Vacation

Hi there,
haven't been here for a while, and I'm so sorry! But it's just as I said it would be: back home there's a lot of work and very little time. But Tiny Lady has been sewing away, so I hope that soon we might get to see her newest creations. I'm writing this on my own while she is sleeping, so I don't know how much I can reveal, but I'll give you a hint: it's got to do with a very typical summer activity! ;) I'd add that it's been looking absolutely adorable so far, but then, all of her creations do, so that's hardly a hint at all :D
Now to pretend she isn't the only one working hard around here: I've also been trying something here and there and there is now a house taking shape on my desk :) Two floors and I'm still working with cardboard, so I'm not sure, but so far it's been holding very well, I think. It's a really big project with a lot of detail - 7 windows and 2 doors, probably, and I'll be making roof tiles by hand, also floors, and so on. So that's probably not going to happen anytime soon :(
Also, we've managed to land a fantastic deal on a vacation in Bulgaria, so we will both be gone between 17th and 28th, so sorry about that, no posts scheduled for then....but we'll think about taking someone with us :) So far we can't decide between wanting a Sylvanian along for the ride and fearing for their well-being...oh well :D But if we do decide to take someone with us to the seaside, we'll be sure to share photos of how they enjoyed the experience! :)
Alright, that's it for today, I'm sorry this was all just my blabbering and I promise to do better once we are back :)
Have a great summer meanwhile :)
Engineer out.

Final touches on the white bedroom set

Alright, so I've finally gotten around to finishing the white bedroom set - adding handles and so on. It was a quick job and very rewarding...in short, nothing like last night and just what I'd needed :D So, here we have it, all together:

Here are separate shots of the pieces for more detail, going left to right :)

Well, the hangers didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but tough life, I suppose :D It's something.

Now, that's all to the white bedroom set - and it's also the last of my vacation, so...before I pack up, I thought to share a look at all the furniture that's coming home with me after this week. This is shot in the kitchen where I've sat night after night making these things and it's where I've slowly collected them as they came to be :) ...and I think I'll be taking that pink teabag with me as a souvenir :D Though nobody can expect me to drink something as horrible as that....grapefruit tea, really, what is the world coming to.

...so small, not much of an accomplishment there :D

Thanks for reading me this past week, though I've spouted solid nonsense :D I'll try to keep posting from home, but it will hardly be every day, I'm afraid :( I really loved doing this and I'll definitely keep going, but there will be much less time from now on.

Have a great time, everyone...I'm now going to spend the last hours of my vacation trying to pack these as safely as possible for transport :D
Engineer out.

Polka dot summer dress

Hi everyone,

so, another dress, another rip-off :D Today I tried to make something similar to one of the Grandmasoriginals designs (I should seriously work on my imagination and come with a design of my own, I know :D) BUT. Although I think my sewing "technique" got somewhat better as I am no longer afraid the dress will fall apart at the slightest touch, I also made several mistakes. First, the width of the skirt is obviously too much and this time I can't hide it behind the "gala feel" (notice how the dresses are dragging behind the figures like a slime? yeah, that ), so something needs to be done about that. Second, the fastening is nowhere near the middle and lastly, yeah, the square part was meant to be sewn between the skirt and the chest belt. I was not satisfied with the outcome, but the longer I look at it, the less horrible the dress looks to me. Or maybe I'm just getting short-sighted  :D

Anyway, here's a picture of the dress (on a second look, it looks kinda like an apron? idk):

This time there's no Eleanor, sadly. The dress didn't fit her as her curls are too fancy for this light summer dress. So, meet our new model, the Chantilly Cat Olli Klein! This dress was much welcome by her as the one she came with was too large (we switched the Chantilly Cat mother and father because the mother was eerily large compared to the father :D now she has enormous feet due to this switch, but what can you do). 

Luckily, you can't see those huge feet under the dress :D

Anyway, thanks for looking and if you have any sewing tips I'd be glad to hear them! :)

Tiny Lady

Garden bench, finished

Frankly, this was a bitch to make :D Pulled an all-nighter for it, not sure it was worth it...well, it holds shape, that's one thing I can definitely say for it - I consider that a success because there really aren't any solid parts to this thing. Most of all, I think this should be made from wood, paper seems the wrong material, but it is holding, so it is possible to use paper. Now, I'd like to say something more to it, but I'm really too tired...Yes, it's safe to celebrate, I'm not going to change my mind :D So, let's get the scaling pictures out of the way, they're the ugliest as usual:

From above

And the side.

Something a bit more presentable ( hopefully? ):

And for the last picture, I opened it - it can be used for storage:

The design is based on IKEA's Ängsö series ( photo I used here ), though I decided I didn't really care for the legs :D And I missed the number of slats in the armrest....yeah, who am I kidding, they look nothing alike :D But I guess tough life, this is the closest I can get on my current level :)

Now, it's lunchtime, best time to go to sleep :D

Take care,

Engineer out.

