Doll sized divan (now at phase 3,9: Look ma! No bobby pins!)

Well, as it happened, my little scandi type chair and stool thing hit a snag when my idea of a massproducable thingy didnt quite pan out.

 

I still need some dollfie sized furniture, so I decided for something simple and easy... a Divan.

 

The main idea for the build procedure came from a dobleepentry series called "Titanic - The Mission" a five part series where a group of engineers were put up to make different objects big and small from the turn of the previous century. One of the objects was a Lounge chair that was crafted from wood, and leather.

 

First of all we need a plan, an idea, and it all starts out with a sketch:

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Admittedly my freehand skills arent that great, but atleast now there's some reference as to what I was after.

 

I wanted to have a little geometric flavor to this, thus the big round double hoops at the back, and the slightly flowing front, instead of a simple box shape.

 

From here we can move onto a 1:1 scale print of what I was supposedly after:

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naturally didnt have ruddy great pieces of drafting paper around, so some A4's and scotchtape had to do.

 

Now that I had my plans, it was time to transfer those to the 18mm glueboard I had sitting around, and a similar method as to making fabric patterns came to mind, so some serpentine was in order:

 

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Since my last project, I had come to the conclusion that if I continued with the inverted electric jigsaw I would end up missing a finger, so I had invested in a table top band saw. Its nothing to gain any class points, but it does the trick.

 

After some rough cuts, and general sanding with the belt sander I had pretty much the pieces I was after:

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The titanic chair design was done with pegs, and not screws. Screws would have been fine here since I was going to cover the main thing up, but I wanted to see if this tactic could work here also.

 

The most sane way probably would have involed purchasing 4mm thick carpentry pegs from the local stores, *switches over to a obviously fake german accent* But tzat would no be ze MacGyver way, now woult eet?

 

Actually there's also the problem of corners, and not really having enough room for criss-crossing hardware.

 

So, the Euro, and ten cents option is clearly matches:

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Super size matches to be percise.

 

But pegging is still an artform I learned to loathe back in grade school woodshop, so this time I atleast made some effort to maximize my results, hence a simple corner template:

 

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This template was still just a small help, since drilling the holes for the pegs usually ended up with the drill bit wanting to go into totally different spots, but with some effort and persuation some results emerged:

 

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After this, all I had to do was to fiddle the last piece of the rear hoop in line, and then the jig was literally up:

 

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I initially thaught to cheat and use epoxy, since I didnt think I would have any means of getting pressure to the joints and use normal wood glue, but with my cheap and cheerfull work tables holes, it worked out with more traditional means.

 

While this was setting, and one episode of wrecks to riches later, It was time to tackle the front end of the build. Same methods of pegging the corners:

 

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untill it was time to rough fit it all with no glue except for the pre-glued rear hoop:

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One final twist of the clamps, and one strap later:

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It was time to sand off the rough edges, and blend it all together:

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yes, yes there's a ruddy great big gap at the front corner, but it was my real effort with this sort of thing..

 

Size wise I think I came pretty close to my goal, and with the padding I have some room for adjustment...

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So, now we have a skeleton but nothing to add flesh to it yet. This requires a base of sorts.

 

The plan is to have a changeable inner skin to it, so I decided that the best way of action was a velcro solution.

 

After going through the idea that it can be pulled through, I started drafting patterns for the basic cotton inner layer.

 

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With that, the pieces and strips of cotton were sown together for a rough fit:

 

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The velcro solution I came up with was that the fabric wraps itself around the beams, and then latches onto a separate piece of fabric forming a loop.

 

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This process was a bit more tedious than I had thaught initially.

The velcro was standard 20mm wide strips which I cut in half lengthways to fit better (and double my stock..)

 

Final piece of the loop fabric going in:

 

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It all went together rather well.. Though you'll have to pardon the man-cave in the background:

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The result was relatively taught, but I still have some options in reinforcing it if necessary.

 

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Next up was the uprights, which I have to admit were a bit more of a challenge than I had hoped for..

 

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Sketching them out with the frame was relatively easy, but everything else after cutting them up was not so fun...

 

Trying to sew them together, by just going at it with the allowances I had calculated didnt really work, something was always wrong.

 

It took me three attempts before, I gave in that it would only work if I pinned the fabric ontop of the frame, and then sewed it together.

 

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The big hoop ridgepiece especially was a huge headache, and the corner of the arcs never lined up when I was trying to do this without form pinning first.

 

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The big back piece had to be put into place inverted so to speak, but in the end the arcs lined up rather nicely, eventhough had to guess where the upper left corner would end up at.

 

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In the end it more or less gave in, and now I have a inner structure to continue adding stuff into:

 

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And it still can be removed at a moments notice:

 

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Now all thats left is the cushions, and final outside fabric... dont have much to choose from in my personal selection, but Im sort of biased to the burgundy, and lila stock...

 

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As I already previewed, the pillows for this would consist of foam, and synthetic fluffy material (not sure what its called, since a translator spits out plain cotton...)

 

I decided to tackle the pillows first, since this would be more of a headache than covering up the sides of the frame with the final fabric.

