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I recently scratch built a Victorian bed for my half scale Queen Anne Rowhouse. To finish it off, I cross-stitched the Sara Pittman Coverlet from a June Grigg pamphlet, “More Charted Designs for Miniatures,” which shows up on eBay and Etsy from time to time. (I got mine at a flea market for $0.25!)
The original design is for 1:12 scale and is stitched over one on 22-count fabric. I stitched mine on 36-count and kept the bed close by so I could keep repeating the pattern until I knew that it would fit on the bed. I also used a slightly darker shade of floss than the recommended “cream” because I was worried that would blend in too much with the fabric color.
The blank area near the top is folded under so the bedspread covers the pillows, and the part at the bottom folds over the front edge of the mattress. I cut my mattress from a piece of foam and sewed the finished bedspread to it, lining up my stitches with stitches in the design so they don’t show.
I didn’t bother covering the foam with fabric first, but as I got to the back of the bed, I realized that the mattress would show here.
I glued a scrap of white fabric over the edge of the mattress to cover up the foam.
While I was at it, I covered another piece of foam with fabric to make a wide pillow.
Two smaller pillows would be more realistic, but this will be totally covered up so I didn’t bother.
And here’s the finished bedspread sewn on. The circles are supposed to match up at the fold but I wasn’t quite sure how this would turn out when I stitched it, so mine don’t. I am happy with how it lies on the bed, though.
From the back, the foam is neatly covered up — a good thing since you can see this angle through the bedroom window!
And here’s the bed in place. There’s an outlet sticking out of the floor underneath so I needed the bedspread to be long enough to hide that.
To finish off the room, I picked up some furniture kits from SDK Miniatures. These are the dresser and nightstand from the Gothic bedroom set.
Here’s the room, coming together. I also got the Gothic wardrobe, intending to put it in the currently empty corner between the two doors, but it turned out to be *way* too big. Instead I’ll put together a Cassidy Creations armoire that I’ve had in my stash for ages.
As a point of reference, here’s the Gothic wardrobe (without its doors or knobs glued on yet) next to the back piece from the Cassidy Creations kit — the Gothic wardrobe is about 4″ tall (8′ in half scale) and the Cassidy Creations armoire is only about 2.5″ (5′ tall), and also not as deep.
(Instead I’ll save the Gothic wardrobe for the bedroom Little Belle, which has higher ceilings and more space overall. That’s also where I plan to use the Victorian bedroom set I originally bought for this room.)
Here’s one last shot of the new furniture. I think the Gothic faceplates on the drawers complement the scrollwork on the bed nicely, and I’m planning to make a mirror to go on top of the dresser that has a little bit of that metal scrollwork at the top. I might use some of it to dress up the armoire drawers, too.
Emily is a freelance writer, miniaturist, and adventure game enthusiast.
Very nice! It looks like a real room.
Now that is a lovely bedspread, and it echoes the scrolls of the bed nicely too. The whole room has come together really well. Lovely.
You did a nice job and your directions are very clear. In my experience, the patterns on a human sized bedspread never really meet up. It only makes your mini more realistic. Thanks for sharing. :-)
Good point! I totally did it on purpose. :)
It’s a joy for me to see your creations in various stages. Like most artists, you have a gift of seeing things that we less talented folk don’t, particularly details and possibilities that my imagination overlooks. Thank you for continuing to share your trials, errors, and accomplishments!
Thank you! Sometimes after I put a lot of work into something I wonder if it looks better to me than it does to everyone else, so this is nice to hear. :)
I am trying to find Rae Backus. It’s regarding a Victorian bedroom set I have of hers. Can you help?
No, sorry, I don’t know her. You could try posting on CampOn: https://campon.groups.io/g/main Someone there might know how to reach her.
Stunning love it