Silk gauze and Selvage

How to find out where selvage was if you have a cut piece of silk gauze without selvages?

For example, I have this piece of 35 count silk gauze. Before to mountain on the frame I need to figure out where selvage was and mark it.

There are 2 terms that are used when we talk about a woven canvas/fabric: warp and weft. Warp is the tightly stretched lengthwise core of canvas and weft is woven between the warp threads. Since warp threads are coming lengthwise out of selvage our task is to identify where is warp and weft are on this piece of 35 count silk gauze.

If the piece of silk gauze is not marked or has no selvage, pull one thread from the vertical side and one from the horizontal side.

Compare them. One thread will be crinkly and split in 2,

horizontal side

and another thread will be smooth:

vertical side

The warp threads are treated to withstand the tension in weaving. Weft thread is not.

The smooth one is warp and this is where the selvage was.

It means, when my piece of silk gauze is ready to be worked on, I will frame it this way.

Now, if you want, you can take a piece of silk gauze with selvage and repeat this experiment again to see what I mean.

Natalia

TUTORIAL: How To Put Dollhouse Miniature Slippers Together

Thank you very much for your nice and kind comments about publication of my Tutorial in the issue #187, 2013 of Miniatura magazine by Madelva Fernandez. I am very happy you liked it. For those, who is not subscribed for this wonderful miniature magazine that depicts the interesting work of many many miniaturists all over the world, I decided to post this Tutorial on my blog.

TUTORIAL: How To Put Dollhouse Miniature Slippers Together

You can purchase the slippers' kits at my webstore www.dollhouseneedlepoint.com, just click a button "Don't just sit there - Needlepoint" on the right hand side bar and go to the page Miniature Slippers Kits.

You will need:

- stitched slippers
- thin piece of leather
- cording of your choice
- glue
- scissors
- pencil
- thin card board
- PATIENCE!

1. Take the finished stitched pieces of slippers

2. Cut out a piece of silk gauze around the inside edges of each slipper

3. This is how it looks now

4. Cut the outside edges of each slipper in this way

5. Now your slippers look like this

6. Let's make the soles now. Take a piece of a thin card board paper and place one of your stitched slipper on it.
With a pencil mark the heel of a slipper leaving a little access for the ends to join each other. Outline the inside edges of the slipper.

7. Do the same to indicate the front of the slipper

8. Now, when you have all your necessary marks,

9. join them,

10. and cut out the way it is shown on the picture, following the lines of inside edges you outlined on the card board.

I don't use a template for my slippers, because each pair of the slippers I finish is individual, OOAK. Anyway, you need to learn how to make and adjust the soles for your slippers or shoes if you want to learn how to make them, :)))

11. Try to fit your new sole on the stitched slipper. If you feel like it is too long or too wide, trim the sides of the sole.

12. Mark it as R (right). This marked side will be the inside bottom of your slipper

13. Cut left sole using the template of the right sole

14. Now you have 2 soles ready: Left and Right

15. Take a piece of thin silk of matching color, put your soles with marks on the silk

16. and glue them to the silk. Let them dry and cut out following the edges.

17. Take the stitched slipper and the sole and glue them to each other starting with the most top, step by step. Don't apply glue on all pieces of cut silk gauze at the same time. Remember, that the white side of the sole is the outside bottom of your slipper.

18. Put dabs of glue on silk gauze and join the pieces to the bottom of the slipper.

19. Turn around and using the scissors or a wooden stick put some pressure from inside on the glued pieces. Let it dry.

20. After it dries,keep gluing all around the edges of the bottom of the sole.

21. turning around and putting some pressure from inside.

22. When you reach till the end, put these ends of the slipper together around forming the nice curve of the heel

23. Put little dabs of glue on the edges and glue the ends together

24. Your slipper now looks like this

25. Finish the second slipper the same way.

26. Prepare a thin piece of leather,

27. Place your slippers on the back side of it and glue to it. Let it dry properly.

28. After they are dried, cut the access of the leather out around each slipper with VERY sharp scissors.

29. This is how the leather bottom of your slippers looks like now.

30. Do the same to the second slipper and they are ready for the decoration

31. Put glue all around the edges of the slipper

32. and attach the cording of your choice

33. The slippers are done!

I hope you enjoyed the Tutorial. I would advice to ake the slippers with fabric first just to practice, :)))

Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you,
Natalia

Publication at the Miniaturas Magazine # 187 2013

I am happy and proud to share with you my latest news - my tutorial on How to put dollhouse miniature slippers has been published in the last issue #187, 2013 of the Spanish Magazine Miniaturas by Madelva Fernandez.

