The Epic Saga Of the Dining Room Chairs! Part II: Slipcover for the Ottoman

 Part II of the Dining Room saga is not really about the dining room at all!
Huh? You say?

Well remember how the living room needed to have some of the many patterns edited out?

The ottoman was covered with a very busy pattern.

 

We interrupt this post for a little learning!

ot·to·man

ˈätəmən

noun

noun: ottoman; plural noun: ottomans

1. 1.

   a low upholstered seat, or footstool, without a back or arms that typically serves also as a box, with the seat hinged to form a lid.
2. 2.

   a heavy ribbed fabric made from silk and either cotton or wool, typically used for coats

The ottoman was brought to Europe from Turkey in the late 18th century. The word ottomane to refer to furniture appeared at least as early as 1729 in French. In Turkey, an ottoman was the central piece of family seating and was piled with cushions. In Europe, the ottoman was first designed as a piece of fitted furniture that wrapped around three walls of a room. The ottoman evolved into a smaller version that fit into the corner of a room.

 Back to the Regular Posting

FYI...the ottoman is one that we made using a thrift store coffee table with padding added to the top.  It has had several reincarnations.....and recovering it is a pretty simple process!

There are hundreds of tutorials out there for making an ottoman like this...here are a couple if you are interested.

Tulip and Turnip

Not So Newlyweds

I headed to the fabric store to find some off white upholstery fabric....and really nothing struck my fancy...

Not being a patient person....I hit on the idea of using plain old canvas....for a short term solution!

off-white....cheap....sturdy....

$4 bucks a yard and I needed a yard and a half

 

Since I really want to find a more elegant off white fabric....I decided to do a simple "slipcover" this time.  AND it will be easy to launder if "gasp" someone puts their feet up!

 

 

I started by draping the fabric over the ottoman to cut it to size.

I always cut the fabric with a generous amount of overhang.

It is easy to cut OFF fabric....not so easy to ADD it!

 

Then with a little help from Marvin....I pinned each corner with the fabric "wrong side out"...well with canvas it didn't really matter but I thought in the name of writing a tutorial I should tell you that!

It is almost impossible to show white stitching on white fabric....but I just stitched the "miter" and trimmed it off.  This makes a wonderfully tight corner.

More help from Marvin as I checked the slipcover for fit....here is where you DON'T want extra fabric....it needs to fit very tightly!

Then I measured from the floor to mark an even hem and used the machine to finish the bottom edge.

With most projects, I don't worry about doing careful edge finishes....but since this may need to be laundered...I was super careful and serged the seams as well as double turned the hem.

The finished project doesn't look too bad for $6 and an hour's worth of work!

Makes me want to put my feet up.....

Stay tuned for Part III when I actually do the chair slipcover tutorial!

Have a Great Day!