Something new for Minis... and the Kumquat too....

I use a version of this for zippers in purses and such in mini... The kind I have been using is basically just black string wrapped with gold.

I found this version at Walmart.  It has wire in the middle.  It bends and stays where you bend it.

I am going to experiment with it and see if it is any better than the stuff that I have been using...

Tessie likes it... Only because she got a new purse from my trying it out. The purse was a quicky.  Block of foam core and some velvet paper. Nothing fancy for the first one.

Zar is looking at it with envy.... Electrical cord for his Steampunk minis.

It could be useful. We shall see.

In other news, the Kumquat tree seems to be out of it's funk. It is growing new leaves and has a LOT of blossoms.

I don't expect all of them to become Kumquats, but I think that I am going to have quite a crop for a tree that didn't look like it was going to make it a few weeks ago!

I am off now to try for a few more purses.

I am going to try a few other shapes.

Back to work. See you tomorrow.

Things Are Multiplying.....

When I left for Wednesday Witches this afternoon, the Terrible Two were sitting around relaxing...

I left, knowing that they would probably be making plans behind my back... I went anyway. I figured that there was nothing I could do about it...

When I got back, I started checking things. Same number of hangers lying around on the floor... but... There were a few new hats, purses and other items scattered around in the basket...

Tessie had added her favorite pointy hat and a few other items... Including a new pair of blue high button shoes.  A couple more aprons. And another hat... Not pointy. That was in the pile on the roof.

This is getting serious! She has also thrown in a few more hats and all of the shoes that she had in the closet in the townhouse. 

This is going too far.  She says that she needs a small refrigerator to store her bug beer, wicked wine and some fruit.

I think that it is about time for her to quit hunting.  She has enough gear for three people and a dog... Not to mention the alligator.

I am going to tell her to hold on until we get the things that she has already collected in the closet.  If there are any holes left on the shelves, she can search some more.  For now we have more than enough.  No annex on this closet! No way! No how! 

See you tomorrow!

It's Freezing in Here!!!

Tessie has been sitting atop the house shaped book shelf watching "Charmed" all day. 

No.  I haven't gotten around to her new dress yet. The longer I put it off, the more I get done.

As soon as she is dressed, she will start running around complaining again. 

This way, all she complains about is being cold. I can cope with that.

My friend Jeannie found the needed ingredient for making the barrel purses again! All of the American brands of Tampax have been changed over to plastic applicators.  We have been looking for a substitute for years.

She found the cardboard ones at Dollar Tree!

The purse on the left is made with one of the old ones that Tampex used to put out.

These are Femtex and I suspect that they are getting rid of old ones with the cardboard applicators. Wherever they are made, the ladies are probably going to get new plastic ones.

Anyway, If you have a Dollar Tree store near you, these come in two sizes and are eight for a dollar.  They are also great for making bolster pillows.  I will try to run a couple of  tutorials for purses and bolster pillows soon, if anyone is interested

As for what I have been doing whilst Tessie watches "Charmed" today. I got her box painted white, inside and out.

I just need to fill in the window and door and paint that area.  Then I will be on my merry way to doing her dressing room.

Oh! And another tip.  The jar at the bottom is a sample from Lowes. It is just a few dollars and has 8oz. of paint in it.  Some of the Walmart stores here have sample jars too.  Good paint for a great price and you don't have to buy a gallon or even a quart.

I am going back to find out what other trouble I can get into today. Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Purse How To....

I am still cleaning as fast as I can, but I thought that I would show you how I design the purses, so that you can get yourself some graph paper and do the same.

I use the 4 to the inch graph paper.  That makes each square three inches in mini size.

 I work from real purses or photos of them.  I take measurements and then draw them out on the graph paper. When I do the ones with the foam core center, they are automatically three inches thick.

The one you see here, I padded with batting and then covered the sides. I cut across the corners so that they will fold nicely The batting is the same size as the purse and the fabric is about a quarter inch larger. that way I have an eighth inch to fold in on all sides. The side fabric simply gets folded to the side of the purse.  It will be covered with whatever leather or fabric you cover the sides with.  In this case, it was suede. I covered all of the sides with a strip of suede and cut it to meet at the bottom. Then I cut a very thin strip of leather to work as the handle and attached it to the sides of the purse. The top piece has a slit down the center and a piece of trim that looks like a zipper laid between the two pieces.

