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Saturday, March 26, 2011

Once Upon a Mattress.....

I realized that the raw linen mattress cover that I had on the bed before wouldn't look right if the color scheme was black and white, so this morning I ripped the old one off and started from scratch.... If you want to do a mattress with this method, you need an acoustical ceiling tile panel. You can get it at any home improvement store by the 2' by 4' sheet. It is inexpensive and will make many beds, chairs and other kinds of mini furniture. You will also use a piece of it for making a pleater if you use the method that I do. Get the smoothest one that you can. It comes in different textures. The smoother the better for our purposes. For this particular bed, I cut the tile just big enough to sit inside of the rails. Depending on the thickness of the foam, I use one or two pieces of tile...In this case, I had one inch foam, so I only used one thickness of tile. The tile is about 1/2" thick. Since I am trying to stay with black and white, I covered the mattress with white cotton. And since the bed will not be taken apart after it is finished, I just glued it right to the underside. I didn't bother with hemming it as I would if it were going to be removable. I folded it almost like I would if I were wrapping a package. I didn't make it overlap on the bottom. That would just add to the bulk. Since I haven't decided if I want the top sheet to show over the top of the quilt/bedspread, I just pinned it in place to show you how you would do it. I folded and glued a narrow hem at the top edge and folded the sheet over so that the raw edge was inside the fold. If I wanted a lace edge on the sheet, I would glue it under the hem at this point. Again, the folding is similar to a package. In this photo you can see the raw ceiling tile in the center of the bottom, if you click the photo. Tessie is getting anxious. It looks like she is going to be holding the mattress down whilst I go do a dust ruffle for the bed. I will show you how I do that tomorrow. I think that I am finished for the day. The temperature outside is a perfect 70 degrees. I am going out and do yard work for a while now. See you tomorrow.

8 comments:

Amie said...

Thanks for the tutorial Casey enjoy the nice weather :)

Kathi said...

400ct sheets,no doubt? Your bed is looking very nice. Tessie looks comfy. Is she behaving herself today? She really should. You make her the nicest things. :D

Merri said...

Hey, what great timing! I was just about to do such a bed..and was going to look up your older tut! Thank you!

I just noticed, the bottoms of Tessie's feet NEVER get dirty, heehee...must be some witchery going on there ;)

Phyllisa said...

Hi Casey. I appreciate the tutorial on beds. I feel motivated to start another one for my growing town population. There are now 30 residents and some are still without a bed to sleep on. But they all have
a place to live and jobs to keep
them busy, so they don't need my
full attention.
My Steampunk man made a clock for his room and a cappucinno machine
yesterday. He used your examples,
but they have his personal touch.
Many thanks for all you do for the
Miniature World.
Phyllisa

Xisca said...

Congratulations, you have a very interesting blog, I've seen a tutorial and I think it's wonderful to share your skills with everybody, thank you very much and have in me a new follower
Hugs, Xisca

Caseymini said...

I'm glad that you all like the tutorial, but do go back and look at the old ones. I am trying to fill in some of the blanks from the old ones. Merri, Tessie's feet got washed a couple of days ago. Remember the gesso incident? I wasn't kidding about her feet. She also has a big glob of gesso on the back of her dress. It looks like something will have to be done about that too...

Phillisa, do you have a blog where we could all go look at your new creations? I would love to see what you have done.

Kathi, Tessie insisted on 600 ct sheets! Nothing but the best!

Drora's minimundo said...

Thanks for another great tutorial.

Deni said...

great Tutorial Casey thank you