Book sling!

Big Bear loves books and reading. When he started sleeping in his big boy twin-size bed, we set up a bed rail. He started using it as a place to store all of his books-- he'd stand them up between the rail and the mattress, making them very convenient for bedtime reading.

Last week we took the bed rail down, and ran into a problem: what to do about all of BB's nighttime reading? He was still keeping the books in bed with him, and getting slept on every night was definitely taking a toll on the books (particularly the paperbacks). Then I found the perfect solution:

Tutorial: hanging book display at Penny Carnival.


We went fabric shopping and BB helped me pick out this fun home dec weight cotton. After a quick trip to the hardware store for hangers and dowels, it was about an hour of work getting everything sewn and hardware installed. (Many thanks to my handy husband who did all non-sewing stuff!)


Super quick and easy, inexpensive, and exactly what we needed. Perfect!

Can't leave well enough alone

After sleeping on it, I decided to go ahead and try to improve some on the windowseat cushion. It didn't look quite as awful to me this morning. So much less awful that I'll even post some pictures:


The most poorly constructed parts are the corners. I would have to rip and re-sew to try and fix those. But I was just not motivated to do that. But, I did think it would benefit from wrapping the foam with batting-- to help hide the piecing (which was very visible when my husband sat down on it) and to help fluff it out a little and make it appear smoother on top and bottom.

Clearly my calling lies in foam and batting, because it seems like I can at least do that pretty well:


With the cover back on, I think the improvement is visible. Notice how the fabric is much smoother on top:


Though it is far from perfect, I am much happier with the final product. Thank goodness, because I was feeling like poop there for awhile.

A learning experience...

You know how I was feeling so proud of my foam? Well, I completed my windowseat cushion, and it kind of sucks. It's passable (meaning I'll use it rather than try and re-do it at this point) since it is going into a room that is off-the-beaten-path (the front piano room) and, really, it's more for the cats than any human (because a 14" wide bench is a little skimpy for most adults). Here it is, in situ:


I think I cut my top and bottom correctly; I made the welting correctly; the zipper was all good. My downfall: the 3" between the top and bottom. My measurements were off. My seam allowance was off (I accounted for 1/2" but because of the zipper foot and needle position I ended up doing a 5/8"... sigh). And then I did a pretty horrible job of attaching the band to the top and bottom pieces. It's a little lot wonkabilly.

Because I pieced the foam, I was going to wrap it in batting to help keep it all together and create a more uniform surface. But, after completing the cover, I realized there wouldn't be room. The foam just barely fit in there.

Ah, well. My next cushion-oriented project will be better as I have learned a few things from this experience. Learning is good.

Foam-a-rama

Well, I decided to jump in and start the window seat cushion. I took the measurements last week and thought I didn't have enough foam. But, I had an epiphany the other night (after waking to give the boy some 4 a.m. comfort)-- I had enough to piece it together!

Fortunately, my mom gave us an electric knife for Christmas two years ago (which up to this point, I still hadn't used). This made the cutting of the 3" foam much less painful than it could have been. The biggest challenge was the measuring. High density foam is not cheap (thus my desire to use what I have rather than buy another piece), so I really wanted/needed to be careful not to make serious errors.

My piece was 24" wide x 43.75" long. I needed a piece 13.75" wide x 65.25" long. So I cut a long 10.25" strip along the length, leaving me a slab 13.75" wide x 48.75" long. I then took the 10.25" strip and cut it into three 13.75" pieces. Next, I used the trusty foam adhesive (and my fingers are still rather sticky... ewww) and stuck those onto the ends of the main slab to make one long piece. Then I trimmed down to the correct length and cut out the back corners. Voila!

I made registration marks across the various pieces, so I would know what to stick to what. Notice my trusty electric knife in the upper right of the picture (thanks, mom!). And don't pay any attention to the messy craft room.

Next on the agenda: buy batting to wrap the foam, and cut my fabric.