Tuesday 5 March 2024

The Irresistible Peg Doll

I saw this little Queen Victoria peg doll when she was listed on eBay a while back and felt an immediate pull.

I resisted for a time but when she didn't sell and was re-listed a few weeks later I took it as a sign, made an offer and she became mine.


There was something about the attention to detail in her costume which lured me. It very much reminds me of the sort of detailing seen on Grecon dolls: my favourite type of dolls' house doll.

She's every bit the old Queen Victoria and couldn't possibly be anyone else. I know Queen Victoria wasn't often seen to smile but I have read that she actually had a good sense of humour so we'll let that pass.


Just as the real life Queen Victoria frequently did, peg doll Victoria displays her Order of the Garter blue riband and star, worn correctly over the left shoulder too.

And look at all that bling! I thought perhaps this aspect of her outfit had been overdone since Victoria was well known for being in permanent mourning following Prince Albert's death...

Photo by Gunn & Stuart, July 1896 (Wikimedia Commons)

...but no, as this photo of the Queen at age seventy-seven shows, it's all quite accurate - the sunray fringe tiara, the earrings, the necklace and the bracelets.


And of course peg doll Victoria is also wearing a widow's cap, with the long lace streamer at the back which her real life counterpart favoured.


The fabric of her dress is very reminiscent of the traditional black plisse mourning silk worn in Victorian times and is trimmed with a heavy fringe which skims the ground perfectly.

Beneath her dress she has not one but two underskirts. 


The first is a stiff, sheer black pleated fabric.


The second is a white nylon fabric with a silver zig-zag border and a pleated trim - not very Victorian but maybe it's what makes peg doll Victoria smile.


And finally - excuse me Ma'am - she is wearing full-length white broderie anglaise bloomers!

Oh and she has very nicely moulded black shoes made from what looks to be some sort of modelling clay.


The shoes have been neatly attached to the ends of her pink-painted peg legs.


I'm so impressed by the skilful sewing and styling of the outfit. The back is just as neat as the front and there is barely a stitch visible let alone out of place.

Note the excellent hair bun too! 

I would guess that she is homemade but how I wish I knew who made her.

I know she's just a wee peg doll, and I'm probably eulogising far too much, but I am so taken with her that I just had to!

Until next time,
Zoe

Saturday 24 February 2024

Restoring a Tri-ang DH/7 Townhouse - Part Three

The roof of my house had sustained a bit of damage over the years. 

There was an area where the ply had been damaged along one of its edges and part of one of the corners was broken off.

Unfortunately I forgot to take photos as I made my repairs, so I can only describe how I did them, though I do have before and after photos too.


This was the area where the plywood had delaminated on the bottom edge of the roof. To repair it, I used a thin (1 mm) sheet of balsa wood from my stash. 

I could see that the damaged area was three layers of ply deep, so with a craft knife, I cut a small piece of balsa to fit into the deepest part of the damaged area and glued this in place.

Next, I cut another piece of the balsa to fit the second deepest part of the delaminated area and glued this in place too (over the first piece).

Lastly, I cut a piece of balsa to fit the remaining part of the damaged area and glued this in place (over the previous two pieces) bring the surface up to the correct level.



I then used wood filler to fill in the little gaps around the balsa. When the wood filler was dry, I gave the whole area a sand down with a sanding block for a nice flat, smooth finish.

I could have just filled the whole area with filler but because it was on the edge of the roof and was quite deep I felt that wood would give the repair more strength.


Repairing the corner piece was a bit trickier and so is describing how I did it, largely because I was making it up as I went along!

I started with a length of balsa wood about 2 cm deep and perhaps 3 cm wide and cut the length to match the length of the area which needed to be reinstated.

Then, using a craft knife, I basically whittled the underside of the piece to fit the shape of the roof corner it would sit on. The process was: shave a bit off, try the piece in the gap, shave a bit more, try it in the gap, and so on until I had decent fit.

Next I glued the piece in place on the corner of the house. This left me with quite a clunky square corner which I then shaved (with my craft knife) and sanded into the correct shape.


Again, I used wood filler to fill the gaps between the original wood and my repair and sanded it all smooth once the wood filler was dry.

I must admit that I was quite proud of how it worked out! The old "just give it a go" motto never fails. Actually, it really does but we won't go into that. 🙃

Until next time,

Zoe

Friday 23 February 2024

Restoring a Tri-ang DH/7 Townhouse - Part Two

Do you ever get to that stage where there's so much to do that it's all a bit overwhelming?

