diff --git a/oslotest/base.py b/oslotest/base.py
index 213b28c..5b85b16 100644
--- a/oslotest/base.py
+++ b/oslotest/base.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import os
 import tempfile
 
 import fixtures
+import six
 from six.moves import mock
 import testtools
 
@@ -121,17 +122,29 @@ class BaseTestCase(testtools.TestCase):
         else:
             logging.basicConfig(format=_LOG_FORMAT, level=level)
 
-    def create_tempfiles(self, files, ext='.conf'):
+    def create_tempfiles(self, files, ext='.conf', default_encoding='utf-8'):
         """Safely create temporary files.
 
         :param files: Sequence of tuples containing (filename, file_contents).
         :type files: list of tuple
         :param ext: File name extension for the temporary file.
         :type ext: str
+        :param default_encoding: Default file content encoding when it is
+                                 not provided, used to decode the tempfile
+                                 contents from a text string into a binary
+                                 string.
+        :type default_encoding: str
         :return: A list of str with the names of the files created.
         """
         tempfiles = []
-        for (basename, contents) in files:
+        for f in files:
+            if len(f) == 3:
+                basename, contents, encoding = f
+            else:
+                basename, contents = f
+                encoding = default_encoding
+            if isinstance(contents, six.text_type):
+                contents = contents.encode(encoding)
             if not os.path.isabs(basename):
                 (fd, path) = tempfile.mkstemp(prefix=basename, suffix=ext)
             else:
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_base.py b/tests/unit/test_base.py
index 0816041..3ba0fa7 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_base.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_base.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
 # Copyright 2014 Deutsche Telekom AG
 #
 #    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
@@ -13,8 +15,10 @@
 #    under the License.
 
 import logging
+import os
 import unittest
 
+import six
 from six.moves import mock
 import testtools
 
@@ -121,3 +125,52 @@ class TestManualMock(base.BaseTestCase):
         patcher = mock.patch('os.environ.get')
         patcher.start()
         self.addCleanup(patcher.stop)
+
+
+class TestTempFiles(base.BaseTestCase):
+    def test_create_unicode_files(self):
+        files = [["no_approve", u'ಠ_ಠ']]
+        temps = self.create_tempfiles(files)
+        self.assertEqual(1, len(temps))
+        with open(temps[0], 'rb') as f:
+            contents = f.read()
+        self.assertEqual(u'ಠ_ಠ', six.text_type(contents, encoding='utf-8'))
+
+    def test_create_unicode_files_encoding(self):
+        files = [["embarrassed", u'⊙﹏⊙', 'utf-8']]
+        temps = self.create_tempfiles(files)
+        self.assertEqual(1, len(temps))
+        with open(temps[0], 'rb') as f:
+            contents = f.read()
+        self.assertEqual(u'⊙﹏⊙', six.text_type(contents, encoding='utf-8'))
+
+    def test_create_unicode_files_multi_encoding(self):
+        files = [
+            ["embarrassed", u'⊙﹏⊙', 'utf-8'],
+            ['abc', 'abc', 'ascii'],
+        ]
+        temps = self.create_tempfiles(files)
+        self.assertEqual(2, len(temps))
+        for i, (basename, raw_contents, raw_encoding) in enumerate(files):
+            with open(temps[i], 'rb') as f:
+                contents = f.read()
+            if not isinstance(raw_contents, six.text_type):
+                raw_contents = six.text_type(raw_contents,
+                                             encoding=raw_encoding)
+            self.assertEqual(raw_contents,
+                             six.text_type(contents, encoding=raw_encoding))
+
+    def test_create_bad_encoding(self):
+        files = [["hrm", u'ಠ~ಠ', 'ascii']]
+        self.assertRaises(UnicodeError, self.create_tempfiles, files)
+
+    def test_prefix(self):
+        files = [["testing", '']]
+        temps = self.create_tempfiles(files)
+        self.assertEqual(1, len(temps))
+        basename = os.path.basename(temps[0])
+        self.assertTrue(basename.startswith('testing'))
+
+    def test_wrong_length(self):
+        files = [["testing"]]
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, self.create_tempfiles, files)