You can see the slippers that I stitched going to the page Granny's slippers or copying and pasting this link in the search bar (I am sorry but the function to open a page in a new window is disabled on my blog, :)))

http://www.scarletsailsminiatures.blogspot.com/p/grannys-slippers.html

If you are interested, you also can order the kits of Dollhouse Miniature Slippers at my website

http://www.dollhouseneedlepoint.com/apps/webstore/products/category/963945?page=1

Thank you and Happy coming Christmas!
Natalia

TUTORIAL: How To make a Dollhouse Braided Rug

Today I would like to show you how I make dollhouse miniature braided rug.



You will need:

1. A piece of clear glass 12" x 12".

2. Masking Tape

3. Double-sided tape

4. Plastic thread clippers

4. Fusible One-side Stabilizer

4. DMC floss

5. Tacky glue

6. Scissors

7. Iron

All materials can be purchased at any craft stores like Michaels, Jo-Anne, Hobby-Lobby, Ben Franklin, etc...

After you prepared all necessary items,:

1. Take a piece of clear glass 12" x 12". You can have any size of glass, depends on the size of a rug you braid. I had yellow glass. I will explain later why you need a piece of glass and not a piece of paper, card board or wood.

2. Using a masking tape (in my case it is a blue one) secure all 4 sides of the glass piece to prevent from hurting yourself.



3. Using the double sided tape cover one side of the glass piece between the stripes of masking tape. Try not to overlay the double-side tape over the masking tape.



This is how it looks now



Try not to leave any empty space between the rows of the double-side tape.



4. Now, take the DMC floss you are going to use for the project.



Unfolded it.



5. Prepare clippers.



Wind your thread on a plastic thread clipper,



each color on its own clipper.



Secure the thread on the clipper.



6. In my project I used only 3 colors. That's why I have only 3 clippers.

7. Put all 3 tails of threads together and make a knot.



8. Start braiding. There are a lot of different types of braid that are suitable for braided rugs, in this project I used a simple one.



Don't braid neither tight nor loose.



9. After you braided about 5" you need to start winding the knotted end of your braid on a piece of cardboard, size about 2" x 5".



Finish braiding the floss and secure the end with another knot.



It is the most time consuming process in the process of braiding rugs. You can do it while watching TV.

It is ready now:



10. If you use more than 1 color in your project, you need to braid more braids of different shades.

11. Back to the glass piece. Take the end of your braid and stick it to the surface of the glass piece covered with the double sided tape leaving the knot up into the air.



Closer to the glass piece cut the braid and secure the cut piece on the double sided tape (don't use glue!)



12. Depending on the size and shape of your rug, secure 1" (for a round rug) or 1,5" (for the oval rug) the braid on the glass piece.



13. Start placing the braid around this straight piece, one row after another.





14. After 2-3 rows are completed, take your glass piece and turned it upside down or, as I do, take it above your head and look at the rug from another side of the glass.



It will show you if you made any mistakes so far or not, for example, if you see the space between the rows, you still have time to correct it. Sometimes rows of one side of the rug look tighter then the rows from another side.

15. Finish your rug.



16. To secure the end of the braid, placed it on the top of the previous row at the place when the thread ended and secure it with a little dab of Tacky glue.



After it dries you won't be able to say where it ended up.



17. Take a piece of Fusible One -Side Stabilizer (pick the finest) bigger size than your rug



and place it on the top of your finished rug with the sticky side.



18. Using hot iron (be sure you don't use a steamer), iron it.



Be sure to iron the place where the edge of the rug is and the middle of it very well.



19. Let it cool down. After that gently start pulling it up.



20. Take the scissors and cut around the edges of your rug.



21. To flatten the rug better, you can cover its front side with a piece of cotton and iron again. Let it cool down again.

22. Your rug is ready for a display.



As I said, my rug was made only with 3 colors. If you decide to use more than 3 shades, there can be a question how to secure the ends of the thread to add to the design. In this case, refer to step 16 and repeat it as many times as you add a new braid.

At the end I would like to advice to keep your glass piece in the box to prevent it from the dust.


I hope this information was useful and easy to follow.

Happy braiding!

Natalia