The Bed Work
Things Girls Like To Do © 2010-11
Click here: KidHswrkSpecsBiblTxt080611.pdf to download a PDF of the complete text and specs
Antique collapsible wood doll bed with chicken wire mattress support:
11” (W) x 20” (L) x 13 1/2” (H)
Bedspread: (vintage cotton comforter cover with antique lace trim, embroidered image
22” (W) x 31 1/2” (L)
including lace edge: 26” (W) x 33 1/2” (L)
If you would like any hi-res images of these photos, or if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me: tamarstone@pipeline.com
Top Sheet front: (vintage white cotton sheet)
23 1/2” (W) x 25 1/4” (L)
Pillow back
Blanket back side
Bottom Flat Sheet front:
(vintage white cotton sheet)
23 1/4” (W) x 25” (L)
Top Sheet back side
Bed Frame (antique collapsible wood doll bed with chicken wire mattress support)
Mattress back
Bedspread front detail
Images Copyright © 2014 by Tamar Stone. All Rights Reserved.
No images may be reproduced without the expressed written permission of the artist.
Bedspread back side
Pillowcase back
Pillow front
(digitally printed cotton, cotton batting stuffing)
6 1/2” (W) x 4 1/2” (L)
Blanket front:
(vintage green wool blanket, with satin polyester trim)
26 1/2” (W) x 25 1/6” (L)
Quilt back side
Mattress front: (cotton fabric with digitally printed patterned
image of two girls making a bed, stuffed with cotton batting,
hand tied)
10 1/2” (W) x 17 1/2” (L) x 1 1/4” (H)
This project was inspired by finding a piece of sheet music titled “Bed Making Song” from the 1916 book, “Easy Steps in Housekeeping or Mary Frances’ Adventures Among the Doll People.” This book was part of a prescriptive series for children that taught them about housekeeping, in which the author, Jane Eayre Fryer states, “...the three arts which have most to do with three great needs of life –
food, clothing and shelter.”
The story opens with a homeless family, the Doll People, who longed for a home, filled with furniture to call their own. With the help of Mary Frances this family learns to set up housekeeping and overcome their hardships through experiencing a “series of entrancing adventures that must thrill the heart of every youthful housekeeper.”
Encouraging children to make their beds with the help of this music was only one of the steps in this process, but with the words humming along – it would make the work almost seem like play:
“Open the windows,
Spread covers wide –
Where the air enters health with abide;
Turn over mattress,
Spread under sheet,
Now place the upper –
Now right sides meet.”
Other historical and contemporary texts – some instructive, some personal memories, some news worthy, come together to create the layered bed coverings that make up this children’s housework bed.
Quilt front detail: (antique patterned flour sack fabric and antique GLF Mills flour sack bag, size 38)
21” (W) x 22 1/4” (L)
Quilt front: (antique patterned flour sack fabric and antique GLF Mills flour sack bag, size 38)
21” (W) x 22 1/4” (L)
Pillowcase front: (vintage cotton sheet, printed with inkjet image, antique lace trim)
7” (W) x 5” (L)
Bedspread back side (vintage cotton comforter cover with antique lace trim, embroidered image)
22” (W) x 31 1/2” (L)
including lace edge: 26” (W) x 33 1/2” (L)
Quilt back side detail:
(antique GLF Mills flour sack bag, size 38)
21” (W) x 22 1/4” (L)
Pillowcase back
Pillow front:
(digitally printed cotton, cotton batting stuffing)
6 1/2” (W) x 4 1/2” (L)
Blanket front detail:
(vintage green wool blanket, with satin polyester trim)
26 1/2” (W) x 25 1/6” (L)
Top Sheet front detail
Pillow back
Bottom Flat Sheet back
Mattress front detail
Bed Frame folded
