Draping fabric: In my experience, to make any fabric hang nicely, go the way YOU want it to go, make it wet with water. Just run it under the cold tap. Squeeze it out, and shape. A friend had given me a lovely man's night-shirt and cap, good yet flat and tidy. I had a cat sleeping on it as it lay on the bed, but it didn't look right. I dunked the cotton night-shirt in water, squeezed it out, lay it on the bed, pressed the sleeping cat into it to make it indent with the supposed weight of the cat, and left it to dry. Perfect.

Also perfect, yet heartbreaking: finally after a year of plucking up courage, I made a mini dressing gown from scarlet silk with gold dragons (to scale, too!) woven into it. SO gorgeous. I would die for a real dressing gown like that. Cut it out, sewed it up, it was The Perfect Mini, the entire gold dragon wriggling up the back. It was mythic. Yet flat. Like a board. So I dunked it in water, shaped it, and now it's a Perfect dressing gown hanging on a hook on the door. It is sublime. And only I know that the dragon's there, not one scale of his shows clearly!

Helen Cottrell

Emanjay Patterns: The patterns are available at the House of Caron, www.houseofcaron.com - I'm sure they would be able to help you.

Marsha

Curling irons: I use a curling iron , smallest rod with 1/2" diameter, to smooth my glued seams in my 1/4, 1/2 and 1" doll's clothing, works very well. Also great to smooth wrinkles out of fine silk ribbon and lace. Just make sure you have several heat settings.  Really saves the fingers. Also can get the ones for larger curls/larger area. For my 1/4" scale dolls is a real help. Or make your own padded covered dowels or shapes to use inside garments , I've assorted sizes , and use my regular iron in that way, also saves fingers. Do this for my small antique doll clothes pressing also.

Regina

Fabric felt tip pens: They are great! You can design your own fabric patterns and really go to town on personal miniatures!! I had to share this with you as I think they are well worth the 32.75, I paid for a set.

Freya

Pin holes: This is what I do. If the fabric was starched all you need to do is take a pin and smooth out the hole. Just scratch at the hole with the pin tip. Works every time.

Deborah

Tulle: tulle (noun) [French, from Tulle, France] First appeared circa 1818, a sheer often stiffened silk, rayon, or nylon net used chiefly for veils or ballet costumes.

Silk and Other Fabrics: I have found a new place for silk scraps and they are very nice and very reasonable too. I bought some and the $4 for the bag was well spent all new and all usable. They are not large pieces but for our use they are great. You get a good assortment and the lady will work with you too. Nice combination. Please mention that I sent you so that she will know who did it to her. Gateway to Salamandra Productions--She also has paper scraps and lots of really neat things.

Charlean

Pleating Drapes: I make my drapes for free. I use cardboard, the thick kind packages arrive in the mail in, and straight pins to make my pleats on the cardboard, then spray them with hair spray, let them dry, and when I remove the pins, the drapes hold their shape.

Sue

Pleating Drapes: Before I broke down and bought the pleater, I pleated many-a-drape, curtain, and vanity skirts using the pin method on graph paper and hair spray. The curtains I did for my "big house" were made over 10 years ago and they are still pleated perfectly. They have been even been hanging upside down while on the rod while the room was upside down being electrified and settled back in shape nicely when right side up. I can say that I like the pleater and have used it a lot since I bought it. I have the 1" and a friend has the smaller one, so we share!

Fay

Cross Stitch Kits: Go to www.weedarlings.com and click on cross stitch kits. She has kits for pillows, quilts, rugs, tea cozies, Xmas tree skirts. I've ordered a few of these kits and they are quite nice - and delivery is quick too!

Paula

Cross Stitch: This web site has dozens of links to free cross stitch patterns. I simply do the patterns on 36-count or 40-count material to adapt it for miniatures, or stitch only part of the pattern. I do the full X because I think it looks better, and I can tell the difference. http://powerup.com.au/~sheal/freebie2.html

Pat

Bed Skirt: I needed a bumper pad and bed skirt for a baby crib and found an easy way to make it. I bought some plain cotton ruffle and attached it to the mattress so that the top part of the ruffle (the plain straight part that you would sew) stuck up a little bit above the mattress, then the ruffle hung down like a skirt - very easy.

Carole Pierce

Flocked Wallpaper: Lay 'velvet' on top of a doily or something else with a raised design, spray with fabric starch and iron heavily. The nap will stay raised where there is no design and flatten where there is a design.

Anne Gerdes

Ribbon roses: Here's a sneaky way to get pretty little roses every time. Just about all the stores we haunt carry ribbon roses. A little big you say?? Look at the base, find the end and begin to unravel till you have the size you want. Trim off excess and put a dab of glue. Voila! Twelve beautiful ribbon roses in minutes for about $1.00.

Dina Watts

Wool Felt: For a small piece of wool felt, visit you local Podiatrist he/she may have some in thickness up to 1/2." This can be pulled apart into sheets of any thickness you desire.

