Custom Catwalk Kitty Chase

Customizing Petite Catwalk Kitties is fun. Here is what I did with a Chase doll. First, I opened her hair and there sure was a lot of it.



Then she got some temporary tattoos, which I covered with satin sealer to prevent damage to them. I painted her top, because it would have been hard to make a fabric top that would not have covered the tattoo on her back. She also got an eyebrow ring, which is piece of gold plated metal wire bent to shape and pushed through the vinyl (first I made a hole with a needle). At this point, I had cut the hair a little shorter to make it easier to handle her, but final haircut was not decided yet.




She originally had green shoes, but as I had an Anika doll I was going to customize too, I swapped their feet and Chase got boots. They were originally white, but I painted them black, added some glitter to the flower patterns on the boots and covered everything with sealer.



And here she is finished. The skirt is made of black leather and the jewelry from thin copper sheet. I decided to cut her hair fairly short and I think it turned out very nice.

Hat for the Baha Cat

I had to take a break from the miniature projects, because the vision in my left eye got so bad that I couldn't do anything very small. It's improving now and I've been able to do some customizing for Catwalk Kitties, but mostly I'm still crocheting as that is fairly easy even with limited vision.

I've been crocheting for the Baha Cat as she's so small it won't take much time to get things finished. The first thing I made was a winter outfit:



That hat was easy to make, so I tried another one. This time in neon pink as I've had the yarn for some time and could never figure out what to do with it. I just bought it, because it was so irresistible. The pictures below show the structure of the hat: first a couple of rows around the head and then the front and back are made separately.






There's no picture of the finished hat yet as I'm going to go out for a new photo shoot as soon as the weather permits and take photos of everything I've made since that first green outfit.

Miss Piggy

My latest 16" doll is Tonner's Miss Piggy. I got the basic version as that was available for order within EU (which means no customs handling, but just like ordering from a Finnish shop). First, a picture of her with Savoy to show the scale.



I rarely leave my dolls in their original outfits and that's true for Miss Piggy as well. The first creation for her is a crocheted dress made of 100% wool. I had already used the yarn for other projects, so there wasn't enough for anything longer than this.



Miss Piggy isn't as curvy as other 16" dolls, so the dress was easy to make. In the hem, there's two rows with addition on every third stitch and two rows with addition on every second stitch (I hope you understand what that means, I'm not really familiar with the English terminology of crocheting).

Making miniature stone statues for a dollhouse

These little cats came with Petite Catwalk Kitties. As I bought a couple of Chases, I got two similar cats and decided to use them as decorations on both sides of the door of the Birchfield house.

Here I have attached them into a piece of wood using mirror mounting tape to make painting easier. As the tape is fairly thick, the cats do not touch the base and that ensures the paint won't make them stick to it.



The next stage is painting the cats with a "stone" color. Anything from off-white to beige and even some darker shades are suitable for this. I used solvent-based paints as the cats are made of hard plastic and can take it.



The final stage is blackwashing. Take some white spirit (or turpentine) and add a drop or two of black paint in it (if you use water-soluble paints, use water instead). The amount of paint depends on how much of it you want on the surface of the statue, that is, how old and dirty the statue should look like. This takes some experimenting to get it right. Then just apply a coat of the mixture to the statue and let it dry.

Dollhouse for a dollhouse with working lights

I used a dollhouse wardrobe to make a large dollhouse for a 1/12 scale dollhouse. I added shelves to create the separate floors and added one wall upstairs to divide it into a bedroom and bathroom. Then I made holes in the back wall for installing lights, which are a string of Christmas lights in 1/12 scale.



The next picture shows how the lights were installed. As I only needed 10 lights inside the house, I attached the extra two lights under the house to provide additional lighting for the room in which this dollhouse will be placed. Of course, I could have made two holes for the living room, for example, and installed 4 lights there.



Then I furnished the house. I used pieces of pictures found in magazines for wallpaper and other decorations. The furniture is made of cast metal. Some pieces were ready painted when I bought them, some I have painted myself.

Dollhouse kitchen

I found a method for keeping the fridge doors closed. A hobby shop had this thin magnetic sheet you can cut to desired shape and size.


Here is the fridge painted and magnets in place. When you cut the magnets, you need to cut one side first, then place it against the sheet to find a place for cutting the opposite part.


The last piece missing from the kitchen was the oven. I made it using balsa wood. The basic structure is very simple.


The glass on the oven door is a piece of overhead transparency.


The hinge is made of thin cardboard. That is the easiest way of making a hinge and it is durable enough after it has been painted as the oven door is very light. I used the same method for the fridge. I used magnets for keeping the oven door closed.


The cooking plates are pieces of black rubber and the grey buttons are from buttons of an old remote control.


I know there are different types of ovens, but I'm used to having an electric one, so that was the easiest for me to make.

Here is a picture of the entire kitchen.

Dollhouse fridge

None of the dollhouse fridges I have was suitable for the dollhouse I'm building, so I decided to make one specifically designed for this house. It's a good idea as I have made the kitchen cupboards myself and plan on making the oven as well.

The kitchen looks like this:



I used a variety of materials for the fridge as there was not enough left of any one material. So, there's cardboard, foam core, balsa wood and a piece of some harder wood. The structure is basically that of a regular cupboard, except the shelves aren't as deep as they could be. This is because there must be room for the shelves inside the door.


This is the inside of the door. The (approximately) 45 degree angle on one side is there to make sure the door can be closed. Another option would be to make the shelves a lot shorter.


The fridge isn't finished yet. Next, it needs to be painted and some sort of handles attached. I also need to figure out how to keep the doors closed. I'm thinking of using small magnets, if I can find ones small enough.