Coloring nylon yellow lace: Marianne said she has a bunch of yellow lace for which she has no use. She could try coloring it, especially with a dark color, permanent marker. Then she would have a lot of black lace!

Alice Zinn- Pt. St. Lucie FL

Hagatha accessories:   mortar and pestle for mixing dry ingredients for her cures and potions, jugs for the liquid infusions, sacks of potatoes and turnips, maybe an old-time dresser with a chicken coop in the base for fresh eggs year-round, a rustic pine-needle and twig broom. Gardening tools and trugs or baskets for harvesting herbs.  Wash-stand and chamber pot set, candlestick and stand upstairs.  If she is literate, a volume of receipts/ formulas for her herbal medications.   A secret floorboard or loose hearthstone beneath which to hide cash payments for her treatments.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Hagatha accessories: - about your wise woman - if she's getting ready for the winter, she really needs something to do - make candles, sew, knit, sketch her botanical finds in a book, read.......

Lynn (No E)

Coloring nylon yellow lace: If the lace is nylon you can strip the colour and dye it really well any colour you choose as long as it is not too pale. There will remain a slight trace of colour. If it is polyester this will only take a pale dye. We can buy a small tin of stuff here called Dygon, made by the Dylon company. This removes nearly all the dye.

Then use the small tins of Dylon. This comes in various sizes, but a small tin should be sufficient. You need to boil the lace in a large stainless steel pan with some salt. Salt is what is called a mordant in the dying trade. There are other mordants, but this one is perfect as easy to find in most households.

There are washing machine dyes, but would probably be too much for your needs. Also you can do the old coffee, tea, beetroot juice etc ones for cheapness. Suggestions Turmeric, onion skins, elderberries cochineal, cow parsley. there are other mordant such as alum and chrome and these effect the different shades and personally getting too complicated for small amounts. Fine for dying wool.

If using plant material use 1oz or 25gm of leaves, berries or flowers per 1 oz of material or yarn. if using spices, coffee or tea 1/2 oz or 15gm . if water is hard use water softener or vinegar .

Soak flowers and berries overnight, stems and leaves 3 dyes, walnut shells a month!! Bring soaked products to a fast boil for 30 minutes till colour desired and will look darker than finished product. Strain and add water to make 1 liter for each 25gm material/yarn. Dissolve salt in half a cup of water, add to dye bath. Thoroughly wet lace, place in cold dye bath and bring to a simmer for 30 minutes but not boil. Remove  and rinse till water comes clear. Keep in the shade while drying as it will fade in sunlight.

Most important is to wear rubber gloves and use stainless steel utensils and a wooden stick. Never let any children near these things as they can be poisonous. Do not use utensils for cooking with afterwards either. I dye small amounts in a large glass bowl in the microwave. I keep the concentrate in glass jars and just dilute the amount I need.

I have been dying for years. Nothing was spared. If I was dying a large item like faded curtains I would throw in some faded underwear. Or dye a batch of undies all to match. It can be hit or miss. The stitching may be a different material and show up in another shade. Sometimes this was a bonus. Hit or miss effect was half the fun. I used to dye dried flowers in this also. Could do lots of shades and tones to match or contrast with furnishings. By buying white and cream base in whatever you do, can produce so many colours. If you want bright clear colours then you need the chemical bought dyes.

Hope this was not too long and boring.....you can also can stain wood too

Pauline, Mansfield, UK

Hagatha's Hut; She should probably have a Drop Spindle and small basket of wool to spin.   One could be made from a button or small wooden round, and a toothpick. A Chamber pot would be good, if you can find one, and perhaps a fleece if you can find some appropriate material for a scale fleece. Of course, my dh says that she needs something appropriate to read tucked under her pillow... something like 'The Tao of Pooh' (or perhaps something by Shakespeare).

Gyelle

Leather for doll's shoes: you can get leather” splits" which are pieces of very thin leather in different colors, from Etcetera, Etc. But these pieces don't have a polished or finished side; both sides are like suede. Probably you'll have to hit your local flea markets and antique shops looking for old kid leather gloves. One pair will make almost endless amounts of miniature shoes, and you can usually get them for $10. or less. Whatever color you get can be painted the color you want, after the shoe is finished. (Enamel paint will make it look like patent leather) You can use thicker leather after shaving or scraping a layer of the underside away.

Paulette in IN

School scene:   I made a 4-room (modern) school roombox and it was a lot of fun! I got a lot of ideas from the school where I work in the library.   The four rooms are: a classroom, a library, a music room and a teachers' lounge. Most teachers and school offices get tons of catalogs for educational materials - a treasure trove of cut-outs, scannables and inspiration.   Take a look in my Epson photo site in the Modern School album. http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=1664953

Chris in Minnesota

Leather for doll shoes; may I suggest Home Sew.  They have a bag of leather scraps (1/2  lb for $4.75.) The bag I just ordered was full of butter soft leather mostly black but also some lovely red.  I could shoe a caterpillar if I wished. The URL is   http://www.homesew.com/   I do not work for this company but I've done business with them for a number of years and have always been pleased.

Patsy

Fabric Display: when I bought my futon the shop's display of cover-fabric samples wasn't draped or in a book.  They had a rack rather like a tall towel rack (or ladder) with leg-braces.  It was hung with fabric swatches about 18 inches square on rods, suspended like banners.   Each one overlapped the one below but left a couple of inches of the bottom showing.  Seems like one of these could be made fairly easily with stirrer-sticks, would resolve the draping problem, and would provide more visual interest without occupying a huge amount of floor space.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Silk Gauze in Quantity: For all of you needle pointers out there: In response to requests for larger pieces of 100% imported silk gauze, I not only am now offering 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and 1 yard cuts but also have discounted these quantities from 15% to 30% depending on the yardage ordered.  The gauze comes in counts of 40, 48, 54 and 60 and is 40" wide. These quantity orders   are not available through the shopping cart on my web site so you have to e-mail me directly at microstitch@aol.com

Bobbie Schoonmaker, IGMA Fellow