Bedding Basics: Mattress & Pillows for Doll Bed

I’ll begin with an apology. I intended to get these instructions posted yesterday. However, Mr. Video came home sick from school, and the better part of our day was spent at the pediatrician’s office and the drug store.

Now…I can continue this post, but not before I include the following disclaimers…

I am NOT a particularly talented seamstress.

I can NOT sew a straight line unless I draw one on the fabric I’m going to sew (and sometimes even that doesn’t help!).

Having said that…if  I can make mattresses and pillows for the adorable farmhouse doll beds I built last week, you can make them, too.

Okay…including that pic was gratuitous use of the only good photo I’ve ever taken in my life…so below is a photo that shows my true photography talents. As you can see, I take pictures about as well as I sew.

The above photo is the first mattress I stitched. The length of it was perfect, but I thought it was a bit skimpy width-wise. Once it was made up with all the bedding, the slightly too-narrow mattress wasn’t noticeable.

I made sure I cut my fabric a bit wider for the second mattress.

To create the mattress and three pillows you will need the following:

(NOTE:  The measurements below are designed to fit the modified bed I created from Ana White’s awesome plans. If you’re planning to build a different sized bed, keep reading. I’m going to include simple instructions for calculating fabric sizes based on bed width later in this post. )

SUPPLY LIST

• (1) piece muslin or other light-colored fabric cut to 28″ W x 22″ L for mattress
• (1) piece of quilt batting cut to 15″W x 49″L to line the interior of the mattress
• (2) pieces muslin or other light-colored fabric cut to 10″ W x 6-1/2″ L for large pillow
• (4) pieces muslin or other light-colored fabric cut to 6″ W x 5″ L for two medium pillows
• light-colored thread
• fiber fill

NOTE:  Because I modified my bed to make it narrower, the width of the bed…measured inside the bed rails… was 12 3/4″ wide. I did not modify the length of the bed.  So if your bed is wider…or narrower…than mine, you will need to modify the width of your muslin as well as the width of the quilt batting.

TO MODIFY THE WIDTH OF THE MATTRESS MUSLIN

1. Measure the width of your bed…make sure you measure inside the bed rails.
2. Multiply your measurement by 2.
3. Add 2 1/2″ to allow for the depth of the mattress and the seams.
4. Example:  If your bed measures 15″ wide, you would need to cut your fabric 32 1/2″ wide (15″ x 2 = 30″…30″ + 2 1/2″ = 32 1/2″)

You can apply this same formula to the length of the mattress as well. If you decided to make your bed longer (or shorter) just take the length and add 2 1/2″.

(Bloggers Note: Many thanks, Sabrina, for catching my error and letting me know I needed to correct this post.)

TO MODIFY THE WIDTH OF YOUR QUILT BATTING

1. Measure the width of your bed…make sure you measure inside the bed rails.
2. Add 2 1/4″ inches to that measurement to allow for overlap of the batting edges inside the mattress.
3. Example:  If your bed is 15″ wide, cut your quilt batting to 17 1/4″. Heck, you could even cut it 17 1/2″ wide. It’s not as important that the batting measurements be as precise as the muslin measurements, but when it comes to the batting, you’re better off cutting it bigger than cutting it smaller.

If your bed length is different than mine, you’ll need to modify the length of the quilt batting as well. Measure the length of your bed and add 2 1/2″ inches.

Now…on with the mattress construction…

Although I was absolutely sure that I had muslin in my fabric stash, I was wrong! I had some duck cloth but decided it was too rough to make good bedding. Since it was 10 o’clock at night and my closest fabric store (40 minutes away) was already closed, I began searching the house for a suitable alternative. I found a set of queen sheets that somehow didn’t get tossed when we upsized to a king bed a couple years ago. Hello, mattress and pillow cases!

Once you’ve trimmed your corners, you’re going to create a box pleat. I’d never sewed a box pleat until I made these mattresses, and I wasn’t sure exactly how to go about it. I scoured the web for video and other tutorials, and I finally figured out how to do it. I then decided to make…gasp!…my first video to share this information. Like I said, it’s my first video, it was shot with my point-and-shoot Canon, so if it lacks in artistry, please forgive me. And if you happen to notice the slurred “s” sounds…no, I haven’t been drinking and I don’t normally have a lisp…I’m on day two of antibiotics for an abscessed tooth and the left side of my face looks like I’m storing up nuts for the winter.

You’re going to want to box pleat all four corners of the mattress casing and trim the points.

Now it’s time to turn your mattress casing right side out, stuff and stitch.

One of the problems with stuffing pillows (or in this case mattresses) with fiberfill is that all too often you end up with Lumps, Humps, and Bumps. To avoid the dreaded LHB’s you can line the interior of the casing with batting before stuffing it with fiberfill.

You now have a completed mattress! Woo hoo! It’s adorable just like it is, but I personally like to tuft my mattresses. It’s little detail that packs a lot of punch.

Repeat this process, but this time measure 5″ down and 3″ right and 5″ down and 3″ left to mark the points for the two bottom tufts. Using a pencil or other other marking device, mark the spots where your pins were placed then remove the pins. Turn the mattress over and repeat the process to mark all five tufting points.

Push a threaded needle through a mark on one side of the mattress all the way through to the corresponding mark on the other side of the mattress. Leave a tail of string hanging out on the first side. Now send the needle back through the mattress making sure not to go back through the same hole (leave about 1/16″ space).

You can control the depth of your tuft by how tight you pull the thread. The more you pull, the deeper the tuft will be.

In order to assure that your tufts stay in place, repeat these steps to secure the tuft with a second stitch.

Tuft the other four marks remaining on the mattress.

Congratulations!!! You now have a finished and tufted mattress for your adorable farmhouse doll bed.

Compared to the mattress, the pillows are super easy. But that tutorial will have to wait for another day because this was has been entirely too long as it is.