We've had this ottoman for a long time. It's a classic Ikea piece - kind of timeless, but also lacking any real character. But hey, it worked. Then my cat scratched the crap out of the corners of the cover, and it didn't work anymore. Plus it was cream coloured, and we have kids (you do the math). About 7 years ago, in an effort to mask the cat-horror, I quickly sewed a cover, slapped it on the ottoman and called it good. But it was ugly and never really fit properly, and only served as a daily visual reminder that I needed to get it together and actually properly sew a nice cover.
I don't know why it took me 7 years, because when I got down to business, it really didn't take me long to make, and the end result was SO satisfying!
I started by taking apart the original Ikea cover. Stitch-ripping is tedious, but I knew taking the cover apart would give me the perfect size template to work with, and would ultimately allow me to avoid taking measurements and possibly not making the exact right size or shape. I also harvested the velcro from the original cover - which worked out ridiculously perfectly.
Sidenote: If you follow me on Instagram, I was talking recently about the wood-paneling in my studio - you can see it lurking in the background of the right pic above. I will be keeping it real on this blog - most 'in progress ' shots in my studio will be sort of yellow-tinged and cluttered around the edges. Because life in my studio is cluttered; wood-panelling makes the light in there yellow; and when you walk into our awesome studio, it's sort of like Hot Tub Time Machine - you're transported to 1973.
Here's the finished product!
I love how this turned out, honestly! I did keep the original pieces to use as a template again, because now that I know it doesn't take very long, I'm sure I'll want to make another one some day and reinvent this baby yet again.
Thanks for checking out my latest project!
:) Mandy
PS. I'm new to this blog interface, and for some reason I can get my comment app to work. You're totally welcome to leave any comments or questions about this post on FaceBook!