Category: "Greenleaf 2011 Spring Fling - Baxter Pointe Villa"

Vintage Millie August kits - part 2

by brae  

I finished the couch over the weekend, and now I've finally tackled the chair.  I found the instructions to be a little lacking in comparison to the couch, so I was glad I finished the other kit first.  It helped me figure out what to do when I wasn't sure about the directions.

The couch didn't have a side chair counterpart, but I thought this would work well as an alternative.  But, I didn't want it to look like a vanity chair so much as a comfortable modern chair.


Photo from kit box

To that end, I cut off the top curve on the back.

Initially, instead of doing the multiple pleats around the chair, I mimicked the skirting I had done for the sofa to tie the two pieces together.

It turned out okay, but I felt it didn't have the same polish as the couch.  The problem was that the original design took all the extra fabric from pleated skirts into consideration and therefore the seat was cut large.  I didn't cut the seat down when that step came around not thinking about this end result...so my skirts ended up looking too thin for the overall lines of the chair.  I didn't care for the bulge in the middle.

My only real option was to remove the outer trim and the skirts and cut new pieces from the spare fabric included in the kit, because removing the seat assembly to cut it down would have meant tearing the whole thing apart.  Not at all tempting.  :\

I still didn't want the multiple pleats, but I had to assemble one to see how thick it was.  Once I had that measurement, I was able to figure out how much thickness I needed to add around the base to make up for the lack of the pleats.  I added 1/16" thick balsa wood around the sides and front.

I cut new corner pieces, skirts and the thin finishing trim.  I was able to salvage one piece of trim from the first go around, but it was a little short in the back once fully assembled...but we won't look at the back.  ;]  I reassembled the skirts and trim and ended up with a much better result.

It fits with the couch nicely, I think.    Hurray!

Vintage Millie August furniture kits

by brae  

I found these two kits at a local hobby store that was having a moving sale.  The fabric seemed a bit rough for scale, though the finished photos on the kits looked wonderful.

I had some ivory muslin in my fabric stash that seemed softer, but I stuck with the original fabric in the end and was glad I did.  :D

My general impression was these kits are very thorough and have excellent detailed instructions, though there were parts that had no illustrations when you could have used some.  I chose to make a photocopy of the pattern pieces before cutting them just in case I had to start over with my muslin fabric.  I also copied the figure drawings so I didn't have to keep flipping the paper over between the instructions and the drawings, which happened to be on opposite sides from one another.

I tackled the couch first, and it went well from the start.  Since the kit was old, the foam had yellowed significantly, so I lined the sides and front of the couch with natural muslin before adding the finished fabric.  I didn't want to take the chance that the yellow would show through once the couch was complete.

The most challenging part was creating the welting, or cording, but it's the one element that really adds to the realism of the piece.  Real life sized upholstered furniture has this detailing and it was worth the frustration and effort to get it to work.

All in all, the couch took me the better part of a day to put together, so I haven't gotten to the chair just yet.

I added some plaid cushions stuffed with seed beads.

The kit has you build the couch as you would build one in real life size.  I learned a lot putting this kit together and will put these skills to use the next time I make an upholstered item.

Ara, who has a blog called Addams Family Mini-Mansion, uses a small wood artist's model when she builds custom furniture.  I thought this was a brilliant idea, so I bought a couple myself from Barnes & Noble to use when either making kits as in this case or for when I get around to scratch-building more furniture.  They are 5 3/4" tall, so they equate to a person about 5'9", which is perfect for getting the proper scale of things.  They don't articulate all that well, but they do a good job for me since I have no actual dolls to put in my miniature dwellings.  :]

Mini magazines

by brae  

I've created a mini book before but today, I worked on replicating a group of Coastal Living magazines in 1:12 scale.  This process will work for books as well, so I've taken some screenshots while I worked in case anyone else has a hankering to duplicate something in their own collection.  :]

I have access to a good scanner, which is the first hurdle.  I held the group of magazines together and scanned all of the spines at once.  For thicker books, you can do one at a time, but for flimsy materials it is best to have a more solid stack to keep them straight.

After scanning the spines, I then scanned each front and back.  It's best to scan your magazine or book as square as possible to begin with, but minor adjustments can be made to the image in PhotoShop, which is what I use to edit.

Here are two front and back cover images that I actually managed to scan squarely in the first place.  I've cropped close to the images to start.

The first thing to do is correct the real life size of the images.  I work with the images in full size to preserve the sharpness and then resize to the miniature equivalent at the very end.

The real life size of the magazine is 8 3/8" W x 10 1/2" H, with a thickness of 3/16" on average.  The miniature conversion can be done using this calculator and ends up being 0.69792" W x 0.875" H (approximately 11/16" W x 7/8" H).  Decimals are needed for resizing.  PhotoShop limits you to three decimal points, so you might have to fudge a bit.

