Over the years, I’ve had lots of people ask me how I made my doll’s sewing room. There are plenty of options out there, but today’s blog post shows you how I turned a Gloria home office dollhouse set for 1:6 scale dolls (i.e. Barbie-sized) into the little sewing room you see in my videos.
Now the earliest version of this sewing room used a red-brown-blue color scheme (shown in the video above). Later on, I remodeled it into the purple and turquoise blue sewing room that you see in more recent videos:
Today’s blog post will give you links to all the goodies I bought, when I was originally making this set, and also the bits and bobs I bought to remodel it into the set you see today. So before I go on, I have to make my affiliate marketing obligatory statement…
As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. You can learn more about my affiliate marketing program on my Privacy Policy page.
The first thing you’ll need to make this sewing room is the Gloria Home Office set of furniture and accessories, but be advised that Mattel also has a Barbie Fashion Designer Studio Playset which includes a little sewing machine, a craft table with a sort of fake corkboard wall, and a dress form mannequin.
Long after I made my sewing room diorama with the Gloria Home Office set, a relative of mine bought the Mattel set as a gift for me. I now use the Mattel Barbie dress form mannequin in my mostly Gloria furnished purple and turquoise blue sewing room diorama, but honestly, my own sewing table is much larger and more useful for my stop-motion videos than the Mattel version would be.
The black sewing machine that I used in the video at the top of this page is different from the one I use today for my stop-motion videos. The black machine is actually the wrong scale, as it’s on a 1:12 scale for typical Victorian dollhouses, but it’s well-made from metal and had a lovely look to it.
But the white sewing machine is actually a vintage toy sewing machine from Galoob. I love it because I can wrap actual thread around the spool at the top of the machine, so when my Chelly Doll (a Spin Master Liv doll) is sewing, it looks like she’s really using the thread. I love that!
In the image below, you’ll notice that the spool on the Galoob machine does have actual thread on it.
Galoob’s sewing machine had a winding feature so children could make it “run” by using the winding mechanism. My winder still works, but I never use it for stop motion. It’s more fun to focus on the movement of the fabric through the sewing machine, which is what I do when I make my stop-motion sewing videos.
The quilt rack that appears in my video at the top of today’s blog post is actually a jewelry holder that I bought for maybe 25 or 50 cents at a yard sale, if you can believe that! But you can buy miniature quilt racks for displaying doll-sized quilts both on Amazon and on eBay.
When I painted my furniture and accessories, I used Rust-oleum “American Accents” spray paint, but if you’re going to buy some of this stuff, you have to make sure you get the kind that says, “bonds to plastic.”
In all honesty though, as far as the accessories go, I kind of wish I’d left them white and purple instead of spray painting them black. They would’ve looked better with the newer version of my sewing room. Oh well. I guess you live and learn…
I made my pincushion quite some time ago, but I’ve since made a newer tomato-style pincushion. I have never made a tutorial for this because My Froggy Stuff has a perfectly good tutorial on the very same thing.
If you wanted to buy a miniature tomato pincushion, Dritz makes one that’s available on Amazon.
My tiny buttons were purchased on Etsy, and my store has links to doll-sized buttons in a variety of different styles and sizes. So any time you want to buy doll buttons, please consider visiting my online store.
I bought my original miniature scissors at JoAnn’s but as far as I know, they no longer carry these. However you can buy miniature sewing scissors on Etsy for next to nothing. Your cost of shipping will likely be more than the scissors cost!
Glue Dots are essential whenever I want to temporarily affix something (like the windows) to my diorama. I use Glue Dots to hold various items of furniture in place, so it doesn’t move, when I’m making my stop-motion videos. They also affix the little Galoob sewing machine to the Gloria office desk.
Sometimes you can see a little 1:6 scale folding chair in my dioramas. I bought that on eBay, and this link will help you find some like mine.
And, well, that’s all I have on building your own sewing room diorama!
Hopefully you’ve been inspired by today’s blog post, to do a little diorama-building of your own!
If you enjoyed this blog post, and you’d like to see my videos, you might want to navigate over to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1 to look through my playlists.
If you would like to make a donation to this free doll clothes pattern website, please click here. There’s also a “Donate” button in the main menu.
For anyone who would like to expand their dolls’ wardrobes, you should really check out my “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” course and my “Design Your Own Doll Pants Patterns from Scratch” classes on the Creative Spark online learning platform. Here’s my bio page on their website, where you can learn more.
For any class on Creative Spark, you don’t have to follow a schedule. Just sign up when you’re ready.
It’s a one-time fee for the course, and there’s no specific time limit to finish your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you. So go check out my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.
As always, feel free to pin, like, or tweet about my free patterns and tutorials.
To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.
Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:
*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, JoAnn Fabric, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s Privacy Policy page.
Chelly Wood and the ChellyWood.com website are not affiliated with any of the doll or toy companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly enjoys designing her doll clothes to fit a variety of dolls. To learn more about the doll companies mentioned in today’s post, please visit the doll or toy company’s website.