Garden bench, first look

Okay, so just a quick first look, since Tiny Lady has to go to work and I'm totally not going to finish it on time :D

I should be here with the full post soon, that'll explain everything :)
Engineer out.

White bedroom set, wardrobe

Eck. What do people need these abominations for? Chests were so much cooler ( = easier to make )! Well, tough life, I suppose, Tiny Lady commissioned one, so I had no other choice, did I :D Overall I think it could have turned out much worse, really. I'm trying not to hate myself here for the way the hinges look and what they've done to the whole piece....and I've been successful so far, I've put it some two meters away and discarded my glasses. It's actually starting to look great! :D Anyway, I'm sorry about all this nonsense I'm spouting....oh, by the way, did you know one actually can get too precise? Making the back panel, I cut out long pieces of cardboard and glued them on the panel, then painted over them before adding it all to the skeleton of the wardrobe....and they completely disappeared underneath the paint, because they were too finely done and just came together so close there was no room for the paint to sink in and create the kind of surface I'd wanted. So I had to scratch through the paint again once it had dried to reach what you can see on the inside of the wardrobe. That said, I'd say you might be wanting to actually see what I'm talking about all this time, so here, have a glam shot :D I'm a proud parent.

Now that is an actual hand-made paper tube in there, mind you :D That was a special kind of hell, that part :D Alright, let's go further:

Open wide :D

And close

And a scaling shot with Mr. Teabag. Maybe it's a girl, though, it's pink.

This was the first time that I actually had to switch between glue and color several times ( I use the same paintbrush ), so I spent the night running to the sink and back :D Also successfully turned myself albino...Somehow, I managed to get paint all over my face. Unbelievable. 

Now, I once more took family shots of the whole set:

I would just like to add here that it's not closed on purpose in the second picture. It can be closed entirely if needed, as documented by the solo shots :)

That seems to be it for today :)
Have a great day,
Engineer.

White bedroom set, dresser

So, a dresser. Not very exciting, I suppose...But just try to get those drawers all the same and lined up like that! Eck. Actually had to redo them, because the first time I didn't manage it :D It's a job for a computer, if you ask me. Anyway, here goes. First picture is with the dresser lying on its back because there's the teabag for scale and I'd have to hold it up and the light is above me and blah blah, long story short, I'm too tired for the kind of gymnastics that would require :D

Alright, now let's stand it up and open some of those drawers:

Wow, now that I look at it, the open drawers are creepy as hell :D Well, but it's to prove that they're there, can't be helped. I forgot to take a picture of one this time, but it's the same drawer from yesterday, really, only with slightly different dimensions.
To wrap this up, I took a picture of the growing set again:

Yes, I realize that this is hardly how the furniture would be organized :D But that will be for Tiny Lady to decide when I get this home :) And build it a room to stand in, presumably. Oh well.

Be back tomorrow ( the plan is to try for a wardrobe but I might be a chicken and just add handles to the drawers here and in the dressing table and make some books tomorrow, so no promises :D ).

Have fun,

Engineer out.

White bedroom set, dressing table

Hi there,
me again :D I made a dressing table for the White bedroom set today and....well, I don't know. I'm not satisfied, to tell the truth. It was a lot of work so I'm not discarding it yet :D But it came out too....bulky. The desk is massive, really, and it doesn't look so good. I also think that the legs should have been put in the very corners of the table, that probably would have helped with this problem. Also, the drawers are missing a handle now, so they look a little lost there, but I should be doing something about that tomorrow. Well, enough talk, here it is:

The mirror probably could have been shinier, but I don't yet know how to do that, this was the shiniest material I found. Good part is, the mirror moves in the joints! Lots of thinking and hard work right there :D Though it usually falls back into the default position, pulled by its own weight. Oh well. Not always, though! :D I opened one of the drawers for the second picture to show that they are not just decorative plates, here is a picture of a lone drawer:

Finally, I thought it might be nice to see it coming together, so two parts of the white set together, though it's a clumsy shot:

So, that's it for today :D
Engineer out.

White bedroom set, bedsheets

Alright, everybody, here comes! I am so done today, it is unbelievable. I've managed to sew a mattress, a pillow with a pillowcase and a blanket of a sort and that's all I've done the whole day. In the time that I'd normally make a whole bed or a sitting set...and with an amount of energy absolutely disproportionate to the task ( and the result, oh dear God ). I've come to understand something about myself today: I cannot sew. I mean, I managed somehow in the end, but God, never again! I'm used to having a very good idea of what I'm making and to being able to flip the pieces around in my head whichever way I please, but sewing? Nope. I just had to take a leap of faith every time. And though I always learn by making mistakes, today had way too many lessons for my taste, really :D Anyway, I'll stop blabbering, here goes:

So that's on the bed, now let's disassemble:

My hand is in there because I'm trying to show off :D That's to show that it's an actual pillow in a pillowcase, is all. But I do think it's not bad to see a human hand for scale sometimes :D

Well, that's all, I'm going to bed, be back tomorrow.