That's definitely where I'm at just now but I'm trying not to think about it and just plough on. 

So, starting with the front:


This is how it looked when it arrived. A previous owner had obviously made a start on removing the red paint from the front.

I soon discovered that it was water-soluble and came off very easily with a damp cloth.


However, the paint had been applied very thickly, so several buckets of very red water later, it looked like this.

I was going to need to dismantle the balconies to clean behind them properly.


The balcony rails and balustrades came apart fairly easily with a bit of riving and I was able to clean behind them.

Removing them will make all of the work to the front a lot easier.


Unfortunately there were still traces of that pesky red paint in the nooks and crannies which concerned me because it was so water-soluble that it would surely bleed into the cream paint I'd be using on the front of the house.

So my trusty old toothbrush came out and a lot of water, Cif and elbow grease later...


...every last particle has been removed. I hope.

I quite like the soft yellow colour which has been uncovered but it's not how the house was meant to look so it won't be staying.

Next up were the sides:


The sides had been overpainted in white and I initially thought they were a lost cause. However, closer investigation revealed that there were two layers of brick paper underneath the paint.

The paint had obviously adhered to the top layer of paper which flaked off relatively easily to reveal the original brick paper underneath. Bingo!

I could see that the condition of the original paper wasn't brilliant but I thought it was at least worth trying to rescue what was left of it.


This is what I ended up with. I know it's pretty shabby but I was really quite chuffed with it given the starting point.

However even I couldn't live with this level of shabby, so out came my paintbox.

 

I mixed a colour as near to the brick paper as I could get and carefully filled in the gaps. I then rubbed paint into the 'scuffs' in the  paper and wiped the residual off with a just damp cloth to get a more even finish.


This is how it looks close up. The end result was never going to be perfect but I'm pretty pleased with it and at least the original paper is still there to see. 

I'm toying with the idea of finishing off with a layer of clear beeswax but haven't decided about that yet.

Until next time,

Zoe

Friday 9 February 2024

Restoring a Tri-ang DH/7 Townhouse - Part One

At the end of January this year, I took delivery of a once grand but now down at heel Triang DH/7 "for restoration", as it said in the listing.

Lines Brothers Limited (Tri-ang) DH/7

These houses were amongst the first ever produced by Lines Brothers Limited (Tri-angtois/Tri-ang) when it was formed in June 1919. It's believed that this model was only produced from 1919 to 1921, having never appeared in any of the catalogues or price lists after 1921.*

It's a big old lady at 55" (1.4m) tall, 34"(0.8m) wide and 23½" (0.6m) deep (including the base).

Not only was the house thick with grime and dust when it arrived, but it also had some serious condition problems (which, I have to say, is why I got it for a very reasonable price).

Outside, the lovely turned finial on the top of the roof is missing and I believe there would have been two little chimneys, one on either side of the roof, but they are both missing too. I'm not entirely sure what the roof would have looked like originally, but it has certainly been over-painted.

The railings of the central balcony and a section of the left-hand balcony, both on the first floor, are missing and none of the original glass window-panes have survived.

Though clearly unloved and neglected in more recent years, the evidence points to the house being very much loved throughout most of its one hundred years of existence, with each new generation/owner making it their own. I have found no less than four layers of paint and/or wallpaper on the inside and five layers of paint on the outside!

Only two of the original fireplaces have survived, and the cooking range and dresser are both missing from the kitchen.


Only one internal door remains and quite a few pieces of the trims around them are missing.

Happily, there are odd patches of the original wallpapers to be found (the hexagon wallpaper in the photo above is the original kitchen wallpaper), though these are in varying [mainly dreadful] states of repair - of which, more in a later blog.

Undoubtedly, the worst news was the base. This is what happened when I pressed down on it!

A closer examination of the underside revealed that the plywood top was rotten from both damp and a heavy dose of woodworm. At some point this had spread to the bottom edge of the plywood back of the house too and that was in a similar state of decay.

A few deep breaths were taken - I had never had to tackle anything like this before - but a 'sort of' plan was soon hatched.

Luckily, there was no sign of recent woodworm activity (no fresh-looking holes or frass), nevertheless, the top priority was to remove the base and dispose of the rotten plywood piece.

This proved to be quite a tricky operation because the base was nailed to the sides of the house which have become rather brittle with age in places. Thankfully most of the nails had suffered from damp too and many of them simply snapped, so with some gentle persuasion from a hammer and a pair of pliers, it eventually came off with minimal damage to the body of the house.