The thickness of 0.01562" (approximately 1/64") seems silly to consider, but just printing a cover and folding it over doesn't seem as realistic..even a piece of drawing paper or bristol to simulate pages makes a big difference to me.  It really just depends on how you intend to display them and how much work you want to put into them.  :]

If your scanned images aren't equivalent to real life size, just make sure your aspect ratio is the same as the original.  For instance, half the size of the original would be 4 3/16" W x 5 1/4" H x 3/32" thick.

Click Image, Image Size.  Turn off constrain proportions, and enter a width of 8.375" and a height of 10.5" (8 3/8" W x 10 1/2" H).  Adjust these numbers as needed if you aren't working in full life size.  If you've cropped well, you might not need to adjust much.  For this example, I need to adjust both.  Then, repeat for the back.

For an image that isn't scanned squarely, you can (1) re-scan or (2) rotate the image.  For this, I've left a bit on the sides of the image instead of cropping close.  Click Image, Rotate Canvas, Arbitrary.  To rotate slightly to the left, type in 0.25° counterclockwise, you can put in smaller amounts as well such as 0.13".  Conversely, rotate slightly to the right, type in 0.25° clockwise.  Check to see if this has adjusted the image enough or repeat as necessary.

Select the magazine image...

...and crop.

The original size will need to be adjusted the same as above, and the rest of the process is the same as if you had started with a square image.

Since the spines were scanned in a group, I need to separate them.  Again, these are likely to illegible and perhaps unnecessary in the long run for magazines, but for books this process produces the best results.  First, I made a copy of the original image of all the spines since I don't want to ruin that original file as I crop to select individual spines.  I selected the spine I wanted and rotated it to make it as straight as possible.

I then cropped close around the image.  During this process, you will need to zoom in to see where the edges are and make sure you're cropping in the right places.

To adjust the real life size, click Image, Image Size.  Turn off constrain proportions, and enter a width of 0.1875" and a height of 10.5" (3/16" W x 10 1/2" H).  Again, if you've cropped well, you might not need to adjust much.  For this example, I need only to lengthen since my width is good.

Now I have a back, a spine and a front cover for the magazine I want to reproduce.

Using the back image as the working file, click Image, Canvas Size.  The canvas width needs to be the sum of the front plus the back plus the spine.  Click the left-hand anchor box in the middle row so that the canvas extends to the right of the image and enter at least 17.1875"...I just entered 17.25" since the edge can be cropped later.

Select (CTRL+A) and copy the spine image and paste it into the back file.

Make sure the move tool is active.  Move the spine image to the immediate right of the back image by either using the mouse or the arrow keys.  Zoom in close to see where the edges meet.  As you can see, they should match up pretty seamlessly.

You might want to zoom back out before the next step.  Select (CTRL+A) and copy the front cover image and paste it into the back file.  Move the front cover image to the immediate right of the spine image.  Zoom in close again to see where the edges meet.

Zoom back out.  Crop any excess from the rightmost edge.

Click Layer, Merge Visible to flatten the image.  Save your original size file since you can always work from this file to make different scales but you can't enlarge a reduced image.

Time to resize.  Click Image, Image Size, make sure constrain proportions is on this time and enter 0.875" for the height.  Your width should be close to 1.411" unless you've cropped too much or overlapped the images instead of having them side by side.  If you are off, there's no need to start over.  Just turn off constrain proportions and enter 1.411" width as well.

Since you need a crisp image to print well, click Filter, Sharpen, Sharpen.

Click File, Save As to save this miniature reproduction.

To print, I use Word since I can print multiple images on one sheet of paper and reduce waste.  :]  I also like to print duplicates to give me a backup in case of disaster.  You can double check your sizing before printing as well.

Your printer should have a setting for high resolution...be sure to use that.  A good printer will give you a slight shine to your images, too.  In mini scale, every little bit helps to create realism.

Time for assembly.  Cut carefully around the image using a straight edge and an X-Acto blade.

If you don't want pages, just fold in half and glue closed.  If you want simulated pages, cut the appropriate thickness of paper or bristol (in my case 1/64").

I used the printed image as a guide for cutting the insert from white bristol board.  Tiny projects like this are one more reason to hang onto those scraps!  :D

I bent the cover around the insert to make sure the fit was good before using a glue stick to adhere the cover to the insert.

Since magazines are full of rich, glossy photos and don't have white edges, I used a pencil to dirty the edges.

If you want printed pages that open, well, you are a better miniaturist than I am and I wish you luck!  Haha.  :D  My tutorial stops here.

1 2 ...3 4 5 7