will flop better. Silk comes in   spools. You are going to love the glow of the colors, nothing like it.

Laurie Sisson

Floppy tassels: Wendy asked how to make her tassels 'floppy'. I've had some success with that by adding in a few strands of very thin beading wire with my threads. Gravity just doesn't 'work' on miniatures they way it does in real life, and often needs the help of stiffener, wire, aluminum foil sandwiched between layers of fabric, or other tricks to simulate gravity. Recently, someone was asking about linens. I often glue beading wire into hems of table cloths, sheets and quilts for the same purpose of creating draping.

Alice Zinn

Floppy tassels:: The problem with tassels sticking out is typically not the size/weight of the tassel.   Stick to the size tassel that pleases your eye and sense of scale.  The problem is most likely the length of thread between the tassel and where it goes into the pillow.   Make sure the "head" of the tassel is not right next to the pillow corner.   You may need to allow as much as 1/16" of thread between the tassel and pillow.   This stiffness can occur in full scale when the tassel is pulled to tightly into the corner seam of the pillow.   My mother made custom window treatments for 25 years.  She made millions of beautiful pillows.   We would see all kinds of expensive pillows made by the snooty "Interior Designers" that had "stiff" tassels simply because they did not allow that little bit of slack in the tassel string for "flopping." 

For a tassel with finer "fringes" try regular sewing thread.  It is smaller and smoother than embroidery floss.  You can get more fringe in the same size tassel.  Best of luck.

Kathy

Knitting site:  Althea Merback. She wrote me about her knitting and gave me the URL of her website. I visited her site and I really loved what I saw. Privately she sent me some pics of the newest knitting patterns and they are really wonderful. This is the URL: http://www.coolmini.com/althea/bugknits.htm

Annelies de Kort from The Netherlands