Doll house stories: kitchen

This part 3 in the Doll House Stories series shows how I made the family of dolls who are gathered around the kitchen table in my newly renovated doll house. The house, which I built in 1975 while in art school, is on view in my exhibition, “Bedtime Stitches” at the Cahoon Museum in Cotuit, MA through Dec. 19, 2020. Other posts in this series: part 1, part 2 (wallpapering), part 4 (re-upholstery.

Here’s a short video of the kitchen scene.

I suppose the boy could be rolling out dough for lots of different baked treats, but I imagined them making cheese straws, which is a family tradition going back several generations. In the past, I’ve shared the recipe for the best cheese straws in the world on this blog.

Since so many of you’ve enjoyed the recipe over the years, I decided to make a card with the cozy kitchen scene (above) on the front and the recipe for making cheese straws printed on the back. That way, it’s a greeting card (or Christmas card) and recipe card all in one.

The Cheese Straws card is available in my shop in packs of 4 or 8.

To make the figures in this scene, I started by painting their faces on wooden beads. After seeing their personalities come to life, I’m motivated to make the rest of their bodies. The doll making process is based on the instructions and patterns in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk – New Adventures.

I glued felt wigs to the crown of the bead heads, making a surface that a needle can grab onto. Then, I stitched their hair with mending wool, which is just the right weight for this kind of detailed work. It seems like all of my relatives kept cards of wool to mend sweaters, so I now have a nice supply of browns and grays to choose from.

I bent wire in the shape of hands and wrapped the fingers and palms with embroidery floss. I’m frequently asked to show in detail how I make hands, but I choose to keep that process private.

Just like I teach in Felt Wee Folk, their bodies are constructed with pipe cleaners.

Here, you can see how the skirt fabric is gathered and sewn to her waist. It can be messy because it will be covered by a sweater.

Since their clothes are sewn on, these dolls can’t change outfits very easily.

I used a chain stitch to sew stripes on this shirt.

To give this character a womanly shape, I sewed beads to her chest.

To finish off her cooking outfit, I made a little apron.

The dough is made with polymer clay. To give it a more realistic color, I kneaded in dried mustard, which is an ingredient in the cheese straws recipe. As mentioned earlier, Cheese Straws cards are available in my shop here.

Stay tuned for part 4 in the Doll House Stories series. I will share how I re-upholstered a vintage 1930’s miniature sofa.

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11 thoughts on “Doll house stories: kitchen

  1. Another wonderful ray of sunshine dropping into my inbox. As we go into a second lockdown here in the UK, your post has cheered me up and inspired me to get those pipe cleaners out again 😊. You continue to enthuse me with each post! Thank you!

  2. SALLEY,

    You are amazing! I have loved your work since I saw your first book. I made some of your pirates (one of them had a peg leg!) for a raffle for my doll club. They brought in more money than I was expecting! I have loved the other two books too.

    Your new stuff is amazing. It’s so detailed. I just love it. I’m so glad that I’m getting your email updates.

    Thank you so much for your inspiration.

    Linda Tyler

  3. Amazing, as always! In the photo where you show the heads in the painting stage, the heads are on something brown and fuzzy. Is that some sort of pipe cleaner? Something you made? It seems like that brown fuzzy stuff would have some interesting applications. 🙂

  4. Me encanta tu trabajo y te felicito por esas manos laboriosas, que te regalo Dios.
    Te escribo desde Colombia departamento del Valle del Cauca, ojalá algún día puedas venir, con mucho cariño de recibiré en mi modesta casa.
    Quiero que conozcas algo de mi: Soy pensionada, mi profesión es Microbióloga y mi hobby es tejer bordar y las manualidades. Por eso aforo tu trabajo, y me ha dado muchas ideas.

  5. Hermosos trabajos mil felicitaciones .a mis nietas les encanta las miniaturas y este trabajo es perfecto me encanto.que sigan los exitos!!!

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