Dollhouse furniture review: Educo Hape

I have to say that I was most excited about this bedroom set and also the most disappointed. A bedroom wasn't needed because we already had a couple of beds. But I thought it would be nice for Mama and Papa Panda to have a room of their own. This is from the regular Educo Hape dollhouse line. There is also a very contemporary bamboo line that I love the looks of but it's more expensive. This bedroom is going for about $14.00 on Amazon. Not bad. Like with the Le Toy Van set, I used my Swagbucks to buy Amazon giftcards.

Scale: These are identical in scale to the Plan Toys, Le Toy Van and the Ryan's Room sets that I have previously reviewed. As you can see, they are a little big for the Calico Critters (or Sylvanian Families) pandas that we love. Also, they are slightly larger than the Enchantmints mushroom stuff.

Quality: This is where the disappointment comes in. The construction is just shoddy. The plexiglass on the doors of the wardrobe and shelves of the bed is scuffed and the pieces are not square. The dresser is okay but the bed is very crooked. The paint is fine but where glue seeped from the seams, it was not cleaned up very well. There is one cut of the wood that is very rough. So basically, these items just lack the attention to detail in craftsmanship that all of the other companies have.

Overall: I bought this set because of the beanbag. I liked the colors and I liked the modern styling -- especially the striped comforter. All of the fabric on the other sets was yucky and floral. So I have no complaints there. I love the little lamps and those will work well in other parts of the house. And the beanbag is fabulous. While this set doesn't have details in the paint like the Le Toy Van, there are cool details elsewhere -- the drawers pull out and there are tiny hangers in the wardrobe. Cute.

So I do recommend these. The lower price point and modern styling make up for the lack of quality on some of the pieces.

If you would like to read the rest of my dollhouse reviews, click here.

Thank you, Craft Gossip!

Anne over at Craft Gossip always makes me feel super awesome when she posts about my stuff. This tree skirt really is easy to make. I'm going to make a miniature one as soon as I make a miniature tree for my, I mean Zadie's dollhouse. I'll upload a pattern when I do so you don't have to resize the first one.

Dollhouse furniture review: Le Toy Van

Even though it's at a higher price point than most of the dollhouse furniture sets that are sold by individual rooms, I really wanted a set by Le Toy Van because they are just so cute. This is the Sugar Plum Kitchen, part of a line of brightly colored rooms including a bright pink bedroom, a bright yellow dining room, and a purple and fuchsia living room.

This line is imported from England so that probably explains the $$$. But Le Toy Van or Hotaling (the distributor) is known for their quality and design. This was in my Amazon cart for a couple of weeks at about $15 then all of a sudden skyrocketed to $19.99 as I was waiting for my Swagbucks giftcards to post (more on Swagbucks later). I want to be mad at Le Toy Van but I honestly couldn't find a flaw worthy of much complaint.

Scale: These are identical in scale to the Plan Toys, Educo/Hape and the Ryan's Room sets that I have previously reviewed. As you can see, they are a smidge big for the Calico Critters (or Sylvanian Families) pandas that we love. Also, they are slightly larger than the Enchantmints mushroom stuff.

Quality: I'm very pleased with the quality of these sets. I don't think they are hand-painted. Everything is done very precisely. I only found a couple of spots of imperfection and that could have been due to transport. Where glue seeped through the seams, it was wiped away. I didn't really find any splinters or jagged edges on anything. Because of the price, I was really looking hard for flaws! The only thing that's bothering me is that the oven door doesn't want to stay shut. I've got to do something about that. 

Overall, I have to recommend these sets. The detail is very nice. The little sprayer on the sink is attached with elastic cord so it has some resistance just like in real life. There aren't any shelves in the fridge so you can't really put stuff in it. We may have to make some. I bought this specifically for the little polka dot teapot and it's better in the picture. Just sayin'.

If you want to read the rest of my dollhouse furniture reviews, click here.

Reversible Christmas Tree Skirt Pattern and Tutorial

Last year I designed this easy Christmas Tree skirt. I put together a tutorial but by the time everything was finished, it was too late so I decided to save it for now.

First you'll have to print out the pattern pieces, cut them out and tape them together along the line that's marked. Here is the bottom and here is the top. Print them out in landscape mode with no scaling. They should each easily fit on the page no matter what your printer margins are.

