Finishing the Fairfield Bathroom

My efforts to complete or upgrade certain rooms in my Fairfield continue.  For the bathroom, I used the 1:24 scale laser-cut bathroom kit from Greenleaf.  It's not the most elegant, and I don't think I would use it for fixtures, but for shelves and mirrors it worked just fine.  Although it's very hard to see in the pictures, I followed Jodi's lead and added some detail to the top borders.  I didn't have any stickers that would work, so I used some of my punches to cut card stock and glue on.   I should have taken pictures before painting everything white.  *sigh*  I also swapped out the tin foil they gave me for real mirrors, and put a dowel in for the towel holder, instead of the little straight piece of laser-cut wood they provided.   Using various beads, dowels, the cap to an eyeliner pencil and some paper cut-outs, I did my best to fill the shelves.  The fancy perfume bottle on the mirror ledge is actually meant to be a salt shaker, but I thought it was a bit large for that purpose.  I gave it a little paint, and now I think it makes a very elegant toiletry item.

I did have one fancy glass canister that I filled with pink sand as "bath salts" and put on the little corner shelf.  The stock of towels are from a half-scale swap, and I think fit very nicely on their shelf.  The little bath brush is made from strip wood and a bit of velvet for the "bristles."

I found the pattern for the bathmat on the Internet, although now, unfortunately, I can't tell you where.  It is worked on 36-count Evenweave.  It's teeny, but it's just the right size for the bath tub.

One of my readers asked me to do a tutorial on how I finish my rugs, so here it is:

The first thing I do when a rug is complete is put Fray Check around the edges where I will be trimming it.  If I will be doing a fringe, I'll put the fray check right up against the stitching.  If I'm going to be turning under some of the cloth, I put the Fray Check a few threads out, in the area where I'll be trimming.  It tends to spread, so it's pretty easy to get the coverage you need and then some.

When the Fray Check is dry, I trim the fabric.  On this piece, I trimmed it about six threads out all the way around.  Six threads on the narrow ends will be fringe, and I'll be turning under six threads on the long ends.  At this point, I don't trim the corners.  I find that when I do that, it's very hard to get into the little threads at the corners when I'm trying to whip-stitch my edges.  They want to just unravel, even with the Fray Check.

I weave my thread into the back of my work near the edge, with the thread ready to start at one corner.

I then bring my thread through to the front, and insert it around one thread, back to front.  This naturally folds my edge to the back.

I keep doing this all way the way along the edge.  If I'm seeing a little too much fabric showing through in places, I'll generally just do a second stitch in the same thread, which helps with coverage.  It doesn't have to be absolutely perfect.  When you're done, one edge is folded back.  Do the same on the other edge.

Now I trim my corners.  I angle them in a bit to ensure that they won't be showing when the rug is right side up.  I can still have some issues with bothersome little threads at the corners. (Look at the lower right corner in the picture below.)  If that happens, I use a tiny bit of Tacky Glue for Fabrics or some Fabric Tack to hold those little threads back and down.

Since I'm doing a fringe, I don't make an angled cut in the border of the narrow edges.

Next I pull the cross-wise threads from the fringed edges.  This can be a little harder with the Fray Check, but it's not much harder.

(Sorry for the bad picture.)  If the fringe is too long, it can easily be trimmed.

I finish the rug by ironing a piece of feather-weight, fusible interfacing to the back.  The interfacing is cut just a bit smaller than the rug, so that it catches any turned-under edges, but won't show from the front.

Et voila!  A tiny little rug.  😊

Some more photos of the completed bathroom.

I’m sure Miss Penelope and Effie will be much happier using this room now, particularly since there is now a shade in place to provide a little privacy.

And now a sneak peek at another little project I've been working on.  I think the baskets need a bit more embellishment.  Maybe some holly leaves? 

I've also been experimenting with "ribbons" for the chocolates.  I think the bunka (second from left) work best for the 1:12, and the gold thread (far right) works best for the 1:24.  What do you think?

Have a great week, everyone.  Hope all your mini projects exceed your expectations!