 

The side pillow would be the hardest to make so I started with that, since if it didnt work, there was no point in going further.

 

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Recipe was one slice of foam, and two sheets of stuffing, because I wanted a bit of a sink in effect.

 

I didnt quite remember to dobleepent the making of the pillow, because of various excuses, but here's a middle phase shot with Nia testing the prototype pillow, which helped tweak the patterns:

 

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With the tweaks done it started to resemble a bit like an oven-mitt:

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Nia testing:

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Feena testing:

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For the bottom cushion I decided on two slices of foam, just to boost the height a little:

 

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After drafting the patterns, cutting material:

 

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The inverted long sleeved oven mitt and stuffing:

 

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Audrey testing the final result (along with a new lighting toy, which means I again need to re-practice my white balance...):

 

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Im quite happy with the height, as I got the sideways action with the legs as I wanted:

 

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Although im not 100% happy with how the base pillow turned out, but I can pin some blame on the fabric wich makes working normal satin a real joy.

 

But nothing stopping from retrying in the future.

 

For the back upright, I got the bright idea to make it look a little more interesting.

 

As a archetypical finn, I like Salmiac, so I wanted a salmiac pattern for it (Diamond quilting I think it is called in the rest of the world), and while having the original Lambada on loop in the background, I drew up a few pieces of fabric to make it happen.

 

The idea is relatively simple, on the back fabric piece, you draw two sets of lines that form the diamond shapes, as long as you keep the line distances uniform.

 

For this I used my inch wide steel ruler to keep things in check.

 

So one back piece, one front piece, and a slice of foam in between, and off to the sewing machine we go.

 

(Fuzzy picture, was a bad day overall.. heh)

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Of course I had taken into account that when you do something like this, it all shrinks in every possible direction, so it was time to ad-lib a little, and add stuff to the edges:

 

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This piece however had decided to go tits up no matter what I came up with in the original idea how it was supposed to fit, and in the end I was only left with the option of making a simple pad, that I'll have to hand sew into place, since trying it with a machine nearly ended in tears... I hate sewing by hand...

 

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Now it was finally time to start to cover up the sides.

 

At this point it was pretty clear that anything I had sketched as a pattern would not fit if I had just sewn it without pinning it first ontop of the frame.

 

So thus began a little square dance where a rough sketch was made, fabric cut, pinning it, undoing it off the frame, sewing it, redoing it into the frame, pin the new attachment points, and etc...

 

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Despite my best efforts, the fabric was still behaving badly, but somehow managed to contain most issues.

 

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Slowly making it around the corner

 

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And after the worlds supply of bobby-pins, I had come full circle. was fun taking this lot off just to sew in the front corner, and rear top.

 

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Then came the main big rear piece, and I knew this would end in tears, the question of how many was still open.

 

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Not surprisingly I wound up with a few extra unwanted pigs ears in the top line, but all in all Im not too dissapointed after pondering it for 20 minutes... I still blame the fabric for stretching one way and not the other.

 

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Here its still pinned onto the inner fabric, and still needs to be hand sewn into place, along with the diamond pattern rear piece.

 

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Nina taking a quick test:

 

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Only the tedious hand work left, and one (or two) big piece to go, and it'll be done...

 

I really don't like needlework. since I usually end up with several bandaids on my fingers as a result.

 

But as this was not going to give an option for it, I decided to again add to my chances of success, and voilá:

 

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I used my mini blow-torch to bend a needle so I could get over and under some places with it in an effort to conceal at least some of my uneven stitches.

 

A few pricked thumbs later the main cover fabric was in place.

 

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The padded piece was then next, with a similar tactic, trying to devise a stitch pattern that would try to be covered up as well as possible.

 

Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not:

 

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overall its a bit flappy, which was to be expected. some of the wrinkles will probably pull out by putting a pin or stitches at the bottom end of the padded piece.

 

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Now all that is left is two small cushions for the ridges... lets see how that one comes along...

Edited May 18, 2014 by Guest

Awesome build so far. I can't wait to see more!

That is some very nice craftsmanship, I love the curved design. The gap shouldn't be to noticeable once you have it all done, I know what it's like when making things and you can end up fixating on small mistakes that other people will overlook or not be worried about. Looking forward to seeing the end product I'm sure it will look stunning!

Thank you both.

 

mmm, im trying not to be overly neurotic about small problems, otherwise I'd never get anything done these days. That small gap indeed will get covered up by fabric, so its not that big of an issue.

But I am actually rather pleased how this turned out so far, and even a bit sad most of it will stay hidden beneath fabric.

 

Next phase will be to make the inner skin so to speak, already have some ideas for that, hopefully for a exchangeable cover feature.

First post updated with inner fabric structure completion.

This is awesome! Can't wait to see the finished product!

Wow That's so awesome! Really real doll furniture It's great to have people in the hobby with different talents/skills like this

This is awesome! Can't wait to see the finished product!

Thank you very many.

 

Wow That's so awesome! Really real doll furniture It's great to have people in the hobby with different talents/skills like this

 

Heh, skills as in skills to spend more on making something, than it would be ready made?

