Miniature Acoustic Guitar

So, I watched a video online (hurray for YouTube) and this person made a miniature guitar out of jumbo popsicle sticks and coffee stirrers. I watched it and was like... I can do that!

At least I was pretty sure I could.

Anyway, I decided to use what I already had on hand, which were some quarter inch wide craft sticks and some bass wood.

I tried for days. So many days, to get the craft sticks to bend right. I boiled some for a couple of hours, frequently refilling the pot with water. Hell, I even put some in my Instapot and pressure cooked the damn thing.

Nada.

So I caved, stole some coffee stir sticks from the coffee shop in the lobby of my work building, and put them in a container with some boiling hot water and let it sit.

So, future reference, coffee stir sticks are what you want to use. They're thin enough and cheaply made so they bend pretty easily given enough hot water.

Anyway!

So, I softened up these stir sticks, and carved out the shape of an acoustic guitar body from two pieces of basswood. Then I took a stir stick and wrapped it around the bell shape of the body and secured with hair ties. I would have used rubber bands but I don't have any in my house for some reason, but I have an over abundance of hair ties. That didn't take long to dry, and once it was, I began the process of assembling the guitar body.

I glued the curvy side piece to the back and then glued the front on. Also, at some point I put a hole in the front... I don't remember when I did it.

After I glued the body together and I was waiting for the glue to dry, I started on the neck of the guitar.

I went through a lot of craft sticks for this because I wasn't thinking and just did, and it didn't turn out right the first time. Honestly the first neck I made for it came out really pretty but it wasn't near long enough so that's why I had to start over.

I used three small pieces of craft stick and glued them together so I could get the appropriate shape and then I carved down the neck as well as sanded it. Then I saw I needed to have the head added to the neck for the guitar, so I made that and put it together with some glue.

The body of the guitar was... okay. It definitely wasn't even on all sides, the front and back of the body didn't match up with the curvy side piece in some areas. No biggy, right? I went ahead and shaved some of those parts off because I wanted it to be even. I had every intention of painting the guitar once I was done, so the cosmetic appearance of the actual wood didn't matter. I just needed it all to be even. After I shaved parts off, I saw the top of the body, where the neck would attach, was very thin. I had even shaved off too much of the curvy part but at least it was all even! In order to make it strong, I decided to patch it up by cutting out the thin area and putting in a piece of stir stick on it's own. No, it isn't pretty, but I was planning on painting it anyway so it didn't matter a whole bunch to me.

After patching the body, I glued the neck on.

I am very pleased with how this came out. Also, on the head of the guitar neck (if you can see them) I used a microdrill and put six holes in it.

Now, because I apparently like doing things in the wrong order, I decided to paint it next. I went with a sunburst design. I couldn't find all of my acrylic paints, so I used some watercolors I got from my mother-in-law for Christmas (Pelikan if you're interested (also, these are amazing watercolors!)). I wasn't too sure how watercolor would hold up on wood, so I did some test paints to make sure I was able to get the desired effect. I also tested the water color on some dried glue to make sure it would dry correctly and not look too different from the rest of it, as I had to use some glue to fill some gaps in the body.

After I painted the body, I painted the neck brown and tried to add some wood grain texture with a lighter brown color.

Also...

I did this part backward.

So very backward.

Desk and chair set

So, I made an "antique" writing desk and office chair for my doll house, which was made a lot easier by the fact that I finally caved and bought a dremel tool.

All of the items I made are made out of basswood. It's a bit more dense than balsa, which means I can cut it with an Xacto knife if need be, but can't just be snapped in half or smooshed down like balsa.

Anyway, I made the chair first using a couple pieces of basswood and some small round dowels. And then I sanded the shit out of it. I'm petty sure I breathed in a pound of sawdust when I was curving the side of the chair. The bottom part, the legs (leg? I dunno) I had to carve out notches to jam those squiggly bits into to make it all fancy.

After I made both parts, I decided I wanted the sea to spin. I mean, you can't have an office chair that doesn't spin. That just ain't right!

Anyway, so I had to figure out how to get the seat of the chair to spin without ball bearings. I drilled a hole where I felt the middle of the seat was as well as a hole into the top part of the legs. I don't have pictures of this part because I was trying to figure out how to do it, you know, while doing it. I carved part of the top of the seat out to accommodate something to keep the legs on while allowing the seat to spin. I stuck a dowel in there and glued it all together. I also spun the seat during the drying to make sure it didn't get glued down.

Next was to make the cushion!

This part was a little difficult since I needed the cushion to sit somewhere specifically. I scrounged around in my fabric and I picked the best one that wasn't too weird for an office chair seat. I would have preferred something a bit more... antique looking, but I think the fabric I chose looks good. I cut the foam down to just under a quarter of an inch thick and glued it to a very thin piece of basswood. I then glued the chair fabric around it to make the chair pillow. I haven't glued the pillow down yet but whatever.

Then came the desk.

I did a lot of research online to try and figure out what I wanted to do. And by research I mean looking at a bunch of pictures of antique writing desks.

I'll admit, there were a lot that I really liked, but would be impossible for me to do. I mean, I'm good, but I'm not that good. The ones I liked had curvy bits and lots of drawers. Upon closer inspection I knew that I wouldn't be able to scale most of them down and have it look nice and work the way I wanted it to. So I found a desk that I felt would actually work and started making my pieces.

The original design I was going to do was going to involve some spindles I originally purchased for my stairs and realized they wouldn't work for the stairs. Then I realized that they wouldn't work for the stairs either so I just have them now.