Bob

Wool Felt: If you need discontinued or special fabric, try the local goodwill or Sally Ann shops. Whenever I'm looking for fabric I need for my projects, I can usually find it among the racks and racks of clothing they have (sparkly, brocade, silky, velvety, etc.). You end up with masses of material for a few bucks.

Susan

Dressing my blue silk mini bed: Several folks have written and asked me how I made my bed. I thought I'd post how I did mine to the list. First I bought a copy of the book Judy's Beds. It was under $10 and very worth the money. The book has lots of templates for making spreads and canopies and pillows. But for the life of me I could not follow her directions, maybe it's because I'm just a basic beginner at sewing. But what I did was use her pictures as directions and followed her that way. I had to modify things a little because I dressed my wooden bed, and her beds are made of ceiling tiles with applied headboards and posters.

Here's what I did:

I bought the 1/2" pleater by D. Anne Ruff http://www.danneruff.com and it has really come in handy, well worth the money. I used 1/2" foam and doubled it for a mattress that I sewed together, got the foam at a carpet place, they sell it by the yard if I'm not mistaken. I cut and folded over a hem for the dust ruffle, then sewed on some tiny flat lace to that, used the 1/2" scale pleater for the dust ruffle and glued it down.

I measured the bottom of the bed and cut a piece of cardboard that was 1" shorter than the length of the bed. This allowed me to have room to push the bottom of the spread down between the foot of the bed and the mattress.

Then I cut a pattern for the spread out of typing paper, and tried it out on the bed to see if it would fit, then took that and cut a spread and lining. I sewed the spread on the machine using a zigzag stitch with some thin flannel batting with a cotton lining. Then gathered lace twice as long as I wanted it for one side, gathered it and sewed it on by hand, did the same for the other side and the foot.

Then I took about 1/2" dowel and cut that to size for a bolster and covered and glued flannel batting to it and let it dry. I knew the ends of the bolster would have to have a folded hem, so I measured the fabric and cut it out. Then I sewed the fabric by hand to the bolster and turned over a hem on each end, then used a blind slip stitch and gathered each end, then glued the bolster to the bed.

The bows were easy to make once I played around with an idea of using 4 straight pins that I stuck to a vinyl placemat, 2 pins in front of 2 pins. The front two pins were closer together. I taped down one end of the silk ribbon on the left side, and then wove the silk streamer around the back two pins, then brought the streamer around to the front going around the pin on the left, then wove it through to the pin on the right and taped down the end of the streamer. Then I took needle and thread and went straight through the center to the back, then looped the thread totally around the center of the ribbon, stitched the back a few times and took the pins out and glued the bow on the pillow. I'm sure my instructions are about as clear as mud with these bows!

The pillows have the 1/2" foam in them that's been beveled on the top and then covered and stitched two times round on the machine. Tacky glue was then applied to the front and back of the stitches on the pillows, and then the material is trimmed fairly close. The bows were glued down on the corners of the pillows with the tails waved a bit. The silk ravels so badly, so I ran a bead of tacky glue along the edge of the fabric and let it dry, this really kept it from fraying. Pillows were 1" square and lace was twice the total length of each pillow and then gathered.

I glued just about everything down, except the lace on the spread. I glued just the points of the lace down. The bed was easy to make, I had seen so many gorgeous beds that looked like they were so hard to do that I was fairly intimidated, but believe me if I can dress a bed, anyone can do one.

Take a look at my mini bed here:

Photopoint Album

Sue in VA

Draping Bed Linen: Spritz the bed covering (on the bed) lightly with water, then wrap a strip of cloth around the whole thing, tie or pin the ends, and let it all dry. When everything is dry, remove the cloth strip. This has worked well for me with woven cotton coverlets and with quilts (just 2 layers of cloth). It should work with other natural fibers, too, but I would test a little scrap of silk to make sure it doesn't spot or run.

Vicki in Pasadena, CA

Draping Bed Linen: You could use Stiffy or other fabric stiffener and drape the bedding over plastic fild until dry in the shape you want. If it is a quilt put either sand or a little lead shoyt in the edge channel. Another way is to thread fine wire through the edge and mould it into shape.

Roberta

Forming Fabric: Rather than fuss with starch and hairspray, try using plain old steam. This way you don't have to worry about the type of fabric. If you can pin the fabric to the mattress above the wood and then steam, you'll be surprised how well it stays. Just stick the pins straight in (like a nail in the wall) a quarter inch or so. Remove pins after the fabric is dry. And I've said this before, you can buy a small steamer at places like Walgreen's and Walmart for around $10 so you don't have to use your iron which is often too awkward for steaming minis.

Mary Kay Gentile

Draping Linens: to add yet another method of draping fabric as in bedding... use a VERY fine wire in the hem....the wire that you can pull out of the edge of French Ribbons works well. The edge can then be shaped as desired. You can also add this wire into the first row, edge stitches of a crochet or knit item. Just remember it has to be very fine to work. (I saw a gal on TV knitting with 26 gauge gold wire to make jewelry, but wouldn't want to try it myself.)

Sammy