Project for the Day: The window seat cushion

So, it's been forever since my last post. This of course is partly due to our intensive budget project, but also due to my having worked nearly all of August to finish several large projects (and therefore had no time for crafting).

But here I am. I'm sure you are rejoicing :)

First off, it is nearing my birthday and I had told one of my very good friends that I wanted foam to make a window seat cushion (I walk on the wild side... and I had coupons! Score). So, she came with me to get the foam (ended up with a 24 x 72 x 2 inch piece and I started out working the very next day. The first step was to make a template for the window seat I used some paper we had been given that was no longer needed at an office and taped it together to make a template. I wanted to be sure not to get my foam (it being $32/yard it's not exactly something you want to ruin) dirty, but also, I knew the small size would be easier to use to get around the various angles and such. Also, making the template didn't spoil my daughter's ability to use it for art (which is why we got it anyway).

Once the template was made, I placed it on the  foam and began trimming. The window seat itself is 96 inches long by 18 inches, but I was able to cut all of the window seat out of the above piece. Yay! The strangest part about this step was my normal scissors weren't sharp enough to cut the foam so I had to use my good sewing scissors (gasp!) to do it, since I didn't have a utility knife (or at least a really sharp one) handy.

After I had cut out all the pieces, I was able to test it in the window seat area to make sure it fit, as well as do any trimming necessary to make it nice and straight on the front (I used the factory cut edge on the front to ensure a smooth front, but if the back was strange it would cover more or less of the window seat ledge. Once it was perfectly fit, I had a helper test it out. Looks like it met approval.

Then on to the fun portion. If you remember way back when, I used to have three green curtains in that window prior to the window seat going in. Well, that third curtain became the fabric of the window seat. That curtain wasn't going to be big enough to cover the whole thing, and also, I wanted the cushion to stay on the window seat, so the bottom became the white grippy fabric that you often see on the bottom of kids slippers for going downstairs without slipping. I got 1 yard of that at $12.99 (also not cheap). That grippy fabric I cut and sewed as close to the perfect fit of the bottom as I could. All additional fabric needed on the bottom was covered by the former curtain.

The down side of this cushion was that the shape (and the clingy aspect of the grippy fabric) prohibited the normal techniques I use for covering furniture of turning the material inside out, pinning, and sewing up with my machine. So instead I sewed everything into a giant flat portion and then I had to close this thing up by hand, so that took quite a while.  ( you can see I pinned it closed as I went along).

Once I finished that, I put it into place (praying that it still fit) and it was immediately taken over by individuals ready to test it out when I went to get my camera. After the initial test, it was scotch guarded (love that stuff) to protect the fabric as well as the wood seat underneath.

So there you have it. A new window seat cushion. Happy Birthday (early) to me!