The Blue House: Girl's Room

I used to collect doll house miniatures. This is a picture from "The Blue House." (If the rollovers in the photo don't work, click here.)

"Worry Dolls" were the first toy dolls I used in my dollhouses (There were several in this room). They were the right size, and relatively inexpensive and easy to find when I was little.

The boy doll in the stroller and the girl doll behind the bed are jointed and were made by me. They were my first attempts at making dolls out of Sculpey. (And pretty much my last!)

The red inkwell with the black quill pen was made by me when I was 8. I probably cut the feather down from one I'd found outside. I wrote "INK" in black letters on the front of the inkwell. I think I did that because that's how they always looked in cartoons.

I made the shelves along the back wall to try to utilize some of that space. I think the trophy on the back shelf was a Cracker Jack prize. Below the trophy and skateboard, on the lower shelf are some paper doll cats with tabbed paper clothes. These were from "B. Shackman" which was a small toy store in New York. They claimed to have miniatures but they really didn't have much. They did, however, have a lot of antique and small sized toys. The cat paper dolls were from their "small novelty toys" section.

I got the blue "How to knit" book when I was around 9. It was part of a set that included a yellow wooden bowl with glued in balls of yarn and needles, and a white plastic fuzzy cat playing with a red ball of yarn. I loved that cat. I think I still have all those pieces.

Behind the bed is a doll carriage; its handle is on the left, and the hood of the carriage is black and on the right. Inside the carriage is an angel made out of a small styrofoam ball, yarn, and pipe cleaners. It was originally a cupcake decoration attached to the top of a toothpick. I liked it and didn't want to throw it away, so I removed the toothpick and used it as a doll inside the house. I bet no one ever expected that "throwaway item" to be around so many years later!

The perfume bottles and flower on the tray on top of the wardrobe were tiny, which is why I put them in a child's room. I think they were meant to be for a 1/2" scale house (this house was 1" scale). Inside the wardrobe were a few extra clothes and a necklace.

The bed is a scale sized twin bed. The pillows on the bed (and on the desk chair) were bought at a Guild show. The quilt on the bed is a real quilt made by me in my teens or early 20s. The pink flower squares and backing are from one of my old flannel nightgowns. The quilt is a bit crooked but not bad. I probably sewed it by hand. I made the bear rug too. I cut it out of furry fabric and glued on felt ears and a couple of "googly eyes."

The bench at the foot of the bed is part of a similarly painted set of furniture that was another gift from someone. I separated the items and tried to use them as accent pieces because as a matching set they were way too loud!