Jul
Welcome to Day Five of our Doll’s House Quiet Book sew along. I hope you have been enjoying yourself as much as I have.
Day Five is Kitchen Day
Since we made all those lovely veggies in the garden on Day Four, we need somewhere to cook them! You will find the kitchen in the add on pattern for the quiet book beginning on page 42.
The Stove:
We will begin by sewing our stove down on the page as per step 8.1 and 8.2 around the edges. Remember to leave at least an inch between the bottom of our stove and the bottom of the background page. The detail stitching on this can be tricky, so stitch slowly. You can use tailor’s chalk or a washable sewing marker to draw the detail lines on the page. Or you can freehand them by looking at the pattern piece.
Adding extra detailed sewing, such as “burners” or “knobs” would be a great expression of creativity.
Once we have the main stove piece sewn on, we will sew the inside oven piece centered in the stove as per step 8.3. After we sew the oven inside piece, we will attach the door. To do this, we will begin by sewing the oven door per the new front door instructions in step 2.5. RST, clip corners, turn, and topstitch. We will sew the door to the oven along the bottom edge only.
This is a good place to add button holes and buttons or sew on Velcro at the top to help it close.
The Cooking Pot:
Now we will make our cooking pot for all the lovely veggies your little one is bound to cook up for his or her dollies.
We’ll follow steps 8.4 through 8.8 found on page 43. We will position our main pot and handles, sewing the handles down separately from the main pot. Once this is sewn, we will take our pot pocket pieces and sew them RST, clip curves, and turn before topstitching the top only. When we have finished topstitching, we will line up the pocket on the main pot piece sewing only the sides and bottom, creating the pocket.
The Cake:
We’ll also make a scrumptious little cake for your dollie to cook in the oven. Because who doesn’t love a yummy cake? We’ll take our cake pieces and sew them following the steps 8.9 – 8.13. RST leaving a turning hole in the bottom.
This is a great time to add a lace trim sandwiched between the cake pieces for a special frosting. I like to clip my curves at the top of the cake and the corners before turning and topstitching. I feel this makes sewing the topstitching a little easier over the bulky areas. Once the cake is turned right sides out, you can add a little “cherry” on top using a pompom.
Extras:
I’ve made a few little additions for my kitchen by adding a shelf and a flower vase. I simply cut a rectangle of fabric to use as a shelf and used the vase and flowers from the original pattern.
Follow step 4 from the original pattern to create the flowers so they can be removed, or sew them as I did straight to the page.
I also used the cooking pot main piece to create a storage basket for extra veggies. As easy as simply cutting two main pieces, stitching them RST, turning, and topstitching along the top edge only. Then I stitched the “basket” to the page similarly to how we stitched the pot pocket previously.
In addition to the kitchen, we will begin making our second dolly. This dolly is the girl from the add on pattern. We will use steps 1.1-1.16 to create her, which seems like a lot of steps, but we will go slowly.
The Dolly:
To begin we will use steps 1.1-1.5 to assemble the front of her head with hair.
After the hair is assembled is when I suggest adding the facial features. The markings can be transferred from the pattern or facial features can be freehanded. As with the kitty dolly, fabric markers, fabric paints, or even embroidery thread can be used.
Once our dolly’s face is finished we will use steps 1.6-1.9 to create the front and back portion of the dolly. We will stitch the front main body piece to the front head piece, RST, and fold the seam towards the body, topstitching on the body piece. We will repeat this with the back main body and back head piece. The next step is to stitch front and back pieces, RST.
Her Skirt & Legs:
Now that our doll’s top half is finished we will add the skirt and legs to her. Steps 1.10-1.15 show us how to add our skirt and legs. Since I am making a skirt, I will sew a gathering stitch so I can gather it to match the top body portion. The skirt will then be slid inside the main body with the right sides of the body and skirt touching.
Next the legs will be sewn, RST, and then turned right sides out so when they are slid into the main body, the right side of the legs will be touching the wrong side of the skirt. Hand stitching the lower body to upper body may be necessary if the opening is too small to fit under the sewing machine needle. Remember to leave a turning hole so we can turn our little dolly right side out.
After you have connected the upper and lower body parts, turn your dolly right side out and stuff her/ him using polyfil or even leftover scraps of fabric. Then hand stitch your turning hole closed using a ladder stitch.
Now we have completed Day Five! Be sure not to miss Day Six when we assemble our last page.
PS: get your hands on the Doll’s House patterns here: DOLLS HOUSE | ADD ON | BUNDLE