ANYWAY.

There are some off gaps in the different parts of the desk, but honestly that's okay. I intend to carve the legs of it a bit more in order to make it more decorative, but I don't have the dremel bits for it yet so I will leave it for now.

I whip my hair back and forth!

So...

Mimi needs hair.

I did some research (aka a single Google search on how to make doll wigs) and my first step is making a cap to glue hair wefts to. Easy peasy, right?

WRONG!

With a head that is 3/8th of an inch from ear to ear and half an inch front to back, Mimi has got herself a tiny ass noggin'. Which will make it very difficult to make anything for.

But I sure as hell am gonna try!

My first step was grabbing some saran wrap and some old tights. I ripped her head off, topped it with saran wrap, then wrapped a square of old tights. The online tutorial I watched told me to brush on several layers of glue to make the cap.

This makes me feel like a serial killer. Like, this looks really creepy, almost as creepy as her without a face.

Maybe she will go rob a bank later.

WHO KNOWS?!

Anyway, after the five layers of glue dried, I took it all apart and it seemed like it was holding up pretty well!

And then I cut off the extra and removed the saran wrap from the inside.

Bad idea.

The cap began to curl in on itself and wasn't as sturdy as I thought it would be. The glue I use (Aleene's Tacky Glue) is pretty flexible when dry. Usually, it's a good thing, but I think a... harder drying glue would have been better. Maybe super glue?

When I cut off the extra material off the cap I ended up cutting way more off then I really should have. The cap, obviously, is super tiny because she has herself a tiny head and the scissors I'm using aren't the tiniest either.

I think homegirl might just have to have alopecia, or something because I think making her a wig is going to be way too difficult.

So yeah, she's just gonna live her life bald because I don't have the patience for this.

I'm too sexy for my shirt...

Alright, so next she needed a shirt. Couldn't have the girls out all the time... might get arrested.

Anyway, I grabbed a shirt of mine that I was never going to wear and cut the bottom hem off. I decided to use this part of my shirt to fashion a shirt for Mimi.

I then looked up some t-shirt patterns online (sewing patterns) so I could start making a shirt for her.

I then cut out the pieces I'd need and started hand sewing it all together.

I sewed the front sleeves and the back together, then did my best to try and add a hem to the neckline. Or I tried.

Anyway, once it was all sewn together, I then turned the darn thing inside out.

I think it turned out pretty well!

I popped off her head to get the shirt on a bit easier and slid the shirt on.

. . .

It's too big.

The f@#$. Like, it's twice the size it needs to be.

It took me forever to sew this tiny thing too.

UGH.

Gotta start over.

I measured out some new pieces but made sure they weren't voluminous and started sewing again.

I, again, sewed the front, back, and sleeves together.

I poked myself in the thumb a couple of times too!

I'm injured.

Either way, I finally finished this little sucker up. I think it's small enough. What do you think?

So after I turned it right side out, I popped off her head and her hands and spent a good five minutes getting this shirt on her. I had to take her hands off because they would have gotten caught in her sleeves, and I was just up to here with it and I just needed her dressed.

The shirt fits pretty well, other than the fact that due to the thickness in her armpits she's gotta walk around like she just got done lifting ten thousand pounds. I also didn't hem up the neckline because I forgot and now I'm going to need to take it off of her so I can finish that up.

Either way, I think this one came out pretty well, and I'm glad that it didn't take several tries like the pants did. Hopefully, Mimi is cool with not having a closet full of clothes.

Final product!

Everybody's talkin' 'bout my tight pants...

Look...

It was getting awkward with her being nekkid.

Like, I had her with me at work, and Mimi was just creeping people out with her nakedness, so I had to make her clothes. I tried to see if I could buy some so I could cover her up quickly, but all the clothes I did find wouldn't fit her. I don't have a sewing machine (well, I do, but I don't have it right now), so I have to sew everything by hand.

Anyway, making this little lady some pants took about seven or eight different tries.

The first pair were way too tight. Her leg came off when I was trying to get them off.

Almost changed her name to Ilene.

So I tried again, but I had left too much fabric at the top (waist) and the bottom at the ankles.

After a few more (failed) attempts, I decided maybe pants wouldn't work and short would work better. I didn't have the fabric I wanted with me at the time and had to use a different pattern. The shorts didn't work out either in the sense that had I left a little more fabric on I could have made them into a jumper.

Those got thrown away.

I then tried again, and failed, because the paints just won't fit because I don't have anything to tighten them at the waist with. So I went to Hobby Lobby again after work (had to kill time) and bought some hook eye closures and tried again.

Today I finally made a pair of pants for her to wear.

I made my pattern by ripping her arms off and tracing aorund her body. I wanted to make sure I wasn't making them too big or small. Once I had the pattern down I cut it out and traced it out on my fabric (the actual fabric I wanted them made out of).

I then started sewing them together.

As I said, I have to hand sew everything, so it took me all day to get everything sewn together.

I sewed each side together with a front and back panel then sewed those panels together.

The hardest part was sewing the croch area up. Then I hemmed the waist and the bottoms of them as well.

Once that was done I figured out where to put the hook and eye closure.

Now, it didn't turn out super awesome looking. I think it could have looked better had I hidden the closure as a belt then that would have been good.

I think the next pair of pants I make her will have a stretchy wasit so I don't have to worry about them not fitting there. Either way, I think they came out pretty darn spiffy.