Source for thin leather: Here in Minnesota we have very large fabric outlet store that carries some very amazing things. Every thing is sold at half of the regular price. They do have very thin leather sold by the piece. This is the address for that store:

S. R. Harris
8865 Zealand Ave. North
Brooklyn Park
MN 55443
Phone 763-424-3500

Ann Fisher in Minnesota

Leather: Although Tandy no longer has retail stores, they do have a great web site at:
http://www.tandyleather.com/ . Click on 'Leather', then on 'Lining'-these seem to be the right weight for leather upholstery, AFAIK. Then also carry dyes, etc.

Molly

Closed umbrella and a purse for a 4" - 8" doll: For the umbrella, open a paper clip up and straighten it out (or use a tiny dowel rod or straight piece of wire) Cut it to the length you want. If it's a fancy parasol, you can wrap narrow silk ribbon around the shaft. Glue on a pretty bead or beads for handle. Cut out a circular piece of fabric, stick the end of the shaft through the middle, and glue to hold. Then pull the fabric up and twist it to hold it tight. Glue or take a stitch around the top to hold it in place. Gather lace all around this top edge. (Kind of hard to give directions without illustrations, but I hope you get the idea)

For a purse, take a little flat piece of wood or fiber board (maybe 3/4" X 1/2". (or 1" X 3/4" for the 8" doll) Cut out a piece of embroidered ribbon and wrap it completely around, gluing it down, with enough extra length to lap over in front. Glue a little piece of trim along the edge, and a bead for decoration. Glue narrow satin ribbon from one side bottom edge to the other, for a handle, and to cover sides.

Paulette in IN

Closed umbrella: If you take a round toothpick glue a bead on one end and on the other end a smaller bead. Cut a circle of fabric, place the smaller beaded end of the toothpick in center and gather the material up around the toothpick. Now wrap a piece of ribbon around the closed part of the umbrella and glue where necessary. Another way to make the handle of the umbrella is to roll a piece of black or brown bakeable modeling clay and then bend into a handle. These look really cute in a marker cap painted as an umbrella stand.

Kathy from Cedar Springs

Closed umbrella: If you take a round toothpick glue a bead on one end and on the other end a smaller bead. Cut a circle of fabric, place the smaller beaded end of the toothpick in center and gather the material up around the toothpick. Now wrap a piece of ribbon around the closed part of the umbrella and glue where necessary. Another way to make the handle of the umbrella is to roll a piece of black or brown bakeable modeling clay and then bend into a handle. These look really cute in a marker cap painted as an umbrella stand.

Kathy from Cedar Springs

Fur Coat Directions and Fabric: http://www.excel.net/~fsippel/MASupplies/Books/Creation.html

Towards the bottom of the page, there is a book advertised to teach making a fur coat with directions and three samples of "fur". This doll artist does a nice job. Her fabrics are wonderful.

Laurie Sisson

Pretty Pleater: 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.

Donna

Knitting terms, to the best of my knowledge:
YF: yarn forward. Pass the yarn under the needle, to the front. For instance, in ribbing, when you've been doing a knit (or plain) stitch and then want to do a purl stitch, you bring the yarn forward under the needle. No extra stitches are made.
YON: yarn over needle. When changing from purl to plain, you pass the yarn over the top of the right-hand needle, so that it lies there looking like a slanted stitch. Then you will either pass it over the next knitted stitch, to make a little line of yarn across the knitting, or on the next row treat it like a stitch, and knit or purl it, which will leave a hole in the knitting.

YRN: Same result as YON, except that you do it when you are not changing from purl to plain, but continuing to knit purl or plain. If you're doing purl, the yarn will be at the front of the knitting, so pass it right around the right-hand needle and to the front again, so it looks like a stitch. Similarly, if you're doing plain knitting, the yarn will be at the back, so pass it around the needle to the back again, and continue knitting. On the next row you will be told to knit or drop the stitch, and again you'll make a hole, or a very long stitch.
I have a very good old knitting book with clear photos of every possible stitch (up to 8 pictures per page, and there are 160 pages). The book, called Knitting Dictionary, was published by Mon Tricot in 1963, and I don't know whether it has been republished.

Frances, Erin, Ontario

Slippers: you can easily make a pair of slippers for your poor toeless gentleman. Cut an elongated oval out of felt. Cut this in half. Each half will become the front/top part of the slipper. Glue it down over the top part of the foot and toes (you might want to put some little beads in for the missing toes) and turn edges under, gluing them to the sole of the foot. Then cut out soles to fit and glue them on.

