Recovering a Patio Lounge Cushion

We've had the new dogs home for about six weeks now, and everything is going along fairly well.

There are some ups (the new dogs don't have to be on leash when we go outside in the backyard) and some downs (I threw out the living room rug this weekend because I am so tired of steam cleaning out the bathroom "accidents").

We've also come to realize that, like most-two year-olds, they still need a lot of supervision or they get into mischief.

We spent a lovely Sunday out on the back deck a couple of weeks ago. Everyone was having a good time, and Scarlett discovered the joys of basking in the sun on the lounger.

Sweet face, right? Don't be fooled, there's a devil lurking in there. A few hours later, while we were inside eating dinner, we heard the two little dogs galloping back and forth, jumping over things and chasing each other. But then there was a loud ripping noise and we ran out to see what had happened.

We found this:

They were so proud of themselves. Tom had to hide his laugh behind his hands. I wasn't so happy because I love that lounger. Our neighbour gave it to us and the cushion is thick. Like six inches thick.

How do you replace that? Well first, you spend your lunch hour the next day searching every online site that delivers to Canada. Then you visit several stores after work. But you end up with nothing that even comes close. Unless you want one custom-made for $$$$.

I was preparing myself mentally to just suck it up and settle on a thinner cushion, but decided to take a stab at repairing and recovering the ruined one instead. I went through my fabric stash to see if I had anything suitable for outdoor use and found some patterned material that was sturdy, yet still soft and velvety.

I restuffed the cushion with the foam and batting that had been torn out, then used thick thread to sew as much of the shredded fabric back together as possible, just to give a framework for the new material. (No pics, sorry.)

At first I only recovered the damaged section, and I was pretty happy with that.

But then I started thinking it would look even better if the entire side was the same. So out came the fabric and sewing machine again, and I covered the top section as well. Hey, I was right, it did look better.

I'm so happy with it now. It looks intentional. It almost looks like I know what I'm doing or something. :-) I hate to admit it, but I even like it better than the original. Should I thank the little hooligans for making it happen?

One-of-a-Kind Gift - Handmade Receiving Blankets

We have a new baby in the neighbourhood. Our next-door neighbours just had a sweet baby boy two weeks ago. These are the people that we share a "party wall" with, and it's a testament to the builders that we haven't heard a peep. (That also makes me feel better about all the noise our dogs make when they're crashing into things.)

So what kind of gift to get them? I'd mentioned in the Blue Mountain post that we'd planned on buying them a rocking horse, but the woodworker at the farmers market didn't have any in stock. I couldn't think of anything that they probably didn't already have - they both have large families. Tom pushed hard for me to make more receiving blankets like the ones I made for my cousin's baby.

Off I went to the fabric store for supplies.  So many patterns to choose from. But since I only needed a little piece of each (22" x 36") I went with a package of mixed patterns instead.

My original post on making receiving blankets has all the detailed instructions if you're looking for them - I'll just show some photos here. I went with a group of patterns in soft shades of blue and yellow, and a group of louder prints with bright orange and turquoise.

I had forgotten how much I like making these - except when my discount bobbin kept messing up the tension and I had to pick out the seams THREE times. Sometimes it'd not worth it to try and save money. Those 12 new bobbins went right into the trash - but at least I'm only out $3.

Which one is your favourite? I like the train wheels - they look like peace signs. Tom likes the bright stripes. Hopefully the baby likes them all. J

A Whale of a Stuffed Toy

I tried my hand at sewing stuffed animals again. This time for my baby cousin (really cousin once removed), Piper. And this time it turned out better than the turtles I made before.

I've had this whale pattern saved for a while and truth be told, I made a couple that were not fit to take pictures of, let alone give as a gift. By the time this one was finished it was 2am so the pictures I do have are a bit hurried.

I used leftover material from the receiving blankets that I made for her in April. Don't you just love flannel? I don't think I'll ever get tired of the feel of it. Could be why I spend most of my off-hours in pyjamas.

The toy is made of four pieces for the body, plus four pieces for the flippers. I had problems getting the four pieces to line up and form the tail correctly, so instead I ended the top/side pieces halfway down the body and made the top of the tail section one solid piece. I don't know if it's my mediocre sewing skills, or a problem with the original pattern, but once I tweaked it a bit the finished product was much more acceptable.

