0 Comments
Well. Here we are again. After the completion of our most recent Renaissance dresses, the Blue Bee dresses, I asked Rachel if we had enough dresses for festivals and faires. What a silly question. Red seems to be the one color we haven't really explored, and is the other royal court color besides blue. We knew we wanted to stay away from a pink-red or orange-red. And after our forays into Italian and English styles, it was time to once again embrace our genetic heritage and go with a German style.  I took the opportunity to sketch out the costume design digitally for the first time - usually I use a pencil. I'm happy with the way it turned out - for my first time. But (spoilers), about from the time I clicked "save", I knew I'd be making changes to the design. So be sure to keep up with the twists and turns on this one, as I know this will be a multiple-post project. Rachel is fantastic at using unexpected, budget friendly fabric in her Renaissance dresses. But I wanted to take the excuse to be very deliberate (and, I'll admit it, "boojee"). Linen was an obvious choice, but I wanted it to be a bit lighter in weight than the blue linen we'd used before, and I was after a particular shade of red. As I live in an, ahem, "fabric desert", about the only way to achieve this is to order swatches from an online store first. I wanted a near-tissue weight linen for the shirt, and a light-medium weight for the dress. After finding what I wanted from Fabric-Store.com (which specializes in linen) I took a picture of the fabric swatches with a fork as background to compare weight and color.
After finishing my first Japanese dollhouse kit, I couldn't help myself. I purchased two more (just neither one in pink). While the continuing poorly-translated dollhouse names amuse and slightly baffle me, but this next one has a lot of navy blue. and has more of a 1990's/early 2000's feel to the design.  I pulled out the instructions to get an overview of the project. It's not unpacked yet. Once you unpack the pieces, it's nearly impossible to get it all back in the box. The other difference in this kit is the assembly method. While very similar, the this kit is from a different manufacturer. This kit's instructions have you assemble everything you possibly can before making the "shell" and assembling it all. On the one hand, starting with all the tiny pieces takes a bit of patience, but the payoff towards the end is bigger. Like most dollhouse kits, downstairs is the kitchen/dining and the living room. This kit's "wallpaper" and "flooring" made a great guide for where walls, "carpet" and furniture needed to be placed. I really liked the mod style of the couch, and the European-style bathroom sink. But the biggest draw for me in this design was the piano. Something about having a grand piano in a tiny apartment spelled class and culture to me.
And, in sharp contrast, this apartment has a more masculine feel. Well, as much of one as you're going to get from a kit designed for, and marketed to girls and young women. At long last, here it is, all finished! It looks so clean and cool, but also warm and welcoming. I like to imagine smooth jazz or slow blues being played on the piano, or a late night/early early morning breakfast being enjoyed on the glass dining table. And for some reason, I could totally imagine an apartment like this appealing to the character Mame Dennis from the movie Auntie Mame - if it was updated to be set in the 1990's, instead of the 1950's.  Ready to go in a showcase. Realtors hope for pictures of homes as appealing as this one! Stay tuned for at least one more dollhouse kit from me. No promises on when I'll get started on it, as we're heading into the holiday season and I'm sure life will get busy. But as a teaser - this next room has a lot of green and grey tones...
|
AuthorsTwins each with half a brain in reality; the other half displayed here! Archives
November 2022
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed