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Bedding Finished!

I finished the bedding this afternoon and I decided to put the bed together and snap a few pics of it in the upstairs bedroom of the dollhouse. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, though I think I may make some some more throw pillows to fill out the bed a little more. I posted a few more pictures of the room and my Brownie Haha in my flickr account which you can check out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsukiyonomiyu/

At this point I need to focus on drawing, so I’m putting away the dollhouse until possibly this weekend. I’d like to finish out the bedroom a little more, but I still have to put in some flooring and wallpaper, so I should probably focus on that stuff before I do more decorative things. Well, enough rambling! Time to do my comic work.

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Laying out a 1:12 dollhouse quilt.

After finishing the bed mattress I got started on sewing the quilt that I want to go on the bed. I can’t believe how much time I spent just placing all of the squares until I felt I had proper balance. ^^; Anyway this is the final layout. It looks large right now because I allowed for a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Each square will be about 1 inch after sewn together.

Since laying it out, I already got started sewing it together. So far everything is going OK, but it’s being a lot more labor intensive than I had originally imagined. Also, despite measuring everything countless times and planning before any cutting began, somehow my quilt is winding up just a tad bit too long from the head to the foot of the bed. I think I’ll be able to work out all of the issues though when I sew on the backing, and it should still look cute. I can’t wait to get the bedding all finished, then I’ll have at least two pieces of finished furniture for one of the upstairs bedrooms and I should be able to take a few cute pics.

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A sorta 1:12 scale mattress for a BJD tutorial

I call this a “sorta” mattress tutorial because I have left out some steps picture wise and also this may not necessarily be the best way to make a bed mattress, but it’s how I worked through some construction issues after making my 1:6 scale doll bed and mattress. I thought I would share my experiments just in case they might be helpful to others, as knowledge can always be built upon to create even greater things! If you happen to have some better ideas on mattress construction feel free to comment and share them! Anyway now on with the sorta tutorial!

Read the Tutorial

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Chair Refurbishment Project

If you remember from a previous post, I said I was working on rehabbing a couple of pieces of dollhouse furniture. Well today I finally finished up the refurbishment on the chair and I feel I was pretty successful! It took a little experimentation to get it the way it is now, and it has a few flaws, but overall I’m pleased and I also learned a lot about making miniature furniture as well. You can read on behind the cut to see the different phases of construction and how I worked through some issues.

Read On

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A Bit of Progress on Dollhouse Furniture.

After ordering the new wig and shoes for my Brownie, it made me realize that I’ve been neglecting my 1:12 scale dollhouse. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, but I wanted to at least try to get a little more work done on it. Since my drawing table is covered in other projects, I decided I would work on some of the furniture since I have a few nearly completed rooms anyway.

The bed on the left was the original bed that my grandfather made. It had been painted numerous times, so tonight I sanded it down to ready it for a more even paint job. It looks kind of interesting all distressed though! On the right is an old dark wood Victorian chair that was bought many years ago. I didn’t really care for the dark wood and pink cushions, so I went ahead and peeled off the original cushion parts and then sanded the wood before beginning to prime it. Right now I’m in the middle of priming it with a couple coats of gesso. I think in the long run it will help the paint adhere better to the surface and also will help me save money on more artist paints. I think the goal is to give it two coats of gesso, then paint it white. I’m also planning on adding a little detail painting around the carvings which I’ll probably do in silver since it will match the pale blue and white room the best….though I suppose gold isn’t totally out of the question. Ultimately I would like the chair to look a little more French and a little less Victorian England.

After I get everything painted I will choose a new fabric to “re-upholster” the chair with. I planned on just covering the original pieces, but we’ll see how that goes. I wouldn’t want the pink to show through anything. Just to be on the safe side, I think I might go ahead and trace all the forms on paper to save, should I need to remake anything from scratch.

I guess that’s about it. I’ll probably put another coat of gesso on the chair tonight, but I have to wait and paint until I can get to the craft store and get some more paint. I think giving myself this little doll related project will also help me get over the waiting for my new doll and dolly goodies! Not that I don’t have a ton of other things to do though! XD