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Props free printable sofa patterns from Atelier Matin

Feb 7, 2021

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    1. I've been trawling the Japanese doll blogosphere in search of free patterns and found something I had never imagined existed: printable patterns to make upholstered doll furniture!

      Rather than seek to imitate the techniques of human-sized furniture with a wooden frame and stuffing, Atelier Matin's method uses an armature sculpted from insulation styrofoam, then covered with batting and fabric. There is no sewing involved. The materials involved are inexpensive, more resistant to warping than cardboard, and don't require any special cutting tools like plywood. Detailed PDF patterns and illustrated instructions are provided for:
      • a double sofa
      • an upholstered chair in the same style
      • asymmetrical couch
      • shell sofa

      Website and instructions are in Japanese, but the PDFs have copy-and-pasteable text so you can use Google Translate.

      The largest pattern is for a 30cm doll, but I've used the styrofoam involved for human-sized props/scenery and am confident the materials and methods would work at 200% scale.

      Atelier Matin sofa workshop index

      If you look at the other production manuals at the bottom, one of them illustrates the way you can expand upon the basic technique to achieve fancier effects like a tufted sofa.
       
      #1 ChilmarkGryphon, Feb 7, 2021
      Last edited: Feb 7, 2021
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    2. Oh cool I was looking for something for my 30cm mature tiny boys. I'm going to try it out. Thanks!
       
      #2 SteamWitch, Feb 7, 2021
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    3. That is astonishing. Thank you very much for sharing it! You're right about foam, it's the perfect material.
       
      #3 Natsunekko, Feb 7, 2021
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    4. Ooh, I'm going to see if I double it, if it'll work for my SD. AWESOME find!
       
      #4 IndigoFrogs, Feb 7, 2021
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    5. This is awesome! Thanks for sharing this, I might try this out for my SD boys and girls.
       
      #5 Saintstar, Feb 7, 2021
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    6. Ooh what a good find!
      That's an interesting way of making doll seating, and much easier to work with compared to something like wood. I had a quick look through some of the blog, and there are other posts with some nice examples of sofas and chairs that I imagine are made with the same method.
      I shall have to try and make something for one of my smaller dolls and see how it goes.
      Thanks for sharing! :D
       
      #6 Zaliayn, Feb 7, 2021
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    7. oh great, I will try to resize for sd dolls. thank you.
       
      #7 Anita2006, Feb 13, 2021
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    8. How big should one go for an sd doll? I've never made furniture before but I really need some for photos....
       
      #8 Moonymonster, Mar 24, 2021
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    9. The OP said 200%
       
      #9 Victoria Victrix, Mar 24, 2021
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    10. Thanks I didn't see that!!
       
      #10 Moonymonster, Mar 25, 2021
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    11. I think you'll also have to play with the number of styrofoam layers to get the front-to-back depths correct, since the patterns rely on the thickness of the material to provide the third dimension and you don't automatically get that enlargement when you scale the pattern.
       
      #11 ChilmarkGryphon, Mar 25, 2021
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    12. Not to mention how thicker foam is the more pricey it gets. A “gusset” would be a good idea, maybe use cheep polyfil to add some “weight” but this probably wouldn’t work on the shell style settee.
       
      #12 unoa_im_afreak, Mar 25, 2021
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    13. #13 Valdemagra, Jun 13, 2021
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    14. @Valdemagra that's cute, you should make a matching cushion.
       
      #14 golo, Jun 14, 2021
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    15. Thanks so much for posting this.
       
      #15 becky97, Jun 26, 2021
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    16. I'm sorry if this is obvious, I'm bad with visualizing stuff like this and scaling in general, but if increasing the size of the biggest pattern by 200% works for SD, would increasing it by 100% work for MSD?
       
      #16 MonochromeNocturne, Sep 17, 2021
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    17. So saying 200% would be like doubling it, or multiplying everything by 2. 100% would just be the same as it is now, so appropriate for 30cm dolls. To get something for the 45cm range you'd go 150% or multiply by 1.5

      I hope this helps!
       
      #17 Samsally, Sep 23, 2021
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