When you need an ottoman...

I am one of those people who appreciates down time, especially in a comfy chair or sofa.  When redoing my dressing room, I found a really nice chair - at Habitat Restore! - "on sale" for only $10.00.  It was a plush, comfy, well-made chair in great condition, except for one thing - the fabric.  Nice fabric, but not matching my decor.  I purchased some beautiful chenille zig-zag patterned fabric at Hancock Fabrics (of course, on sale!) and reupholstered it.  Loved it!

But I really wanted to be able to prop my feet up.  I needed an ottoman.  Not just any ottoman, but an ottoman that looked like it belonged with this chair.  Hence my ottoman project!

Things I wanted in the ottoman were:  To match the chair's cushion and height vertically, to match the shape of the front edge of the chair so that when it was pushed next to the chair it looked like one piece, and to have a footrest or cubby hole in the side facing the chair.

Here are my materials:  Two pieces of plywood, a length of oak (for the legs), eight metal brackets, some screws, and jute.  I also had foam for the cushion, batting, and my fabric.  And about 10" of 1.5" dowel.

 This is the shape of the ottoman, drawn on the plywood.  I will cut two, using a jig saw.  One piece will form the top, the second will form the bottom.  This shows the bottom piece, which will have notches cut out for the legs.  My plan is for the legs to go from the floor and up through these notches.  The ottoman top will go on top of the legs.  So the legs are the support for the entire ottoman structure.

I used a string held on one end at a center point and with a pencil on the other end to draw the arc I wanted.  The inner curved edge (on the left) was to match the curve of the front of the chair.  I laid the chair cushion down on the plywood and traced it!

 Legs.  I cut the oak 1x2 into about 11" lengths and cut the lower 5" of each one so they tapered to a 1x1 footprint.  I used a stain to match my chair and polyurethane to make them shiny.

Ok, I could have bought legs, but for one thing they would have been more expensive, and for another, this design provided the inner support I needed.

  

The ottoman bottom (on left) with notches cut and brackets placed in each so that the bottom of the bracket was under the plywood.  When I set the legs in, I will screw them to the part of the bracket that is sticking up.

(By the way, the dowel pieces on each end provide support for the rounded ends of the ottoman.)

On the right is the top of the ottoman, with brackets where the top of each leg will be positioned.




Before I screw on the legs to finish the ottoman structure, I cut a piece of thick rubber shelf liner and glued it to the surface of the bottom piece.  This will be the floor of the footrest/hidey hole inside the ottoman.







Cutting the foam that will go on the top of the ottoman was pretty easy.  I traced one of the plywood pieces, then used an electric knife to cut it out.  The electric knife makes this SO easy.  The only thing is, you have to pay attention and make sure the knife is perfectly vertical so your sides will be straight.













After screwing the legs into the brackets, I have the basic structure complete.  Here it is with the foam piece on top.  Looking good.







To provide support around the side of the ottoman, to give the fabric something to be up against, I stretched pieces of jute between the plywood decks and stapled in place.

Here you can see the cover for the cushion has been made.  I first covered the foam with batting and then slid the cover over it.  You may be able to see that a piece of fabric is attached to the lower edge of the cushion - it will cover the sides of the ottoman.


Finishing up - stapling the fabric attached to the bottom edge of the cushion to the bottom and trimming the edges of the bottom and of the footrest/hidey hole with cording.















The completed ottoman - front view.









The ottoman fits up against the chair nicely!

 A view from the inside showing the footrest/hidden compartment!

This project hasn't taken that long, and I love the results!

Nursery Project - The rest of the crib furnishings

This post is a continuation of the nursery project I have been describing.  I have covered the valence and pillows and the comforter in the two previous posts.  Here I will wrap up the rest of the crib furnishings - crib skirt, bumpers and ties, ruffled pillow, and rail pad!

The skirt was made from a beautiful gold fabric.  It was to be long enough to puddle slightly, and fairly full, with box pleats.

I folded up, ironed, and pinned the double 2" hem.  The hem was finished with an iron-on adhesive so stitching would not show on the front of the fabric.

 The sides were hemmed in a similar fashion, using a narrow double fold.