What you'll need:
4 fat quarters (or large scraps for the top). A quarter-yard cut will not be wide enough.
2/3 yard of something weighty like corduroy or a home decor fabric for the back (more if you're dealing with a directional pattern, less if the fabric is wider than 44")
1 pack of ric rack (more if you're making a larger skirt -- my Mom has 2 foot skirt radius and we needed just over 3 packs to make it all the way around)
thread and all that

This will fit with a four-foot tree (as shown above). If you want to make it bigger, add some paper below the rounded edge of the pattern and extend that curved line as long as you want it. Use a ruler to extend the straight lines. You will need to remove some of the top to compensate for a larger trunk.

This pattern piece will work for both the top of the skirt and the back. I used 8 sections for the top as shown. The back only has 4 sections to save some time piecing. So to make the same skirt, you'll need to cut 2 pieces each of 4 different fabrics for the top. Then for the back, fold the seam allowance under on one side (or just cut if off), and use that pattern to cut 4 pieces on the fabric's fold.

Lay out your top fabrics and stitch them together at the side seams RST (right sides together). You'll have seven seams.  Do the same with your back fabrics. You'll have 3 seams. Iron your seams open (this will save bulk later).

Now, place the front on top of the back RST. Stitch the big rounded edge and the top edge and one side. You may want to leave a little section of the side open to tuck your ric rack into later. (I did not do this, I just popped the seam open with my seam ripper when I got to that point).

Clip those rounded seams. I like to make my clips about 2 inches apart. Every third clip I make v shape. This allows for easier turning.

Next, the fun part! Reach all the way inside the skirt and turn the whole thing inside-out. Beautiful! Press, press, press!

Tuck your seam allowance in on the open edge and pin that up. Then place your ric rack where you want it. Mine is about 2" from the bottom seam.

Pin about 1" of the tail of the trim into your pinned edge and stitch that seam closed. Finish placing the ric rack along the perimeter of the skirt and topstitch it into place.

When you get to the other straight edge, tuck the other tail of the trim into the opening you left and close everything up.

The last step is to topstitch your top. This will help it to lie flat.

I am happy to add more photos if anything seems confusing. Please let me know if you have any questions or problems with the pattern.

EDIT: There seemed to be some problems with the jpeg form of the pattern not printing the two pieces at the same size. I have uploaded pdfs and they seem fine.

Handmade Dollhouse Furniture on Etsy

After you try making your own miniatures and realize how hard it is, you can buy stuff that other people make. I seriously can't believe some of this stuff is handmade. I sifted through thousands of dollhouse stuff on Etsy and came up with a list of really amazing finds. There is no information on scale for some of these items. But, hey, the good thing about handmade stuff is that you can just ask the person who made it.

 These nesting/stacking tables had me at hello. Check out miniaturesbyannina. Oh, and this too.

I had this couch in real life once. This one is cleaner. Red sectional by minimodernistas. Click over to the sold items for a real treat.

Isn't this yummy? I want to clutter it up with some tchotchkes. By AmazingMiniatures.

Look! It's the Expedit from Ikea. I love it. It's probably better quality though -- and you don't have to put it together yourself. She has the Lack side table as well (see the sold items). By Amatheria.

This is pretty cool. It's even on casters. By miniaturesforever. You know how we love our unfinished pine around here.

This whole shop is killing me with it's amazingness but I think I need one of these chairs. By smidgehouse. If I were a bachelor, I'd live in this apartment. It seems as if I have two girlfriends.

From High Point, NC, furniture capital of America: the Contour Coffee Table. By minibydesign. Another shop whose sold items are phenomenal.

Who doesn't love them some Mission Oak? And check out that floor. I want that it my real house. By minibuilder.

You probably don't really want to let your toddler play with any of the above. These are for when your kid goes to bed and you pull out the high-end stuff. Check out the rest of the dollhouse posts here. Let me know if you want me to post about the play dollhouse furniture on Etsy. There are some nice pieces at reasonable prices.

Dollhouse furniture review: Ryan's Room

Since Ms. Z requested that her pandas have an "outside" to their home, we thought it would be good to furnish it. We put this super cute patio set from Ryan's Room on her Christmas list and my SIL picked it up at the local toy store. At $14.99, it's not a bad price. The Ryan's Room sets run a little cheaper than the Plan Toys sets and have about the same number of pieces in each one.