For the one piece purses I cut the body of the bag out of a piece of poster board.  You can use card stock, but those don't hold up as well as the poster board. 

I lay the piece of poster board that I cut on my leg and go over it with a pen or something similar to make it curve where I want it to. In the photos, you can see that I cut two pieces of fabric for the side gussets.  You can do  those with fabric that is a little larger and fold it in or you can cut it with little wedges. I think that for beginners it is much easier to cut it just straight about an eighth to a quarter of an inch away from the edge.

Then the ones on the body of the purse get folded in and wrapped around the edge.  The ones on the gusset get glued to the inside edge of the body of the purse.

With these, you can actually add the handle by gluing the ends of the leather under the flap of the purse.

The red one has tiny belt buckles holding the strap on.

The black and beige one has it glued to the insides of the flap. None of these open.  You can make them so that they open, but then you have to make some kind of snap or other way to hold them closed. 

Good luck! Have fun! Make lots of purses.  Several of the Wednesday Witches are making purse boutiques. Another idea is to make a purse closet or armoire. Just have fun with the idea!

See you tomorrow.

No More Tampex Purses...

These are just a few pages that I pulled off of Pinterest.

I simply put "Purses" in the search and these are some of the pages I came up with.

Some are colored. Some are black and white. All are helpful when trying to do different purses.

The black and white ones clearly show the sections of the purse and where the seams are.

The colored ones are more for color combinations. You can still see the seams, but not as well as in the black and white line drawings...

You look at a few purses, then move the cat.

You look at a few more and do it again.

I think that the heat from the I Pad attracts the cat.

If you are really serious about making purses, please go back to the other entries on the blog. Purses are listed on the sidebar. If you go look there, you will get all kinds of information about how to go about making them.

This is how I cut out the patterns.  The body of the purse is all one piece.

Since they did away with cardboard Tampex tubes, I tried doing it with rolls from toilet paper.  Not nearly as good as the old tubes.

They were thinner than the TP rolls.

I am still looking for other things to take their place.  So far no luck and, unfortunately, TP rolls will have to do for now.  I will let you know if I find a better substitute.

You will see that I have used poster board for some, but the poster board doesn't curve as well. I also did some that didn't open with foam core. That works well for squared off styles.

Anyway, I think that you might want to start with a few of the ones from foam core.  That will get you started. 

Then advance to the other styles to see which work best for you.  Good luck!!!

See you tomorrow.

Kota Knows When to Stay Out of the Way!

He has been sitting quietly in his kitty nest all day.  He hasn't tried to steal any of my  supplies even once.

I don't want to talk about Tessie's behavior. She is into everything.

She dragged all of these findings out of the tub and demanded as many purses as I could make from the supplies that I have on hand... That would be a LOT of purses.

I made three. She had them in hand before the glue even dried.

Now she is clamoring for more. She is not satisfied with the three I made.

I asked where she was going to put them and she said, "Just you make them.  I will find a place to put them!"

After that, I saw her peering into nooks and crannies all over the house.  I have visions of trying to get Kleenex out of the box and pulling out a dozen or so purses and no Kleenex.

The last I saw of her, she was upside down in the findings tub. 

Findings have been flying every which way for the past hour. 

If she keeps it up, I am going to shove her into the tub and slam the lid on her. 

Oops! She heard that!  I am getting off of here and running for cover!

See you tomorrow, if I can get back to the computer!

Building as Fast as I Can!

Tessie decided on a "few" new purses to make up for not getting the potting shed done faster than I am "getting it done". 

I grabbed a couple of toilet tissue rolls and started cutting.  I can get eight purses out of each roll the way that I cut them.

These all came out of two rolls. I cut them different shapes and then bent them in different ways to make different shaped purses.

These will be 16 different purses when I am finished.

No.  Tessie is not getting them all!!!

Here you can see that they get bent several different ways to make different shaped purses.

Tomorrow, I will show you how to cover them, put the inserts on the sides and straps and other decorations.

I made each purse into a kit with the leather that I plan to use for each of them. 

Meanwhile Tessie has started looking through the tub of jewelry findings that I use on the purses.

The one that she has on her head, she named the crown.  Now she wants me to add jewels to it...

If I do that, I am going to be in more trouble. She insists that she is from royalty way back.  She claims to be four hundred years old and how can I dispute that? I have no way of knowing how old she really is, or where her family line comes from.  She's got me on this one.