A crib skirt has four panels - one for each side and one each for the head and foot - attached to a rectangular fabric the size of the crib mattress.  I calculated, pinned, and basted the box pleats for each of the four panels of the skirt so the panels would fit the sides and ends of the crib.

The crib skirt, hung over a corner of my work table.

I determined the length needed based on the highest mattress position described in the specs for the crib, plus two inches.  When the mattress is lowered as the baby gets older, the skirt can just puddle more or the top can be tucked in farther underneath the mattress.



The top edge of the bumpers and the edging around the pillows call for a 1.5" folded gold satin ruffle.

 I went ahead and cut 4" strips enough for all the ruffles and sewed them together end to end.  Here you can see that I have folded the strips in half and pressed.  Then I serged the entire raw edge.

Fortunately, I have a ruffle attachment that makes ruffles easier!  I ruffled the entire length of sewn-together strips in one go.







 For the bumpers, we used a foam insert kit you can find at fabric stores.  It consists of six 26" long foam pieces.


Each section required cutting pieces for the front and back, attaching a ruffle to the top, sewing the front to the back, and sewing velcro to the lower edge.

Here you can see the lower edge with the velcro closure.  This will allow removing the cover for washing.

This is a closeup of the loops that will be used to tie the bumpers to the crib.  Originally, the bumpers were going to use red ties, and I wasn't sure it would be a good idea to wash red ties with the white fabric!  The ties will be separate and will go through the loops and around the crib rails to secure the bumpers.



The six bumpers.









My client decided to use long gold satin ties on the two front upper corners (shown here) and simpler ties for the other ten tie locations.







I made the simple ties somewhat like you would for double-fold bias tape, only not cut on the bias.  I took a 1.25" strip and ironed the edges in, the folded it half and sewed down the edge.





I finished the ends with a special fabric glue to keep them from fraying.

  The pillow is a 14" x 18" feather pillow, with satin ruffles around.  I used an envelope closure, with velcro to hold it together.

The finished pillow.









The rail pad is meant to cover the top of the crib rail, both to protect the rail and to provide a comfortable edge to anyone reaching into the crib.  It is 50" long and 8" tall (after being folded over the rail), with a double ruffle.  After attaching the ruffles to the lower edge of the upper side, it is sandwiched with the under side and batting, sewn and serged.  Leaving an opening, of course!

 
 The rail pad, turned right side out.  I marked two lines down the center, 1" apart, and sewed to make it bend over the rail and help it stay in place.















The rail pad, folded.  You can see the ties incorporated into the front and back to hold the rail pad in place.

All of these items will be put together in the nursery room in Georgia.  Pictures have been promised, after the crib arrives and the room is ready.  I am looking forward to seeing it all put together, and will of course post the pictures for you!

Nursery Project - A Comforter fit for a Prince or Princess!

This post continues the story of the nursery project I have been working on.  This is a Chronicles of Narnia themed nursery, in cream, gold, and red.  The previous post described the valence and pillows.  In this post I describe the baby's comforter, with other crib furnishings to be described in a later post.

The comforter is to be 42" x 52", in cream with a 4" gold band around the top and evenly-spaced tufts..  Centered on the top is to be a gold crown applique.

The first step was to wash all the fabrics.  After all, this is for a baby!

To prepare the top, I cut a smaller rectangle out of the cream and 5" wide strips for the bands. I used strips that were longer than the inside rectangle so that I could miter the corners.

After preparing the top, I will add the crown applique.  The applique was by far the most time-consuming part!

 Meeting with my client, we browsed crown images on the Internet and chose one for the comforter.  It was to be about 12" wide at the base, and centered on the top, with landscape orientation.

I took the image, about 1.5" wide originally, and blew it up to the desired size.  On the left, you can see it has been traced onto light double-sided adhesive paper made for applique work.  I took this piece and adhered it to the wrong side of the gold satin with an iron.

The next tedious step was to carefully cut out the design!

 Here is the cut-out design, with the adhesive backing removed, positioned on the comforter.  Take a minute and admire the scissor workmanship!!

 This is the design after it has been adhered.  It is beautiful and perfect just like this.  However, it would not stay that way.  If I wanted to, I could pick at it and start peeling up the design.  Leaving it like this would work only where it would never be touched or washed!  To keep it safe, I will have to sew around all the edges.