 

But jokes aside, its been a fun learning experience, trying to adapt techniques you see in a TV-show into miniature form.

 

But hopefully will have more to show this weekend, since I didnt get parts for my car that I had originally planned on swapping...

nice and l think your girls well like it also l like the color as well.

This is so cool. It's so ambitious to do a removable cover too, since that just makes it so much harder. When my mom would reupholster chairs and couches with weird angles, I remember she used a lot of tacks and tack strip on the wood so that she would not be sewing any strange shapes. The back was always its own piece from the sides and front, so she wouldn't have to do too much sewing. She made it look really easy, but man she used a lot of tacks.

nice and l think your girls well like it also l like the color as well.

Thanks, its been to good use, and it does help with space a bit, being able to seat three, and then have other dolls stand behind it.

 

This is so cool. It's so ambitious to do a removable cover too, since that just makes it so much harder. When my mom would reupholster chairs and couches with weird angles, I remember she used a lot of tacks and tack strip on the wood so that she would not be sewing any strange shapes. The back was always its own piece from the sides and front, so she wouldn't have to do too much sewing. She made it look really easy, but man she used a lot of tacks.

Thank you.

 

This approach is ultimately a bit of a compromise. Since i did think of the tacking approach (Since thats how they did the chair in the dobleepentry that spawned this all.) but I didnt really have suitable hardware and not really enough space to hammer them in.

 

If I did this again I probably would go the permanent route, since the cover was such a faff to make in the end (atleast with this fabric).

 

Have to see if I'll have motivation for a slightly less ambitious couch project... but I have something in the garage that needs attention before that could happen.

Maybe someday I have hobby room where I can make these kind of amazing things. heh. : D Nice work!

Maybe someday I have hobby room where I can make these kind of amazing things. heh. : D Nice work!

 

Thanks, although to be fair, apart from the shaping of the wood pieces, this was pretty much pit together in my living room ... which also is my photo studio... mancave.. etc... heh.

Wow that's amazing! You're so skilled o_o

So... much... skill @_@!!! It looks amazing and can't wait for the rest of it to be completed!!

OMG!! You put a lot of work on there!!

 

I enjoyed it ^^

 

Thank you for posting

Wow that's amazing! You're so skilled o_o

So... much... skill @_@!!! It looks amazing and can't wait for the rest of it to be completed!!

OMG!! You put a lot of work on there!!

 

I enjoyed it ^^

 

Thank you for posting

 

Thank you all.

 

Although have to admit it is not probably going progress any further than this since I hit a solid creative wall when it came to the last few cushions for the top hoop.

 

But here's a photo of Beat trying out the so far final product (or what you can see from under her.. ):

princess-t000

Finished or not, I think it looks great! Maybe you'll figure it out if you leave the project alone for a while.

 

BTW, I noticed Beato's shiny dress - is it made out of thin plastic or a very shiny fabric? I've seen other outfits using similiar shiny material and I've allways wondered how flexible it is if it's made of plastic.

Finished or not, I think it looks great! Maybe you'll figure it out if you leave the project alone for a while.

Thanks, this is more or less the plan to let the idea simmer a bit if there might come a eureka moment, but it is still rather nicely presentable as it is, so no huge pressure to deal with.

 

BTW, I noticed Beato's shiny dress - is it made out of thin plastic or a very shiny fabric? I've seen other outfits using similiar shiny material and I've allways wondered how flexible it is if it's made of plastic.

 

This perticular outfits shiny bits are made of polyurethane laminated polyester, or PVC coated synthetic fabric.

 

Like metallic lame fabrics it can depend very much on the quality and type of the fabric. I have a few shiny outfits made from various types of coated fabric, and different traits.

 

Depending on the type there can be some stretch, but overdoing it will damage the top coat, I unfortunately did this to the very shiny pink top and hot pants combo I photographed my audrey (Rise) in awhile back. But then there are items like my Shino's default that has very little give in it, but is still very thin and if forced could rip.

 

With some metallic lame items that I know, for instance Nynj55 items are more or less meant to be put up by taking the doll apart so you dont over-stretch the fabric when pulling over the thighs.

That is so amazing! You are truly talented! Your girls serm to look nice and relaxed XD

Yes, this is nice work. How many hours, total, would you guess?

Yes, this is nice work. How many hours, total, would you guess?

Too many..?

 

Based on the timestamps it took a month from starting to put the frame together to the front upright padding being sewn in, so any little spare time I had to work on it within that time. so ~70 hours maybe?

Hei! Hyvää päivää! Mitä kuuluu?

 

I just noticed you are in Finland! Been there several times. Mostly Turku and it's environs - including Muumimaailma. I was a the Tangomarkkinat in Seinajoki in 2004-6. Great country. Listed you as a friend here on the DD boards. Hope you don't mind.

Your chair looks amazing love the quilting and the colour of the fabric

Wow! You're so talented. The divan is so realistic and detailed and it looks like it's made for humans.

Ihan simona suomalaisia täällä!