I am going back and make a few purses for Her Majesty and then I am going to start looking for her name in every country's royalty. I don't expect to find anything.  But I will be able to say that I researched it.

Then I am going to get a good night's sleep and totally ignore her all day tomorrow. 

Wish me luck.  See you tomorrow.

It Should Have Been Purple....

Today I had three friends come over to learn some purse making...

We started out with the simple ones... These are made of foam core cut to the right shape and covered with thin batting and then fabric and leather...

They can then be trimmed however you want to do it.

The second group were made with old fashioned cardboard Tam-Pax tubes. 

Those aren't made anymore. 

The one that I made today is the red one.

This is one of the more complicated ones.  the base for it is poster board.  Then it is covered with fabric and I left this one open to display leather gloves and a scarf..

Of course, Tessie showed up and claimed the new purse.  Then she had the nerve to complain that it should have been purple.

The red didn't match either her or Albert's clothes...

Now she thinks that I should make her a new apron and Albert a  new sweatshirt...

Not going to happen... She has plenty of red aprons and Albert doesn't carry a purse.

I am going back to doing other things and I am taking the purse with me.  I'll show her!

See you tomorrow.

What's Up for Wednesday?

Once again, I am hosting the Witches.  I think that we are going to make mini jewelry this week.

I went straight to the corner box that has all of the accessories in it.

I am thinking that they can make necklace and matching earrings like the ones on the left door.

Or maybe a longer fancy necklace. 

All I have to do is give them some #32 gage wire and something to cut it with and they will be all set.

 While looking at the box, I noticed that one of my knitted beaded purses in in there... I am NOT teaching that.  My excuse is, I don't have enough mini knitting needled to go around.

I could teach them the bath basket sometime though.  That is a good way to start understanding what goes into wicker.

Then there are the bedroom slippers that I used to sell at shows.  Those whip up fairly fast.

The zebra bag doesn't open, but it looks good sitting on a chair or the floor...

Then there are always the fancy hangers made out of paper clips.

Not to mention the shelf that they are hanging on.

I don't think that I am going to run out of things to teach this week... Maybe next time...

See you tomorrow.  I will be sure to put in the instructions for the jewelry Wednesday... I will have to look.  There already may be instructions on an earlier entry.  Look under "jewelry" in the sidebar.

Back to kits.  See you tomorrow.

I Finished Cleaning...

And so did Tessie...

I took everything out of the corner box and dusted and washed...

There are several items in here that there are tutorials for elsewhere in the blog. 

Just put in Hat, clothes hanger, purse or whatever for what you want to see. If there is a tutorial you will find it under that topic. 

The purses on the door are all peyote stitch.  Even the round one.  They are all done with #15 beads.

The green one is knitted with beads.  That one is a pattern that I found on line.  They were supposed to be knitted earrings. Unfortunately, I didn't save the website, but if you put in bead knitting, you will probably be able to find directions.

The armoire was an unfinished one.  Not the dollar kind that you get at Michael's... I don't remember where I got it.  The chair is Chrisenbon and the plant stand and shelf are ones that I designed and made.

I took the photos today without the Plexiglas.  Back in the eighties, we had a source here in Tucson that would cut and bend Plexiglas to any size and shape that you wanted.

We kept him going for a while.  The Tucson Miniature Society was doing a lot of these boxes.  In fact, one of these boxes was an early class that I took in minis.

As soon as I got the box cleaned and straitened, Tessie flew in and started grabbing everything that she could get her hands on... Then she sat down and had the nerve to suggest that I just annex this box to her townhouse!

She wants it all!  You know the usual routine.  I took it in and sat it next to the townhouse... Then she said that it was all wrong.  The box itself would have to be recovered to match the house.

That's when I grabbed everything and ran.  She is still ranting and raving about how I stole her things!  Her things???     

Oh well, the box is back where it belongs, with Plexiglas and she can't get to it.  She can zap into places, but she has a tough time zapping out with the load of stuff that she gathers... One thing at a time and a rest between grabs. It would take her hours to get everything out of there and it would take me about three minutes to put it back.

I win!

See you tomorrow.

Appreciating the Weekend!

Since I started the radiation, I feel almost like I have a full time job... The part where you have to get in the car and drive 40 minutes each way...

Then we get there, and the treatment is about 15 minutes  Walter is nice enough to come along, so I don't have to talk to myself on the trip.

This cuts a big slice out of the day.