Here you can see the design after I have sewn around all the edges.  I also treated the edges with a treatment that will keep the edges from fraying and threads from loosening.






Now, back to putting the comforter together.

Here is the under side of the top, with the mitered gold bands shown.  In preparing to stitch the top to the under side of the comforter, I am marking the exact width of the band based on the stitching line attaching the band to the inside rectangle.  This ensures the band is a uniform width around the comforter.   Actually, I set up this picture after I did the sewing, but needed to show how the marks were done.




 I stitched just inside the marked line, turning where the bands met in the corner.  Of course, I leave an opening to turn the comforter right side out later.

To fit the batting to the comforter, I laid it over the wrong side of the top, aligning two edges and cutting the other edges to fit.

I then pinned the batting to the wrong side of the top (which is already sewn to the under side of the comforter), flipped it over, and sewed all around (except for the opening), following the same line of stitching used to attached the top and under sides of the comforter.  Finally, I serged all around.

 Turning the comforter right-side-out, I pressed it and hand-closed the opening.  Here you can see the pins marking where the tufts will be.  I sewed the tufts by hand.

 The finished comforter - needing another round of pressing!

It's weird how the camera skews proportions at a distance.  The comforter looks square, but is actually ten inches longer left to right.

A close-up of the crown.

This fabric has worked well - the cream feels good to the touch, and the satin is like liquid gold.  I think it will look beautiful in the nursery!

Start of the Nursery Project - Valence and Pillows

Another recent, but not-so-little project was to create the furnishings for a baby nursery!  Somehow, knowing these things were for a baby's room made the project all that more enjoyable!

I first met with the mother-to-be to discuss designs, then accompanied her to the fabric store to look at materials.  The theme she chose was "Chronicles of Narnia," and was to include iconic imagery from the series, including lions, crowns, lamppost, children in the woods, and quotes.  The colors she had in mind were cream, gold, and red.  

We found some gorgeous fabrics in cream and gold for crib furnishings, and a beautiful heavy red and gold chenille with a medieval look we thought would coordinate well.

We decided to use the patterned fabric for a valence and two pillows, which I describe in this post. 

The valence was to be hung from a 4" board, with box pleats on each end.  We decided to insert the heavier gold fabric inside the two pleats.    

The first step was to place a strip of the gold fabric in the place needed to be inside the pleat.

The next steps were cutting and preparing the lining, sewing it to the back of the main fabric (hemming the bottom edge and sides at the same time), then making the pleats and basting the entire top edge.

I stapled it to the top of a prepared board* and edged it with some cording made from the same fabric.  I tacked the pleats slightly to keep them from swinging open.  (*A board is prepared by covering it in lining fabric.  After stapling on the valence and cording, the lining fabric folds over to hide the staples and make it look tidy.)

Here it is posing on a filing cabinet for a picture.  We will have to wait for pictures of it installed - the home is in another state!

The pillows are 22" feather pillows.  They are edged in self cording, with zipper closures.

I just love feather pillows.  They have such a luxurious feel, and will always fluff up beautifully, with never a lump!

The rest of the project - crib skirt, bumpers and ties, comforter, pillow, and rail pad - will be covered in following posts!

Pillow Recover

This is just a little project to recover a couple of pillows.  The two pillows are being recovered using fabric the client had left over from breakfast room valences I made last fall (see earlier post).

There was nothing very unusual about this pillow recover.  The pillows were to be made with an envelope closure - where the cover could be removed, washed, and put back on.


When I removed the existing cover, by cutting off one side, I noticed the stuffing was well-formed, but loose.  I could see it wouldn't keep its shape if it were removed from an envelope enclosure and put back in.





So I took some lining fabric and made cases for the two pillow stuffings.

After preparing the pillow forms, I cut fabric for the two pillows, serged edges, made cording and attached it to the front, prepared the envelope closure for the back, and attached the two.  Since this fabric unravels very easily, after trimming the corners I treated them with a solution to keep the cut edges from fraying.

This picture shows the front of the two pillows, with the main design centered.








This picture shows the back, with the envelope closure.  Even though this side will not normally be seen, I tried to use pieces that would fit together close to the appearance of the main design.

I just love this fabric!