Love,

Engineer

White bedroom set, bed

So, today I started working on what I've dubbed the 'White bedroom set'. Sadly, it's a lot more complicated than 'Rustic kitchen' had been and so it's been coming slow. Also, I'm not entirely satisfied with how things turned out with this bed - but I've already planned improvements for next time and I believe they'll be helpful, so I'm not losing my spirit as of yet :D Anyway, it's not entirely ready yet, it's just the bed, no mattress and so on, also a few details are still missing because -what a surprise- I don't have the right kind of glue, but I don't think I'll get any further today as it's five in the morning here. So, teabag returns for being too awesome, here goes:

Ugh, now that I look at them uploaded here, shady pictures are shady, sorry about that...last one is even out of focus slightly, oh wow....but I think you get the idea :) The mistakes are obvious but I'm happy to report that the construction is surprisingly sturdy, so if we look past the fact that there are extra layers visible in wrong places and that some things are kind of....bending out of place, I think it's not such a failure, since it stands rather upright on its own and can withstand quite some downward pressure without pretty much any wobbling at all.

I hope to return with the accessories tomorrow: mattress, pillow, blanket. Tiny Lady has bought a lovely pink fabric so that's extra pressure to get it right :D

Be back tomorrow.
Love and kisses,
Engineer

Eleanor's new dress

Hello everyone,

today I'd like to show you a new addition to Eleanor's wardrobe. Eleanor (I think her original SF name is Barbara Dale, but somehow it just seemed too ordinary for her! :D) is still getting used to her new life in the village, so she was very happy about getting this new dress!

Sad thing is, there isn't many places where she could go parading this piece of clothing yet as the village is still in early development. And she definitely won't be taking it to the newly open hamburger restaurant :D So far she will just have to settle for Mrs. Bramble's approving (hopefully!) grunt.

So enough talking (haha, hope you didn't fall for it :D) and there's a picture of Eleanor proudly presenting her robe:

 It was my first attempt at sewing (well, not technically, but the first one was a disaster) so it's a bit wobbly but overall I'm satisfied with the outcome. I have an ambivalent relationship with the fabric as I totally loved it af first sight, then started to hate the moment I combined it with the lace and cut, and ended at liking it afterall when the dress was finished. It has a rustic feel to it (which I totally adore! only it doesn't go that well with this kind of dress design) and is in fact considerably lighter in reality. I think it would be perfect for crib "furnishing" and maybe I'll do that later as I have plenty of material left.

 I used this site's layouts and ideas: http://lespetitsmalins.forumchti.com/t1216p75-la-petite-fabrique-de-mimosette (maybe I should've lead with this information? don't know :D) It was a little hard for me to understand as I don't know a single word in French and my imagination isn't the best when it comes to technical things, but their creations are simply fantastic.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures as I took them in the middle of night with my mobile phone (and I believe the google wizard worked his magic on them as well), so there is definitely a room for improvement :D 

This is how the dress looks without its model (I think Eleanor adds a lot of fab to it)

Anyway, I really enjoyed putting this dress together and I'll be glad to hear any tips you have for this matter!

What about you, have you tried sewing something for your little Sylvanians? :)

Tiny Lady

Rustic kitchen set finished

OK, so here it is :D I've decided to post a few pictures from before paint because....well, because I like them. I was going to say something about how they show the construction but they really don't and the truth is I just like what it looks like. Not that I wouldn't like how they turned out with paint, could have been a lot worse! :D But the fact is, I suck at coloring. Well, maybe I'll learn as I work. So, here goes, finished set before painting:

Yeah, I know I promised a matchbox, but it's the middle of the night in my time zone and my hotel room has no matches, all I could find that might be the same everywhere was a teabag, hope that works for you guys. They're shot on the floor because my desk is a horrid mess :D

Alright, now let's move onto the finished product. As I said, I really suck at this - and it was my very first time with acrylic colors, too. So, first impressions: they stink. Like hell. My eyes aren't of the best so I frequently have to lean close to the stuff I'm working on and this was really something, I tell you :D But I was happy to find that even acrylic colors can easily be diluted with water, so if you're buying them for the first time, don't let anyone sell you something you don't need :)

So, there you go. I'd like to have more useless, obnoxious comments that nobody cares for, but the fact is that I'm half dead here and all I want is to lie down and sleep forever :D So bye, I'm just going to crawl away now. Engineer out.

Rustic kitchen, first look

So today I've started working on what Tiny lady has dubbed the 'Rustic kitchen set'. I'm not done yet and am planning to go through the night, but I think I'm ready for a quick first look at how it's coming along :)

So the coin is local and probably won't tell you all that much, but Tiny Lady, at least, will know what that is. I'll make it a matchbox in the final post, promise. It's still missing a table, though you can see the legs for it in the second picture, they're the weird things in the background. All paper and they're just a little wobbly, though mostly the first, I used thicker paper on the second. You can also see how it's bending upward, that's because of all the glue. But that can be helped, I'll throw some books on it overnight :D Hope you enjoy and I'll be back with the rest soon, though the how-to will probably come at a later date.

Love,

Engineer