Scale: The pandas fit into the chairs really well. That's Papa and his daughter in the picture. She looks pretty mad in all of the shots. I don't remember what they were talking about. Although I didn't have any other chairs to compare these to, they are similar in scale to the Plan Toys, Educo/Hape, and Le Toy Van. While the furniture is larger than the Calico Critters (Sylvanian Families) characters, this does not seem out of place. These pieces are also larger than the Enchantmints brand, reviewed earlier.

Quality: The quality of these pieces is good. They are not as good as Plan Toys but comparable given their lower price point. They are constructed very well and I don't see these falling apart anytime soon but the attention to craftsmanship is not there. There are some splinters hanging off several of the cuts and the paint job on the grill is messy. The glue is fine -- no problems there. I do really like the detail on the flowers (the stems are wire so they bend).

Overall, I do like the Ryan's Room dollhouse furniture. They have the same style as the Plan Toys so they can be used together without issue. I like that they make use of the packaging. There are illustrations on the box that you can cut out to add "cushions" to the chairs and something to set on the table. That's an interesting touch. There is nice detail on the exterior paint on the Ryan's Room Carry N Play dollhouse that we have as well.

Thanks to Auntie Steph for letting me photograph this before Christmas. I think this will be a major hit.

If you would like to read the rest of the dollhouse furniture reviews, click here.

Interview with Catherine Hug

I am very excited to present today's interview: Catherine Hug of Hyggelig. I first found her amazing blog about a year ago when Ohdeedoh wrote a post about her DIY play kitchen. In addition to posting about her own projects, she often features great ideas from other people. She has a very modern sense of style with a bit of nature and rugged repurposing thrown in. Her blog is written in German but the Google translator does a good enough job that you can read the content even if you don't know the language. I could spend hours reading her blog. Each time I look for something, I find something new that I missed the first time.

Can you talk about your day job a little bit?

I work as a freelance editor and writer. I have a three-year old daugther and a dog -- and they keep me pretty busy apart from my job and my blog Hyggelig, which I started in 2008.

Note from PROJECT:project -- Catherine also makes and sells some really interesting home decor pieces like these throw pillows and fabric bins/totes from upcycled army gear.

The nursery you designed for your daughter is clean and simple without feeling bare. How has that worked for you as she's grown up and needs a "big girl" space?

As more toys have been moving in, it is getting more difficult to keep it light and airy. I didn't design the room to go from a nursery to a "big girl's room" -- but changed things here and there a little with her getting older so she can reach most of the toys herself. For example, I put magnets on the inside of the doors of her closet so she can open and close it herself easily. Every time she gets new things to play with, I look for practical storage at the same time. I like sewing little bags for marbles, etc. so everything has a place to be stored. And regularly we look at her toys and she gives some of what she thinks is "for babies" away to younger children we know. I think it is important for a child to have room for imagination and to be creative which is quite difficult in a kids room full of plastic toys that make some kind of noise.

Your photographs are amazing. Do you have any professional training? Any art background?

No, nothing, just trial and error. I have no idea how to take pictures; I just know how they should look, so I try and try...

I love the projects you have made for your daughter -- the play kitchen and the dollhouse furniture. What inspires you?

Sometimes it is an old piece of furniture I see or a material (like the old hifi-rack in my mother's house which I turned into the play kitchen) that I want to turn into something new. Sometimes I know exactly what a certain toy or storage should look like and I can't find anything like it, so I try to build or sew it myself. Apart from that, it's so much fun to make things and show my daughter that you can actually build so many things with imagination and a little material.

So much of what you feature on your blog mixes form with function. Is this an important part of your aesthetic?

Yes, things you can find in our home all fulfill a certain function. I don't like things you call in german "Staubfänger" -- which you can translate as dust-gatherers and I'm not a collector. I like to repurpose old things in a new surprising way and I love industrial design and the bauhaus era. Except in my daughter's room it is more playful and colorful.

Thanks so much to Catherine for the interview and for providing us with such great inspiration. Check the previous dollhouse post for more links to her tiny projects. And, of course, add Hyggelig to your Reader. It's not to be missed.