Paulette in IN

Quick quilt: just thought I'd post my tip for making a mini quilt the easy way. cut a piece of thin iron on interfacing the size of your quilt. cut out small irregular shapes from scraps of cotton plain and printed materials. place these in a pattern that covers the interfacing and then iron all down at once. use this piece as a top. put a piece of wadding and a piece of backing under the top and set your machine to a small close zigzag (satin stitch) and stitch over the joins of the pieces. add a binding or border and voila a tiny crazy quilt. i have made 2 quilts like this and it certainly takes away a lot of the drama of working with tiny bits. it does not replace gorgeous patchwork but is easy and looks great. mini regards

Julia

Making baskets: had to let you know about a web site I just found.
go to http://www.minitaly.com

It is a really neat site. just go to the English version and then go to projects. It shows you how to make the cutest baskets out of tapestry fabric. I tried it because they were so cute. They are easy and very cute. I used fabric for cross stitch in the loosest weave they had. I also made one out of something that looked kind of like burlap.

Kenna in Texas

Gluing Felt: If you are working with felt you can glue it with rubber cement or what I did when working with felt, not in miniatures, is to soak and saturate the felt with latex (neoprene-synthetic) and squeeze out the excess and then shape the felt and let it dry. When it is dry it can be handled like wood. Sanded, painted etc.

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.

Gluing Felt: I am assuming that the felt you want to glue is the usual craft felt, made of polyester. The only glue I have found to use successfully on it is Fabritac...available in mini stores, craft stores and WalMarts craft dept.

Alice Zinn

Gluing Fabric: - actually, I stitch more than I glue because I happen to be better at stitching. But there are times to use glue. I use plain old Elmers, poured in a little puddle on a piece of plastic. For most things, I let it set a little so it's tacky, and not wet enough to seep through fabric. I apply it with a needle. That way you can get a tiny spot, or you can pull it along in a fine line with the needle. Some people use applicators, but the plain little old needle works for me. And if you get a spot somewhere by mistake, let it dry, and then you can gently scrape with your needle until it flakes off.

You will find that all dollmakers have their own methods of doing things. I would say a good rule of thumb is to look at a dollmaker's work. If they do nice work, and you'd like to create something similar, then I'd ask them how they do it and take their advice, because their finished product is the proof they do know what they're doing.

Paulette Stinson

Gluing Fabric: I use tacky glue in a syringe and apply a tiny line of glue and using a warm iron will set it permanently. This can be used for hemming anything. I have even made life size throw pillows for my sofa using this technique. It really works.

Sangelscooter

Gluing Fabric: I have taken several doll dressing classes and have used a combination of gluing and sewing and gluing is by far the neater job if done properly. I use tacky, super tacky and fabric glues. These I put into a plastic glue bottle with a metal tip. This tip allows you to place a #5 lead sized line on the fabric. You can get these bottles and tips from Dee's Delights. I keep several of these bottles loaded with different glues. I use a non-rusting pin to put into the metal tip to close.

I learned this fabulous trick at the Arizona State Day several years ago:

- Take a plastic film cannister and glue it to a piece of wood (or use a baby food jar without the wood.)
- Place a piece of thin sponge in the bottom.
When ready to use, wet the sponge and while gluing, place your little glue bottle upside-down in the cannister (baby food jar) and the glue will stay in the metal tip. You may have to squeeze out a little water if you get the sponge too wet. You will learn to gauge just how much water that you will need to dampen the sponge.

I could not glue anything without this little gadget. Hope this helps--remember when gluing---LESS IS MORE!

Shelby

Gluing Fabric: There is a product available in most fabric stores called "unique stitch" - it is designed to glue fabric. It can be used in place of sewing and will allow fabric to remain supple. Check to see if it bleeds through your fabric by gluing a small swatch and letting it dry. It can be applied with a pin or using it's own applicator on the bottle depending upon the size of bead you want to lay down. It does not need to be diluted. There are other products also available for gluing and they will state "for fabrics".

Jean in Seattle

Gluing Fabric: I have used a hatpin or corsage pin and an old-fashioned pincushion for gluing with great success. I dip the pin in the glue and it gives you a very fine line of glue, and you can slide the pin into the pincushion to clean it off. I haven't had much success with the fine glue dispensers as I always get them clogged up.

Sherry in Uniontown

Gluing Fabric: I glue most of the hems on my doll clothes. I use tacky glue and apply it with a toothpick. I apply it sparingly and, if using silk, let it slightly dry before turning the hem to prevent the glue from seeping through to the outside. If making a full skirt, I cover this hem with a piece of lace ( a trick I learned from Paulette Stinson).

Loretta

Gluing fabric: In regards to the glues used for dressing dolls. I only use Aleene's Thick Designer Tacky in the white and pink bottle. It's super thick and doesn't soak through most fabrics. I also heat set all the hems and seams with an iron. I use a Monoject syringe. It has a curved tip and puts out just the right amount of glue, which I spread out with the syringe tip as I go. I never have to stop and pick up more glue, like in the toothpick method. That would never work for me, as this glue dries very quickly and by the time I stopped to get more glue, it would have started to dry already. The trick is to work in small sections (1"-2") at a time.

Connie Sauve