Flashback Friday: The Orient Express

I meant to get this out on Thursday, but life got in the way, so now it's a "Flashback Friday" post.  😊

My final build before the Sagamore Hill library was Jane Harrop's Camping Coach Kit.  Apparently, some railroad cars in the U.K. have been converted into static accommodations that people can rent as holiday cabins.  Jane has put together a beautiful kit that comes in both 1:24 and 1:48 scale.  It comes with everything, including the kits for all the bathroom and kitchen fixtures, as well as pages and pages of instructions with pictures.  It is very well made and went together beautifully. 

I, however, couldn't quite leave it as she designed it.  We love trains, and I really wanted to turn it into a true train car, and a luxury train car at that.  I based my build on the Orient Express, even though the real thing would obviously have separate dining and kitchen cars.

The first thing I changed was the compartment configuration.  The kit is designed to have two seating compartments, each with two benches facing each other.  I guess these convert to beds at night, or you just sleep on the benches?

I really wanted my train to have a day and a night compartment, but that obviously wasn't going to work with the original door and window configuration.  The bed would have almost completely blocked the door!

So I re-cut the walls using my Silhouette Cameo.  It won't cut through wood, so I created each of my walls from a layer of chipboard sandwiched between two layers of wood scrapbook paper.  I used Jane's exact window and door dimensions, so that the windows and doors she provided would fit.  (I know, in the picture below, my window looks smaller, but it isn't.)

Then I set about decorating my compartments.  The wood used in the kits was not the best and didn't particularly take stain well.  The woodwork in the real Orient Express is stunning and has lots of elegant inlays.  I ended up printing out wood "paneling," with some of the OE's inlays, and decoupaging it onto the walls.  I liked the "well polished" look the decoupage gave the wood.

For the carpet, I experimented with both printing on velvet paper and embossing velvet paper with my Cameo.   I ended up going with the embossed version, as some of my little accessories (like my OE slippers) were hard to see on the printed carpet.  I used beige carpet in the passenger compartments, and burgundy carpet in the corridors and in the dining area.

Below is a real-life OE "day" compartment.

I used neckties for my upholstery and was able to find some great lace to use for my antimacassars. The picture below is a test run, as you can tell from the wall and the carpet.

To recreate the pink-shaded lamps, I took some small, clear lamps I had purchased from Alpha Stamps, painted the bases silver with Testor's, and used pink Gallery Glass on the shades.

I added a hassock, a knitting bag, a book (Agatha Christie's 4:50 from Paddington), and a few travel magazines.

I also added a coat and shoes (that my traveler slipped off before putting her feet up on the hassock).  The shoes are made from Origami paper.

In the night compartment, I ironed beige twill fabric onto freezer paper so I could print the Venice Simpleon Orient Express logo on it, then added some ribbon in an attempt to create their signature blankets.

Then I added a ladder, some complimentary slippers, a nightgown and, of course, Murder on the Orient Express for nighttime reading. 

And what elegant lady would travel without her train case?  This one is made from painted cardstock, with latches "borrowed" from the Jane Harrop luggage kits (sold separately from the train kit, but located on the same page as the camping coach kits).

Here you can see both compartments from above.  One of Jane's suitcases is on the luggage rack.

The kitchen and dining area were fun to do.  All of the appliances came with the kit.  I painted them silver in an effort to give them a high-end, stainless steel appearance.

The table was so narrow, I had to stagger the place settings, but I think that's OK. 

The plates are the Etoile du Nord pattern, produced by Villeroy Boch for the Etoile du Nord dining car on the Orient Express.  (You'll need to scroll down a bit in the link.)  The napkin rings are crimp beads.  The champagne bucket is the metal mini I painted and supplemented with miniature plastic "ice."  The fire extinguisher is also a painted metal mini.  All of the food, except the dinner rolls, was purchased.

To make the bathroom a bit more elegant, I printed marble tile for the floor and walls, and painted the fixtures a glossy black.  Again, all the kits for the fixtures (with the exception of the towel bar and toilet paper holder) came with the main kit.

The only thing I needed to change on the fixtures was the toilet seat, which seemed way too narrow to me.  I ended up replacing this one with a chipboard one cut with my Cameo.  You can see the new seat in the picture below.

 I also added some toiletries and a basket of towels to my sink.

All of the lighting was affixed to the final wall before I glued it on and connects to battery-operated switches located under the train carriage.

A view from the corridor side:

One portion of the roof is glued on.  The other is removable, to make it easier to see inside.  I really wanted a tin ceiling for my train car, so I once again used my Cameo to emboss sheets of stick-on metal.  They call them stippling sheets because the Cameo isn't technically designed to emboss.  However, I found that I could use the embossing tool for the Curio, and tell my Cameo it was using the drawing pen.  I think it did a great job of embossing!

The kit is designed for the car to be up on blocks.  However, the hobby section of our local hardware store gave us an old G-scale freight car!  I removed the car portion and fixed my build to the top.

This did require some reworking of the stairs, since they were designed to fit with a much lower car.  In real life, the track would generally be sunk down below the pedestrian level of the station, but that was not a possibility for me.  I used what I could from the kit, and cut strip wood to add height to the stairs.

The latticework was designed to go along the entire bottom of the train.  I made a section of it as a stand-alone structure, both to hold the signs (which came with the kit) and to help obscure the batteries for the lighting.  

Here is a top down look at the nearly-completed train car.

And here is the completed train car living on our mantel.  The wood bench also comes with the kit, and we have added a Phoenix Models "Bygone Age" ice cream cart, along with some lamp posts and a popcorn stand made from pencil sharpeners.

At Christmas time, it got all dressed up.  🎅 😊

And that's it.  You're up to date.  Thank you so much for following along as I strolled down memory lane on all my previous builds.  Hope to soon have a post on the next project I'd like to do.

Enjoy your weekends!  Hope you all get a lot of mini time!

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!