Last night, I decided that I wasn't going anywhere today and I was going to do something that was fun.

I dug through my closet and found the purses that I had saved from the last clean out... I picked these five and went to work.

I grabbed my box of antique lace and started digging. 

I found some crocheted and needle made lace collars... Hmmm.  Maybe I could figure out a way to wear some of those with tee shirts without damaging them?

I made this purse years ago... I think I used it once.  Maybe twice...I never liked the big ugly flowers. I did like the stripes.  They look like an old fashioned pillow.

I started embroidering on one of the handles and it spread to the purse... Covering some of the ugly roses.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I never wear those colors.

I found a piece of hand made bobbin lace(not very old, so my conscience is clear).  I am going to cover the outer edges with that, making some of the roses disappear. 

I'm not so sure about the other side.  Maybe some crazy quilting will cover the crazy roses.  I hope so!

Nowhere to go.  I am staying here! I am off to have some fun now.

See you tomorrow, with minis in hand!

Much Too Nice to Stay Inside!

Yesterday, I did start one of the purses.  I still have to stain the handle bars, but I have it half crocheted already and have found some leather to use for bottom corners, fasteners and handles.

I think that the leather will be more practical than crochet for handles and such. 

Tessie is trying to commander the body of the purse for a sleeping bag... Not going to happen!

 This morning I decided that it was much too nice to stay inside. 

I did a couple of trays of starter plants for new succulents.   Don't ask the names.  I can't remember and they long ago lost the tags that they came with. 

All I know is... If you stick them in dirt with a little rooting hormone powder, they will sprout!

Evidence of this is in a lot of my pots... Pay no attention to the peanut shells that you see here and there.  The squirrels have their own program going... However, theirs won't work.  The peanuts were roasted.

The Baked Bean Sedum in this pot just naturally spreads by putting out roots on it's stems.  I don't have to do anything at all, but cut them off and shove them in some dirt.

I learned that part from Walter's dad.  He had the stuff growing all over his yard.

Again, I don't remember the name of this one, but if the larger leaves fall off or are cut and lay in the dirt, they will form the cute little plants that you see on the cut end of the two leaves to the left.

This is why I like succulents.  Easy to grow and very hard to kill!

I will probably take a couple more leaves off of the big piece and shove the remainder into a pot.  That also will grow a new plant.

This is the other dish that I potted.  Various kinds of succulents.  Some I even found on the floor of the porch.  They will grow.  Very hardy. 

Now that it is warming up outside, I am coming indoors to start mini work  and/or crocheting the purse again.  I am thinking minis first and then as a reward, crochet.  That way I will get more of the cottage finished.

I am getting the urge to start something new!  I have still not figured out how to get the photos of the house onto my Pinterest site.  I have tried several times to no avail. I am now wondering if the one time that I tried and gave up and erased everything did something to block it.  Oh well... I tried.

See you tomorrow.

Out of the Closet!

 It may not look like much to you, but this is two complete days of hard work.

I should have taken a before photo.  You saw what was piled on the bed.  I whittled it down to this!

In the process, I weeded out even some fabric that I brought from our previous house...We have been here around 15 years. 

Does that tell you how bad the closet needed cleaning?

Now...Not today, but in the near future, I will clean out the closet in the computer room...It is a regular sized closet with double folding doors. 

It used to be April's room and there are still a few remnants from when she lived here...Long ago...

It has fabric, yarn, books, and other odds and ends...I am not looking forward to that one.

While I was cleaning out, I found these two bags that I started and haven't yet finished.  I am glad that I didn't.  Now I can put a pocket on them for my cell phone...Yup.  These were before I broke down and started carrying my cell phone in my purse.

I also found the start of a hand pieced quilt.  I am going to have to work on that one of these days.  It may change it's mind and want to be a pillow instead.

Today is the mini meeting, so I am taking it easy until then.  I dragged out this start of a rug.  There is a full pattern somewhere under rugs, from when I first designed it.  There are now 96 rug entries in the label section....Good luck finding it...I do know that it's there.  I just don't know where.  I am going to have to put in a new category...Rug Patterns.  But not right now.

I am going to put my feet up and stitch. 

By the way, the URL  for the bog coat entry, yesterday, was wrong.  It is http://caseymini.blogspot.com/2010/01/tessies-sewing-box.html Sorry about the mix up.  It is at the bottom of this entry.

See you tomorrow.