Any window construction experience?

[MC]

I'm now on to my third dollhouse, and unlike the first two which were purchased kits, this doll house is a rescue!!  Found on a street curb, it was really in pretty good shape. The original builder did a good job constructing the house; the shingles are a lesson in perfection; the painting and wallpaper show a better than average understanding of how to handle these tasks; floorings were in good shape and installed with double sided tape.  Yes, there are a few loose shingles, the door is broken along with the porch.  Biggest problem is the outside wall are dado cuts to mimic siding and the builder reversed the front and glued the siding side inside rather than outside.  That will be easily remedied with Greenleaf siding strips.  This will soon be the Farmhouse I envision.

But I desperately want to replace the windows.  The large front windows are a bit smaller than standard size--I'll enlarge opening to accept new windows.  However, the dormer windows are rectangular rather than square and an irregular size.  I have not been able to identify the dollhouse, so there is no chance of finding manufacturer to see if there is a more current window style available.  I am now faced with going where I haven't gone before and building my own windows.

Any suggestions or words of advice out there?

[havanaholly]

I replaced the Washington's kt windows with horizontally pin-hinged casements:

The upper pane is fixed, the lower opens.  I traced the window openings on a piece of scrap paper and used that for a pattern.  I built a box of 1/8" stripwood that would fit in the window opening and I built inner and outer frames to fit within the box and after I had sanded the frame pieces to match each other exactly I painted them and inserted panes cut from my collection of flat clear plastic.  Once they were glued up I glued the upper pane into place, set the lower pane in place, put the whole shebang into my bench vise and gently hammered steel dressmaker pins one into each upper side of the lower pane for a bit more than 1/4".  I cut off the excess pin on each side and tapped the ends in flush and glued the box into the window opening.

If you don't need the windows to open & close it's even easier.

[WyckedWood]

Charmayne do you mean just the plastic or the entire window, wood frame and all? The  ready-cut strip wood section at the hobby shops should give you plenty of strip wood choices to work with. I would recommend basswood strips rather than balsa.  For the plastic insert you could buy a package of thin plastic sheets sold for doing faux stained glass. They're in hobby lobby etc with the gallery glass paint. They can be cut easily with scissors. If you can show a picture of what you're dealing with that would be helpful.

[rbytsdy]

I made matboard windows for the Laurel bash based on Kris' tutorial with matboard

They're non-opening, however.

[WestPaces]

I liked this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL9UWx1-kXc