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

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

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

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

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

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

Draping Fabric:  There is a product called a "pretty pleater." Even when I am not making curtains, I use it for draping as well. The pleater itself it make of rubber with many grooves in it. You prepare your fabric with glue, or starch, (I wouldn't recommend hair spray, it'll really attract dirt, in the long run to your fabric.) You settle the fabric into the first groove, holding it still with "carding" (a credit card would work), and then press the fabric into the next groove with a second card. Proceed until all of the grooves are filled. Thoroughly dry, then release. For a looser draping, you can manipulate the fabric (pulling and drawing at either end) until you have the effect you want.

You might have a better chance at getting the soft effect you want by soaking your fabric in liquid fabric softener (more than is label recommended) rinsing and drying. Actually, Pantene works good too. The softer the fabric, the more realistic the draping. I've seen a lot of fabrics marketed as miniature, and regardless of the pattern, some fabrics just don't work. If it looks bad to your eye, outright, move on to something else.   I've found pale raw silks, and some percale types, and plain cotton, really do drape nicely.

Hanes her way  "ladies undergarments"   and lightweight undershirts type tanks, have an elasticity bound into the actual fabric of the cotton (not the waist and leg bands, but the fabric), and after repeatedly washing them, (we'll assume for the sake of common decency that they're new...LOL) they make a very convincing "hanging" drape, as in a tablecloth, or an errant piece of fabric strewn across a chair...I use plain old white glue diluted with H2O, to stiffen. It works fine, and is easy to dust when dry.

Sherise

Draping Fabric:  most of the time when I want a skirt or piece of clothing to appear draped, I arrange the folds and take stitches from underneath to hold the folds in place. Usually I'll take a tiny stitch from inside the petticoat and through the inside edge of a fold. Sometimes I have to redo it to get it to look just the way I want it to, but once the stitches are in place, the folds stay in the position I want them to be in. With a skirt, you actually wind up taking stitches in a circular fashion, around the bottom. This is just the method I like the best - since you don't care for the other methods, why not try this one?

Paulette in IN

Cleaning Old Lace: My friend Pam's mother in law, Linda, collects and restores old linens. She has "fixed" some pretty nasty-looking lace for Pam's dolls to at least be usable. Since I have several nifty 40s and 50s print tablecloths, I was interested in old linen maintenance and asked for pointers. Process is lengthy and labor-intensive but she swears by it; method was learned from her grandmother.
(1) Never scrub or use detergent, lace is too fragile. Dissolve Ivory soap flakes in hot water, cool to lukewarm, and then soak the lace for several hours. Rinse by picking up and swishing gently in a basin of water -- again, no scrubbing or wringing. You may have to repeat this three or four times to get most of the dirt out.
(2) When you're satisfied with the overall cleanliness, blot up most of the rinse water by rolling gently in an old towel.(3) Soak the lace in undiluted lemon juice. Spread lace out on a clean old towel and dab extra lemon juice on the remaining spots. Dry outdoors in full sun. Again, repeat several times as necessary until you remove or minimize the stains. Some will just not come out, and don't expect the lace to become snowy white.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Printing on Fabric: I have just recently tried this myself for the first time and with success. I used an old white dress shirt of my husbands that I cut up (he'll never miss it!) and pressed onto freezer paper. For complete instructions on how to do this go to:
http://wingsnthings.tripod.com/chicken.htm

Marilyn, MI

Color-fastness: To test for color fastness in your mini quilt, take a clean white cloth and wet it. Rub gently with the white cloth and see if the red transfers on to it. If it does, then you know the chances of the red bleeding and making a big mess are quite high! Remember how wet colored sneakers stain white socks? Well, this is the same idea. You may want to use cold water in the tea stain process too to help minimize risk of colors bleeding.

Linda in GA