When I saw a $10 price tag on a beat up, pleather ottoman, mercilessly separated from its dated “bachelor pad” fake leather, big box store, mother-ship of a sofa, something just came over me. I had to polish the diamond.
Cut to two hours later and I have a 3 foot by 3 foot padded wooden frame and same size 6inch thick foam square sitting in my garage. I was so thrilled to have the gross, duck tape lined “leather” off that I didn’t stop to think about a pattern for a new cover. It became clear I hadn’t thought this through, but with every challenge comes an opportunity.
Where to start… All about that base.
I started with the base. When I think about upholstery, one of the biggest hurdles in making a piece look great is where to put the seams. Thinking about ways to hide the seams helps you conceptualize how the overall cover should be constructed. Here we’ve got a square base with four corners, so having four seams that align with those four corners is likely the most aesthetically pleasing (and simple) way to a assemble those first few fabric panels. Here’s how I did it:
- Measure the length and height of the sides of the frame.
- Add 1/4-1/2 inch to each number to account for a seam. If you prefer more wiggle room at the sewing machine, go for a 1/2 inch.
- Add two inches to the bottom measurement so there is fabric enough to fold under and fasten to the base later on.
- In the case of an ottoman with a separate cushion sitting on top of the frame, add additional inches to account for the fabric you need to stretch inward over the top and to which your cushion cover will eventually attach. In this case, four inches.
- Pin two of your newly cut panels together with the good sides of each piece touching and the underside of the fabric visible to you. Make sure they are completely aligned and straight.
- Take your initial measurement of the side of the frame and mark out that length on the panel two inches above the bottom. Note: you want to leave two inches of the bottom of the corner un-sewn so that it is easier to wrap and shape the corner later. Don’t worry- these corners will be closed with hidden staples later! Same idea for the top of the seam. Leave the amount of extra fabric you allotted for the top so un-sewn as well so you can sew a cleaner mitered corner seam in the next steps.
7. Repeat this process until you have sewn the four fabric panels into a box, good side of the fabric on each panel facing out, and the tops and bottoms of each seam left un-sewn. Pro-tip: make sure you back-up and go over both the start of a seam and the end of a seam on your sewing machine for added strength and durability.
8.Pull the fabric box over the frame to make sure you have a tight fit. It should take effort to pull on but should not put too much stress on your seams. If it doesn’t fit, carefully pull out one of the seams and try sewing closer to the end of the fabric. This will give you a little more wiggle room on the seam. Repeat this process for each seam until you like the fit.
Mitered Corners
Now that the fabric box fit over the wooden frame, I was ready to mitered the corners inward on the top. This step seems hard, but I promise it’s very simple. All you need is a 45 degree angle, something many sewing or quilting guides sold in craft store have marked.
9. Remove the fabric from the frame and turn it inside out. Holding each of the two sewn panels together as you did when initially sewing, draw a line using a fabric pencil or chalk from the top end of the seam to the corner (should end up being a 45 degree angle). Repeat for all four seams/corners and don’t forget to reinforce your seams with the back-up function.
10. Turn right side out and place back over the wooden frame, pulling tightly to ensure that the new mitered corners you made fit snugly around the corners of the frame. Hint: if the mitered seams stick out like peaks rather than lying flat on the frame, that means you overshot the 45 degree angle and need to tighten it up. Trust me. I made this mistake at first.
Cushion, Cush-off
With the base frame upholstery piece done, I moved on to thinking about how to wrap this enormous top cushion. This is where my choice in fabric became important. You need a sturdy fabric for upholstery, which sort of goes without saying. But what I hadn’t considered until later was that size of continuous fabric needed to avoid additional seams over the top of the cushion for a more professional look. Always try to plan to size of the piece of fabric you need so you can purchase one that is wide enough on the bolt. I did not do that here, but I got lucky. My velvet just so happened to measure 48 inches wide. Just enough to get the job done.
11. Measure the length and width of you top cushion. Add the height of the side of the cushion on both sides. Finally, add an additional number of inches to account for how far in the fabric will need to stretch to meet and be connected to the base fabric under neath the top cushion (in this case another 4 inches). Do this on vertically and horizontally. Cut a large fabric piece accordingly. Note: if you are using a print or a plaid, you will need to account for the repeat of the print to ensure it is center on the cushion or for making sure the fabric lines are straight inline with the edges of the cushion in the case of plaids, stripes, etc.
12. Once cut out, lay the large piece on a clean floor of surface, good side down. Take the height of the cushion plus the extra left for the fold in on the underside and combine those two numbers. This number should be the same for each side, whether you have a square of a rectangle cushion. In my case, it was 9 inches.
13. At each of the corners, cut out a square measuring 9 x 9 (or whatever your measurements from Step 12 amount to) to allow for another seam.
14. Once cut, align cut edges with the good side of the fabric folded on the interior and sew the length of the cut (again, 9 inch seam for me), to create the mitered corner.
So now, we have a “box-top” kind of shape that should fit over the top of your cushion. I recommend a fit test just to make sure you seams fit over the corners. Once complete, it was time to tackle the underside fitting of the fabric and contouring of the corners to create a more rounded shape. This is more a a creator preference step and not a requirement. If you have a cushion or foam piece with very square corner and want to preserve those lines, skip down to the attachment steps after reading about the mitered corners for the cushion (which will feel very familiar now).
