Little Bits of Purple Delight
Azalea
It’s the time of year when you don’t know whether to wear a raincoat. a sunbonnet, or a winter coat. In front of the glorious Azalea, you can see that Mary Ann settled on her felt bonnet and a warm shawl, and she’s off to search for her favourite purple blossoms!
Scrap Happy – Bodies on the Ides of March
Irish Linen Scrap
The pair of Lady Frances’s Bodies that I made last month was not quite right…a little small, a little limp and they didn’t give me joy. So on to #2, this time with an excellent reference book and a scrap of a linen traycloth…
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Blue and Gold from the garden
Worry
Some dolls know what it is like to feel lost and abandoned – For a hundred years Guttersnipe was on a dusty shelf and Mudlark in the muck of the Thames river. They feel very sad when they hear the news these days, so Arianell sent them out to the garden on a hunt for special flowers.
Spring Cleaning Tools
Cleaning implements
Jane is ready to give the Hitty carpets a beating! To make a Hitty Carpet beater, we suggest practising the method with kitchen string first because it is easier to manipulate and to see what you are doing. After you get the hang of it you can try making it with wire, like the one I made for Jane in this picture.
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First loop
First cut about 60 inches or 150 cm of kitchen string. Thread a darning needle and pull the needle to half way along the string. Tape the string to a surface (craft mat or table top), about two inches from the end (the extra string will become the handle).
Make the first loop right above the tape and to the left, easing the strings around the curve so they keep running parallel with each other. Be sure the leading end of the loop is under the taped end.
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Second loop
Make the second loop, going towards the top, easing the two strings around as before, and keeping the leading edge on the top.
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Third loop
The third loop is going to go over the top of the second loop, through the first loop (over and then under the strings) and over the handle end…
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Fourth loop
The fourth loop goes up to the same height as the second loop, on top of all the previous strings on the way up and weaving through them all on the way down (here is where the needle is handy!) .
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Fifth loop
The fifth and final loop of string is woven through the third loop on its way back to join the handle!
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Complete
Here is what the rug beater looks like when it is complete. This is a good sample to keep for reference – as it is made of string it will be floppy, but if you want to actually keep it as Hitty’s rug beater, you can paint it with clear-drying white glue, one or two coats to stiffen it.
To finish the handle of a wire one, I just twist the four ends together for as long as I want the handle to be. If you are twisting the string one you will need to do that after at least one coat of glue.
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Bamboo Skewer
As for a string mop – cut about 5 1/2 inches or 14 cm off a bamboo skewer…
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Kitchen String
…wind some kitchen string ten or 15 times around your four fingers…
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Laid out with tie
Make two cuts to get short lengths of string, then lay the skewer onto the strings…
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Tied once
… and tie them tightly at one end using more string.
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folded over and tied again
Flip the string over and tie again very tightly…trim the ends.
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Ready to deal with the dust bunny infestation
Arianell, Jane and Henrietta are ready for spring cleaning!
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