I have been AWOL lately and apologize for that. August was insanely busy with a Kickstarter campaign to fulfill and a book to finish and publish—plus the usual August garden and canning to be done. I did some crafting, but didn’t take pictures—until now.

The girls scored some new chairs recently, and today’s the day to share.

I started with this tutorial and free pattern at Resin Rapture (who creates the most amazing dioramas. Go on and look. I’ll wait.) which is for a 1:6 scale chair. I downloaded the pattern and followed the instructions to make the chair and pad it. (It’s a lot harder than you’d think to cut foamboard so the edges are perfectly square.)

There are two options presented for upholstery, gluing the fabric on or making a slipcover. The pattern creator preferred a slipcover. I wasn’t so fussed about having a slipcover as the final finish, though. I don’t like them in real life , so didn’t want them for my dolls—and while it’s removable and washable, I think the chances of my washing a slipcover for a doll chair to be pretty low. (Non-existent, actually.) I watched the video from Bentley House Miniatures linked in the tutorial (it’s right here) for making and upholstering a 1:12 scale chair. The fabric is all glued onto the chair for the final finish.

It seems that when it comes to minis and making for dolls, there are people who glue and people who sew. I wanted the finish of the Bentley House mini, but I shared Resin Rapture’s concerns about glue and fabric. They don’t always play well together. So, I made my own combination—for this first one, I tried to ensure that all the glue was where it wouldn’t be visible.

I didn’t take in-progress pictures, so here’s the 1:6 finished chair.

I made my own pattern pieces for the chair covering – I liked how BHI worked from a rough shape and trimmed once they were in place, so I left a lot of excess to be trimmed later. I glued the front piece so that the glue was on the seat and under the front of the chair. Then I pressed down the two vertical edges on the back piece, and sewed it to the side pieces on the machine. After pressing the seams, I positioned it on the back of the chair, wrapped the fabric over top and bottom, and glued it in place on the inside back of the chair and under the bottom of the chair. I pulled the sides around and folded under the front edge beneath the arm rest (the straight vertical that meets the front) and put a teeny bit of glue on the seam allowance to secure that edge in place. I also turned the bottom edges under and glued them on the underside.

I trimmed the curved edges so that the seam allowance was about 3/4″, then clipped the curves and folded the fabric over the chair. The glue is only on the inside of the chair. I clamped some of these bits until they dried.

Here’s a Monster High doll in the chair with some mini-books. (That’s Elle Eedee, who arrived naked from the thrift store.)

I created a template for the inside of the sides, trimming it until it was the right height. The template is the size of the heavy fusible interfacing and the fusible webbing – for the fabric, I added 1/4″ all around. I fused the fabric (wrong side down) to the interfacing, then set the fusible webbing against the wrong side, turned in all the edges and pressed them in place. I had to be careful with this as there was fusible webbing exposed in the middle of each piece and you don’t want that stuff melted to your iron. I could have trimmed it so it was only on the edges and will do that next time. Then these two pieces were glued in place on the chair. Again, I used clamps until they were dry.

I modified the strips that run down each arm from the back of the chair, too. Once again, I used interfacing to make a finished strip of perfectly consistent width. I topstitched it on each side, turning under and topstitching one end. That one goes at the top. Then I glued it in place, counting on all those layers keeping the glue from seeping into view (and being pretty frugal with the glue, too.) I pushed pins into the foamboard down the length of these pieces – every 1/2″ or so, to hold each one in place – and left them until the glue was dry.

I made my two cushions – seat and back – but cutting them out of foamboard, then building them up with multiple layers of padding. I fussy-cut their upholstery from a contrasting fabric, glued it onto each cushion, then glued them in place. All the glue is between the cushion and the chair, where it will never be seen.

The legs are 1 cm dowels cut into 3 cm lengths, as specified in the original pattern, then “stained” with Sharpie marker. I did sand down the bottoms to give them a little shape. Because these legs are round instead of square, I added a bottom piece to the chair in foamboard to create more surface area for gluing the legs in place. (The pattern piece is the seat with the corners cut out of it.)

I added a little cushion, too. The Resin Rapture pattern also includes some book covers and a book template for the foamboard and I made these, but they’re not in the pic.

Here’s Jade Feelin’ Extra, enjoying some downtime in her new chair. (She’s my one and only Integrity Toys doll – I like her, but she’s very tall and skinny to me. She’s 12″ tall.) She’s nicked Elle’s books, which are these 1:12 scale fairy tale books (printable PDFs) from Etsy.

Next, modified the templates for my 1:4 girls and changed up my method.

I didn’t love the glue on the black chair since no matter how careful I was, I got some on the visible part of the fabric. (The solid black may have been a bad strategic choice.) It’s a water soluble glue, so I managed to get most of the offending bits off with a damp cloth. Still.

This time, I made the chair the same way and padded it the same way. I added some pieces inside the bottom of the chair to make a stop for the final piece that goes on the bottom. That also gives another edge for gluing it in place.

Then I made a slipcover our of teal velveteen, sewing it together on the machine but leaving the back piece unattached. That piece that runs down the top of the arms is tricky to fit in place, so I’m thinking about how it could be changed or simplified. I fitted it, adding more padding to the chair over the arms, then pinned it in place and sewed the back piece on by hand. (The foamboard is great this way as you can jab pins right into it to hold things in place.) The result is a lot like a slipcover, but more fitted and it’s never coming off. I then stretched the fabric tight over the bottom and glued it there, putting the glue on the inside bottom of the chair and using clamps to hold it until it dried. The legs are square this time, cut from a longer piece, sanded and stained with a Sharpie.

Here are the two chairs beside each other:

One mistake I made in my drafting of this variation of the pattern is that I didn’t trim enough from the width of the upholstery and cushions for the inside back and seat. They’re kind of fluffy and could have been trimmed down another 3/16″ or so.

This time, the cushions are actual fabric cushions, without any foamboard. Because velveteen doesn’t always love being against velveteen, I cut one side of each cushion from a cotton lawn with a teeny print that coordinates – turns out they’re reversible now, which is kind of neat. (And yes, there is a certain irony that I bought this lovely expensive lawn for a blouse for myself years ago, and the first cut out of it is for chair cushions for the girls. I need to start sewing for myself again!) And I made a little throw cushion of the velveteen. I’m thinking I might need to embeliish it.

The 1:6 girls wanted to try the big chair. (You can see that I could have padded the arms more.)

Here’s the completed chair, and here it is with Sydney, its rightful occupant in 1:4 scale.

I’m going to make another one upholstered in fake leather (because everyone loves a challenge, right?) but will make a few changes. I’ll cut the inside chair pieces narrower so they nestle in place better. I’ll also cut them of a plain cotton, maybe with fake leather pieces at top and bottom where that fabric might show. I’ll leave more fabric at the bottom of each piece for turning under, too. And I’m still thinking about how to modify that strip that goes down the arms. Hmm.

For now, though, the girls have somewhere to sit, although they’ll have to take turns.

I’ve also discovered that I really like making furniture for the girls out of foamboard.

I made a bookcase table (it doesn’t spin) and a bookcase, and have been making more books to fill it. Those books on the bookcase table and Sydney’s book are the ones from the Resin Rapture pattern, btw. I’m envisioning a library, so we’ll see how that goes.