15. With the first cushion corner seam you just sewed still folded together, Measure another line at a 45 degree angle from the edge of the height of your cushion and through to the edge of the fabric on the unfolded side. I.E. if your had a combined height and under-lap length of 9 inches like I did, your underside corner seam line would start five inches (height of the cushion) down from the fold and proceed off the fabric at a 45 degree angle, giving you the line you need to follow when sewing the next seam. Repeat this step on all four corners, always with the good side of the fabric folded on the interior.
16. If you prefer a more rounded cushion corner, make a rounded line from the edge of the fabric to the fold of the fabric that overlays your existing seams, like shown below. Harder to explain, easier to show. Sewn that rounded line as neatly as you can. Then trim off any excess on the outside of you corners, leaving roughly a half inch, so they aren’t full of crumpled up extra fabric.
17. This step is also optional, but a nice insurance policy. Put your cushion into this new cover to make sure all seams are correctly measured and the fit is tight but not so tight that your seams are busting. This can be more or less difficult depending on how hard your cushion of foam piece is, so do your best to squeeze the cushion into the smaller opening. You will regret not doing it if you attach to top cover to the frame cover and then realize the cushion doesn’t fit properly. Learn from my idiocy.
The Great Attachment
Phew. We’ve made it a long way on this journey. I wish I could tell you that the hard part was over, but alas. Now you must connect two awkwardly shaped piece of fabric together with a certain amount of precision. Fear not. It is doable. I am living proof.
(While I was successful in the following steps, I was so engrossed that I forgot to take photos of the process. This was shameful, and I apologize for my thoughtless in-actions.)
18. On a clean floor or surface, place the cushion cover as flatly as you can, good side down, underside mitered seams folding over and inward. Flatten the cover to that the mitered corners are as flat on the floor as possible and the inner opening is evenly centered. Pro-tip: if you allow the outer corners to fold up slightly at the very ends, it will be easier to have the mitered seams flat and get the opening centered. This sort of looks like a upside down box lid for visual.
19. Place the frame cover, upside down and fabric mitered corner side down on top of the mitered corners of the cushion cover. The mitered corners should be lined up, with the good side of each piece touching. Again, the opening should be centered and visually will resemble an upside down box lid.
20. Once you have the bottom flaps of the cushion and the top flap of the frame cover lined up at the mitered corners, pin the absolute heck out of it, leaving a seam allowance on the inside of the opening.
21. With unwavering determination and enviable perseverance, sew those seams together on all four sides. In my case, I had trouble getting the foot of my sewing machine to reach all the way to the mitered corner seams at each corner due to the sheer thickness of fabric and seams. If this happened to you, don’t panic. I sewed any holes at the corners closed by hand from the underside once the cushion was in and it and the frame cover were on the box frame. Piece of cake.
22. Place the cushion inside the top cover. If you need to loosen the seams to make the opening larger, you can do so and circle back once on and in place to hand sew openings close from the underside as a mentioned above.
23.Place Cushion on top of frame and coax the sides of the bottom cover over the side, pulling tightly at the bottom to ensure that the frame is all the way inside the cover and the corners are neat.
24. Check all over for wrinkles or loose sections that need to be pulled tighter. Adjust to your liking.
“Holy crap. I made that!?” – Me
Flip over your 85% complete creation, and marvel. You did that. Go tell your family and friends. I’ll wait.
SECURE-ITY!
For the following steps, you will need some dust cover fabric, a staple gun, appropriately sized staples (depending on your gun), small flat tacks, and a small tack hammer.
25. Flip that masterpiece back over (on a clean floor), staple gun at the ready. You should still have two inches of excess fabric to pull over the bottom of the frame and secure with staples. On each side, start in the middle and pull the fabric over the frame and inward at the desired tightness. Staple to hold. Then, work you way to the corners on either side of the first staple, pulling to the desire tightness, and stapling to secure. Repeat on all sides until complete and leaving two inches on each side un-stapled at the corner.
25. At the corner, choose one side of the fabric to go underneath, pull tightly toward the inside of the frame and staple. Take the remaining loss fabric on that corner and fold under the corner to create a mitered corner-like appearance when pulled over, then secure. This gives you a finished edge look. Repeat for all corners.
26. Now comes the dust cover underneath. You could say this is optional but, as the name suggests, it keeps dust out of the inside of the piece and prolongs its overall life. Worth it to me. take the measurements of the frame and cut a dust cover piece to that size. Lay the piece over the top of the underside. Spread to center. Fold the cut edge underneath and place a small tack at the center of one side to hold it in place. Repeat on each side until you have one tack holding the cover in place in the center of each side. Don’t forget to fold under the cut side for a more professional looking edge.
27. Pull the each corner tight and place a tack to hold. Now, place a tack in the center of each gap between tack going all the way around the frame for evenly space tacks. Repeat placing a tack in the center of each new gap until you feel you have tacked enough and just can’t tack anymore.
Again, I forgot to take a photo of this because is was so dang jazzed that I had done this myself and couldn’t wait to finish. I will reflect on this oversight for the remainder of my life.
28. Switching out the legs of feet on a piece of furniture is such an easy way to level it up. In it’s past life, this thing had Made-in-China plastic feet that I threw away immediately lest they contain a spying device. I replaced them with for bun style feet that I bought unfinished from Lowe’s, then stained and oiled myself. Big R.O.I here, in my opinion.
If you’re fancy, you may also want to add some sticky, pre-cut furniture pads on the underside of the feet. I am fancy. Now flip that sucker over and elevate those ankles.
LOOK. AT. HER.
They said it couldn’t be done by a layman, but here we are. I’d like to thank my 8th grade P.E. teacher who once told my grandmother that I wouldn’t be able to handle playing high school sports. In your face, respectfully.
-Kassie