Tuesday, December 4, 2012

1/6 scale wingback chair

Usually I make doll chairs using a pre-existing structure, such as a plastic bottle, cut to shape and then covered with felt and fabric. This time, however, I wanted to try a proper chair.

I started by designing the required parts. That's actually quite easy as only the sides need actual designing, the rest are just rectangulars, and the biggest challenge is in getting the length and width right. 

I cut the parts from cardboard (fairly thick, I think it came as a backing for mailed comics) and covered the insides with two layers of felt (glued in a few places to keep it in place). Note that I left some edges clear, those are the areas used for gluing the parts together.


Then I covered the pieces with wool fabric. I usually use thinner fabrics, but this suited the style of the chair best.


Here the parts are glued together to make the basic form. You can also see how the edges of fabric were cut into flaps and glued to the other side of the cardboard.


Next, I made the back piece, which is one continuous piece covering the sides and back of the chair. The cardboard pieces are actually a bit longer than the ones for the inside part for a reason I will explain later. I glued the cardboard pieces to the felt, leaving small gaps where they need to form 90 degree angles.


Next,I covered the outside of the back piece with a piece of the same wool fabric. I also glued some of that fabric to the bare parts of the already constructed "inner chair". That was to make a more even surface for gluing the back in place.


Then the back just needed to be glued in place. Here you can see why the outer pieces were longer. Once you make a rectangular piece to close the gap that will be left under the front edge of the seat, the seat will look thicker and the chair will look more authentic.


Here is a picture of the finished chair, with a doll to show the size. The legs of the chair are just round pegs cut to length, glued in place and painted brown.

4 comments:

Hettie said...

hi, do you have a template for this chair? I am new to furniture making and probably need a lot of help. thanks

Tarja said...

No, I don't. It was a one time thing, so I didn't think of saving a template. However, the pieces aren't complicated as you can see in the photos, so you should be able to make them yourself. Just experiment with pieces of cardboard until everything fits together.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting, this is exactly what I was looking for!

.Manna j said...

Dear Hettie, if you want a template of a 1:12 scale armchair, you can find one at Bentley House Minis, which is a channel owned by Ara Bentley. Ara is a brilliant Miniaturist who's very generous with her templates, and if you go to her channel, just look through her play list and you'll find a video tutorial on how to make a miniature armchair and the template is in the description box. Or,you can google: How to make a miniature armchair and lots of videos will come up. Love from Amanda Jones in Melbourne, Australia