Hi, everyone
As guest host of this month's Diorama Discussion, I have been asked to show you how I have been putting together my own dioramas of bedroom settings. I have produced a series of bedrooms which I am using to write some articles during 2009 for the ABC Doll Club Newsletter in Australia. We are a 14-year-old or so, Barbie®-inspired national club.

I live in subtropical Brisbane in the state of Queensland in Australia and I am a Business Teacher at a Technical and Further Education Institute (TAFE) teaching adults. Most of my diorama/dolly skills are self taught, although I did learn embroidery and sewing at school from grade 3 – 8 and also from my mother – can’t knit or crotchet or woodwork to save my life but I can type!!!!

I have already prepared an African-inspired bedroom, an Indian-inspired bedroom and an Asian-inspired Bedroom based on color themes, and using artifacts I have been able to find in my community or from things I have found over the years in my travels.
Also, I really love Officeworks, a stationery store nearby! I have been inspired greatly by many of the people posting on the boards, such as DeeNJ, Amanda, Karen Kolkman, Johanna from Stinkers Stuff, Audrey, Marna, Maryphoto and many others.

Being in Australia sometimes makes it difficult to obtain items I want especially since our currency recently took a big dive and postage is so expensive, too. I also don’t always like to do permanent displays, so I can save by reusing items. So many of my ideas are based on having the item be temporary (except where I have to make stuff from scratch like sheets and pillows etc).

The following “Diorama Discussion” following shows bedrooms, and I tried to point out items used. I will follow with patterns and instructions so you can create your own! It is really easy – believe me, my craft skills other than sewing are severely limited and even the sewing is mainly straight lines on a sewing machine – easy as pie.

The Bedrooms are:
1. African style

2. Chinese/Asian style,

and
3. Indian style


Bedroom Hints and Tips

Because I like to be able to reuse items, I have used bluetack to connect a lot of stuff together, but there’s no reason you can’t glue for a more permanent setting.

Walls and Floors: First of all, the rooms are made from pieces of foam core board with the walls covered in various types of posters/prints or wrapping paper. The paper and prints here are all from Ikea. The floors are separate pieces of foam core covered in flooring-style contact adhesive paper (the kind often used to cover books or shelving). We have the cork, a tiled look in black and white, a light grayish wood look and a dark brown wood look, all available here in Australia.

On the Walls: The African bedroom has two fridge magnets, the Asian room has bamboo-style drink coasters for window coverings and a mini calendar given to me by a shop in Chinatown. The Indian room features a mirrored Christmas decoration fromTarget hanging above the bed.

Beds and Bed headboards: My beds are file boxes from the office supply department. They are available in a range of prices and colors. For example, the Indian one is shiny orange (AUD$7.95 at Target) and the African is brown leather look (AUD$20 from Officeworks). We are metric so they are sized for our A4 paper (approx 91/4”x13” and 3” deep – enough for a double bed look) You could also use gift boxes or box lids from copy paper.




For Bed headboards, I use things like placemats (plain ribbed ones are good for this) over cardboard (sewn around) or glued over a craft wood placemat, or I also put a fabric piece with batting underneath inside a photo frame for the Chinese look! I tried to use stick-on Velcro to attach the bed head to the file box, but in our hot weather it kept detaching so in the end I just had the box push the headboard against the wall with no attachments. Hey, it works.

Mattress and Pillows: I made these up myself by measuring the boxes I wanted to use as beds and looking through fabric stores like Spotlight and Lincraft for inspiration. You might want to check against your own size boxes and make adjustments. Use chair foam about 1-2 inches thick and trace around the box you plan to use as a bed with a thick marker, then cut the foam out with scissors. Sew a cloth bag to fit the mattress by tracing around the mattress foam, leaving one side open to slide the foam inside. Then, stitch up the final side. You can create the mattress buttons by tying regular knots like in knotting a quilt over the top of the foam to simulate the look of a tufted mattress top. I ran out of foam and found that using two pieces of quilters batting works also. I used stripe fabric like old fashioned mattresses!









I made the pillows 10x12 centimeters and cut 4 on FOLD. I sewed 21/2 sides leaving a gap, turned them inside out then filled with polyfill, then hand sewed the gap up for white polycotton pillows. I like four on a bed!



Sheets & Pillowslips: These are basic rectangles, but you can also decorate them. I have kept mine relatively plain. To get the correct size for sheets, you can put your box lid or your mattress down and trace around leaving and extra few inches for tucking under.









Pillowslips I did 26cm x 18cm (approx 10_x 7_ inches) and sewed a hem on one long side (the open part for inserting pillow). I then folded in half and sewed up two edges – leaving the hemmed one open. I turn right side out and turned inside the extra fabric to create a flap to help keep the pillow in like a real slip.



For the sheets I did a rectangle of about 42x58 cm (17x24 inches). In hemming sheets I did fine hems down the sides (the long sides) and larger hems for the shorter sides like real sheets. For the top sheet, you can also decorate with lace or braid. For the Indian bedroom, I added a contrasting piece and sewed it on like binding. Sew the piece on before hemming then fold over in half and, either hand hem or machine hem with a top stitch look for the front side. The Asian look I sewed mini piping and added a folded piece to the top to look more realistic.



Bed Covers or Throws: For my Chinese bed, the cover is a cushion cover! The African bed has a black cotton tea towel (which I folded back instead of cutting so I could reuse it). For the Indian bed, I used some orange fabric and hemmed it with a fine hem on the sides and slightly larger hems on top and bottom. The handmade one is slightly large but measures 45x55cm (approx 18x22 inches) in light Indian cotton voile with a self woven check pattern in lighter orange to match the sheets etc. You could also, like I did for the African room, make a smaller, fur-lined throw with taffeta or use polar fleece with blanket-stitched edges as a blanket – haven’t got to the polar fleece blanket yet but it is coming! Cushions pictured are a small square filled with batting and top stitched 3 times to push batting into the middle. See detail below and at end of article.



Continue to PART 2