I also discovered that the rot and woodworm in the plywood had not spread to the solid wood sides and front of the base (though the rear support had succumbed), so I would be able to re-use them. I have given all of the re-used wood a couple of coats of woodworm treatment - just in case.

Re-using the original front and sides made things considerably easier as I was able to simply reassemble them, cut a new piece of plywood for the top of the base and replace the rear section with solid wood. 

To give the house nice sturdy foundations for years to come, I also took the opportunity to add two cross-braces inside the base. I had only added one when I took the above photo but I subsequently realised that a second one, positioned under the front edge of the internal walls, would make sense too. Lines Brothers really should have done this in the factory but I suppose its priority was to keep production costs down rather than to future-proof against subsidence. 

Everything has been glued and screwed in place - glue simply because it was easier to glue it all in place before screwing it together, and screws rather than nails because I felt they would get a better purchase into the old wood (though pre-drilling holes for the screws was necessary to prevent the wood splitting).

And here is the [sort of] new base reattached to the house - again, glued and screwed - and I have to say that I'm really quite pleased with it!

It's nice to have the original sides as they still have their original oxblood paint - somewhat surprisingly, given the number of makeovers the rest of the house has had - and hopefully I will be able to match it up.

Well, I think that's enough for one post. There has been more progress but I think I need to break it down into reasonably small posts to avoid sending even the most interested of readers to sleep!

Until next time,

Zoe

*Information from The Book of Tri-ang Dolls' Houses 1919 to 1971 by Marion Osborne.

Friday 20 October 2023

Halloween Preparations - Part Two

My non-spooky Halloween room box is finished!

And here it is looking a lot more lived-in.

Here we have the left-hand side.

I thoroughly enjoyed raiding my 'stash' for bits and pieces to fill up the shelves.

Did you spot the sweetest little baby mouse asleep in his walnut crib by the stove? Bought from MomapawsHomecraft on Etsy.

The stove corner looks much cosier with all of its copper-ware in place.

Next we have a view of the middle of the room.

The re-modelled sink unit looks very at home.

As does the little cupboard above it, made from two of its doors.

And here we have a view of the right-hand side of the room.

I'm glad I stuck with the dark wood corner shelves which do look much lighter now that they are full of provisions.

The kitchen is well-stocked with bread and cheese for snacks - essential mouse fodder!

I went to town with nick nacks on the shelves...

...and walls.

Everything on the shelves is held in place with Tacky Wax - that's a lot of Tacky Wax!

Poppy and Pip, the little mice made by my mother, are all set for their Trick or Treat excursion...

...with their pumpkin, a bag for treats and a flask of hot tea. There is also a special Halloween cake for when they get back home (alas, not my work but a present from a friend). I'm not sure what the KitKats are for, maybe insurance in case the neighbours all turn off their lights and hide behind their sofas!

And this is a photo of the lit room box, taken in the dark.

I hope the kids like it when Halloween arrives, but actually, it's been such good fun to do, I don't really care, ha ha!

Until next time,
Zoe

Friday 29 September 2023

Halloween Preparations - Part One

Last Halloween, I decided it was about time I made some sort of miniature diorama to put on display for visiting Trick or Treaters. I didn't have time to do it then but I've been busy with the project over the last couple of weeks and will definitely be ready for Halloween this year.

Naturally, it being Halloween, I had some sort of ghoulish scene in mind but I found I couldn't get excited about that. It just didn't feel like me.


Then I spotted some very cute kits for little felt Halloween mouse children on Etsy. I ordered the kits and my mum made them up - I hate sewing but my mum loves it.

She did a brilliant job. Instead of a ghoulish scene, I decided I would make a mouse kitchen in which to display the two mouse children preparing to go out Trick or Treating. This felt much more up my street.

Nothing much happened for several months - only a bit of plotting and planning - and then in June I found the perfect glass-fronted room box at York Dolls' House Fair.

It was very cheap and had previously been used to display a butcher's shop diorama, so I started by stripping off all of the papers both inside and out.


The plan is to only use things in my large and varied 'stash' for this project, and luckily I had a bag of wood veneers, one of which I used to make floorboards for the kitchen. I cut out strips and used wood glue to stick them down.

To get the 'floorboards' to dry flat, I laid a flat piece of wood on top and stacked a load of tins from the pantry on top of it to weigh it down.


It worked well. Next I painted the floor with a dark oak wood stain, making sure that plenty of the stain went into the cracks to emphasise the gaps between the boards: as this is a mouse house in an imaginary hole in the ground, I want it to be a little on the rough and ready side.


