Ottoman Cover for Plastic Container for Camper Storage

Wow, I have been busy the last few weeks, and unfortunately got behind on my posts.  The smaller projects have included hemming a tablecloth, making pillow shams, making a lined drape panel, making stuffed animals, and various clothing and crochet projects.  The project I will describe here is one to solve a storage problem on our camper -- thinking of better ways to handle storage being a popular obsession for campers!

Liking to kill two birds with one stone wherever possible, I wanted the storage to double as an ottoman, since I like to prop my feet up sometimes.  So I decided to take a plastic container, add a cushion to the top, and dress it up as an ottoman.

Here are my materials:  the container, foam for the cushion, cording, and upholstery fabric I found on the remnants table.

The foam deserves a little explanation.  Foam comes in various thicknesses - this is 4" - but usually comes in squares.  This piece was a 22" square.  To get it to fit the shape of the container, I first cut it to the right width (17"), then used 4" of the 5" strip that was cut off to add to the length to make it 26".  I had just a couple of little blocks left over.  I used a kitchen electric knife to make the very presentable cuts, and used glue to attach the two pieces.  It will hold its glued shape well, especially inside a tight cushion cover.

After measuring the container, I cut the fabric - a top piece that follows the shape of the contaner lid, 4 rectangular pieces for the sides, 4 pieces for the skirts, two pieces to form an overlapped opening under the cushion, and cording.  The covered cushion, with its attached skirt, will sit on top of the plastic container.



As a first step, I loosely basted the cording.  By keeping the cording a little loose, I know that this first stitching will not show on the outside when I make the final stitching.  (By loose, I mean I did not stitch very closely to the cord.)

Here I attach cording to the top piece.  I am still basting with long stitches, and not sewing too close to the cord.  The tighter, closer stitches will come when I do the final stitching in this area - when I attach the sides.

 After attaching the sides around the top, making sure the seams that connected the side pieces align with the corners of the top, I topstitched around all sides to hold the seam allowances down.

After attaching the sides, I attached the hemmed skirt pieces.  Notice the skirts overlap.  The two end skirt pieces are under the side skirt pieces, which lap around the ends a couple of inches.

After attaching the skirt pieces, I sewed on the overlapping bottom pieces.  The seams have gotten a little thick at this point, but fortunately my machine can handle it!

 I knew it would be tight getting the foam inserted through the opening underneath.  But I got it in.  Who needs a gym, anyway, with this kind of workout available?

As a last task, I cut a piece of batting and inserted it to lie on top of the foam to give a softer appearance to the cushion top.  Not easy, but easier than trying to manage inserting the foam if I had already attached it!

The finished ottoman. The fabric was a perfect match for our camper upholstery!

Besides being a handy footrest/coffee table, it will allow us to keep some things handy without adding to the clutter.  We think the ottoman will be a good place to put our laptops and other electronics when not in use.