(Nicci Lambright - Small Stitches)
Sewing a Dollhouse

by Pam North

Nicci Lambright is a special education teacher right now, finishing her Ph.D. in Psychology, and hoping to find a full-time university teaching position soon. With her background in education and psychology, she had no formal training in the miniature field, but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming self-taught in everything she’s learned about making miniatures. She always has loved tiny things, and when she received a dollhouse as a present for her 12th birthday, she was hooked. She subscribed to dollhouse magazines, and spent hours pouring over them.
In her search for information, Nicci had found a vintage cross stitch book featuring charming houses, and she thought it might be fun to make a 3D cross stitched house. Once she had made the exterior, she decided to try the interior, which also turned out well, and furniture to match was next. Nicci’s bright, embellished piece turned out to be her delightful Small Stitches in 1:48 scale. All her own work, the entire colorful and whimsical piece was made from scratch, with the full interior design and furniture made from patterns she created herself.
Materials used were 14 count mesh plastic canvas and embroidery thread for the house, the interior, and all of the furniture. The base is craft foam, and thin ribbon lines the top edges where the roof meets the house. She used graph paper to draw out the pattern for the interior and the furniture pieces, then cross stitched the design on plastic canvas. Each wall was created individually, then sewn together at the edges. The roof was stabilized in the center with a toothpick, and the house was super-glued to a small piece of craft foam.
Describing her process, Nicci exclaimed, “It was trial and error! The hardest part about making this miniature was that the furniture required me to hold all the tiny pieces, attempt to sew them together, then start over when it all fell apart! After a few practice pieces, I finally got a feel for how the pieces needed to be put together, and it went smoothly from there.”
She really didn’t have a vision of a final product; it was something that she just built as she went along. It was made during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she found herself with actual free time for the first time in several years, and she began remembering the hobbies she’d had before life got insanely busy. Cross stitching and dollhouses had been two of her favorites, so she decided to combine them, and the result was her Small Stitches project.
“I learned new skills while making the piece - thinking in three dimensions, ratios and scaling,” Nicci said. “My favorite part is actually the furniture. I was so amazed when I was able to make plastic canvas furniture that small. The interior also was fun to design. I had to think about 3D items in two dimensions, then stitch them in a recognizable format. My needle and thread were absolutely essential! I can use various types of fabric as the base, but I need a variety of colorful threads to keep me inspired, and a ton of needles since I tend to lose them easily!”
“The biggest difficulty involved with working in miniature is finding time,” she continued. “Most pieces can’t be done in just 20 minutes here or there, and finding blocks of a few hours at a time can be tough.”
Her Small Stitches house is one that she intends to keep, but she is just opening an Etsy store, and she will have others for sale there. One of her favorite things she has made that she can’t part with is a 1:144 scale bakery with 3-tiered cakes. “My favorite scale is 1:144, the smaller the better, so my smallest scale items are the ones I can’t even think about selling.”
Inspiration for her comes from everywhere. “I get ideas from everything I see, and I’ll never have enough time to make them all. I love baking, so mini baked goods are my primary interest. What I love most about miniatures is just how tiny and adorable everything is. It’s amazing the level of realism one can find in small scales.” 
The future of miniatures seems positive to Nicci. “I think it has seen some growth with the pandemic. I’ve been reading articles about all of the people who have discovered miniatures during lockdown, and I’ve seen the hobby growing among the young teachers I work with as well.”
Looking ahead, Nicci has plans for new creations. “I’d like to stitch more houses, then eventually branch out to stitch gardens, quilts, and even tiny bakeries or toy stores.” She also creates mini Christmas trees, tree ornaments, cakes and confections, and scrapbook pages. She will continue to pursue new ideas and try new things, especially with stitched art.