And finally, I gave the floor a coat of Humbrol Matt Cote (my favourite matt varnish for miniatures) and a light sanding to age it a little once it was dry. I'm very happy with the rustic finish.

Next up was the ceiling. To create an underground feel, I shaped some 3D 'roots' from brown paper soaked in wallpaper paste. These took an age to dry but that at least gave me an opportunity to get on with some of the furnishings.


I didn't really know where I was going with the furniture but decided just to crack on and see where it took me.

I started with a fairly modern sink unit I had in my stash. Initially I was just going to rough it up with some sandpaper but I was soon pulling off taps and doors and generally getting stuck in with a full refurb!

This is it with three of the cupboard doors removed, taps gone, lines etched into the draining board and doors, and distressed all over. I liked the colour so that stayed.


And this is it all finished. I initially had a strip of 'Delft tiles' long the back but then I decided that a mouse house should be more colourful (don't ask me why!) and I was much happier once they were replaced with this strip of sticky tape.

This first piece set the colour scheme for the whole room.


Oh and I added a little plug hole since there was nowhere for the water to drain out!


My next victim was another modern piece. I removed the vinyl coverings from the shelves and sanded the life out of the rest of it.


I decided to use the colourful sticky tape as a theme running through the different pieces of furniture, so I covered the shelves of this piece with it. The paintwork fitted with the newly decided scheme so I didn't change that.


Though in the end I did paint the drawers red (and replaced the knobs with fancy beads) to tie it in more with the next two pieces of furniture.


This was a nicely made dark brown dresser but it had a strange plastic feel to its finish which I'd never liked. I sprayed it with grey Rustoleum Surface Primer and then used acrylic paint in this nice deep red colour to tie in with the red in the coloured tape on the other two pieces.

It then got a coat of Humbrol Matt Cote and a good sanding to give it a distressed look. I was going to add some of the colourful sticky tape but the decided that it might be a bit too much if everything was overly coordinated. 


I did, however, add a strip to this piece which was green until I painted over that with the same deep red acrylic paint used for the dresser.


Back in the room box the 'roots' had at last dried out. I gave the walls a coat of white acrylic paint. I had intended to give them two coats but then I decided that I liked the rougher effect of the single coat.

I painted the 'earth' ceiling dark brown but decided it was too dark. So I lightened it and made the 'roots' dark brown instead.


Next I dirtied the tops of the walls up a bit. I figured that there'd be a bit of damp in the corners away from the warmth of the room and a few cracks here and there.

I also added a supporting beam to prevent landslides! It's actually made from a piece of kindling from our log basket, sanded and stained dark oak.

You can see from this photo of the upside-down room that I have attached the furniture to the walls. I'll be carrying the room up and down two flights of stairs on Halloween (maybe for many years to come, who knows!) so I don't want everything sliding around in it.

You can also see that I've added a strip of battery operated LED lights to the top front edge. They are warm white and shine just the right level of light into the room whilst being hidden behind the wooden frame of the glass front. The lights have a self-adhesive strip but I was worried it wouldn't adhere to the painted surface properly so I painted a coat of Humbrol Matt Cote where they were would go and stuck them to that when it was dry. They seem pretty secure.


I cut a little grove into the corner of the box for the wire and will attach the little battery box to he top of the room box with double-sided sticky tape.


Every kitchen needs a stove and I had this lovely heavy cast iron one in my stash and it was just the right size. The flue, the shelf, and the fancy bits (vintage shelf trim and buttons) just sort of evolved as I tried to tie this corner in with the colour scheme for the rest of the room.


And here it is starting to come together. I added more shelves to the room in the form of an old dark brown wooden shelf unit which I stuck to the wall upside-down. I didn't want all of the furniture to be painted but have a concern that this looks too dark, however, I've stuck with it because I know it will look lighter (and hopefully less like an upside-down shelf unit!) once filled with bits and pieces.

Other additions are: a little cupboard made using the two doors I removed from the sink unit, a little table (vintage Pit-a-Pat) and two chairs which were green before I gave them a good sanding.

So, that's it so far. I'm thoroughly enjoying the freedom to do what I like with this project and it's so long since I did anything like this that I'm quite relieved to see it coming together.

Next step is to add all of the bits and pieces which bring a scene to life. I want it to be a warm, welcoming, homely and quite cluttered little kitchen. We'll see how that goes in Part Two!

Until next time,

Zoe