Original pattern:

My changes:

Hopefully you can see what I've done. I cut off the tail on the side piece, shortened the top, and added a top tail piece. I also added letters so that you have a guide to where the pieces meet up. Note that my lines are approximate - you may have to adjust where you cut each piece off so that they match up. Also note when you have to cut two of the same piece to flip the second one so they are mirror images.

The order in which you sew the pieces together is up to you - though you'll want to do the flippers first. Take two of the flippers - if you're using this pattern you'll notice that the flippers aren't exactly the same so make sure you match up the right ones! - put them together right side in, and sew around the edge, leaving the bottom open. Turn them right side out - using a pencil end sometimes helps - and stuff them with Polyfil. Push the Polyfil in as tight as you can, pin the open edges together, and sew straight across the bottom to close it.

I'm going to leave out the "right side facing inwards" part from now on because I'm sure you get it.

Figure out how far back you'd like the flippers to be. I'd say 1/2 to 2/3 of the way back. Pin the raw edge of each flipper to the bottom body piece and sew right along that same line you used to close the flipper. Watch that you're attaching it to the good side of the material and that it is pointing inwards and towards the back while you're sewing it. That whale doesn't want a flipper in its belly! Repeat for the other flipper.

Pin the wide end of the triangle piece to the curved edge at the top of the belly piece and sew them together. Try to centre them both. Pin the straight edge of the "side" piece to the belly piece (along the side of course) and sew them together. Repeat on the other side. Make sure the flippers stay on the inside!

Pin the two tail pieces together and sew all around the edge (except for where it will meet the body). I think this is probably the easiest part  of the whole thing.

The last sewing step (with the machine anyway) is to attach the sides to the top. Line up the long side of the triangle with the curved side of the "side" and sew them together. Repeat on the other side. The two side pieces should meet at the tip of the triangle. I want to say side again. Side.

Now, I chose to leave the opening for stuffing at the point where the triangle meets the tail, but you could leave it open at the mouth if you wanted to. Just remember that you'll be hand sewing it closed. I'm not the greatest sewer so I like my handwork to be as hidden as possible.

Turn your whale right side out - yes, the tail is difficult. Stuff the body, including the tail, with Polyfil. Make sure it's firm. Not using enough stuffing is what gives you those lumps.

Once the whale is stuffed, hand sew the opening on the back closed with tiny stitches. Try to make them as invisible as possible. Again, I'm no expert so I'll just direct you here for a tutorial.

Once it was finished I added some eyes with black embroidery thread, but it was in the car on the way to my cousin's house (I'm so embarrassed) so I don't have any pictures. If you were planning ahead you could add the eyes before you pieced the body together. You could use felt, contrasting material, or just plain embroidery thread like I did.

When we got to my cousin's, she handed me the baby and a receiving blanket, and it just so happened that the blanket was made of the same two patterns that I'd used for the whale. How great was that? So now it kind of looks like they're a matched set.

I'm hoping I can find some other cute patterns that aren't too complicated - starfish? squirrel? penguin? - to make with with rest of the leftover material. And now my cousin is reading this and thinking, "Please, no."

Furry Bones

I got a little crafty last weekend and made new dog toys.

We go through toys quickly around here - Rottweilers are notorious chewers and not many toys last for long. We especially have a hard time with stuffed animals that have squeakers in them - which is nearly all store-bought toys.

Upon receiving a new toy, our dogs perform what we call a "squeak-ectomy" - they must remove that squeaker at all costs. And once there's a hole in the toy, it isn't long before the stuffing is all over the place too. This is one of my favourite pictures of Sasha when she was a puppy. Even then you could see the attitude.

Since we were going through toys so quickly, I started buying them at the dollar store - cheap and no squeakers. But the fabric quality is rarely good so they don't last long either.

We were at the natural foods store a few weeks ago and saw some dog toys in the shapes of foxes and moose. They were kind of flat - more like the silhouette of the animal - and firmer than regular toys. I made a guess that they had foam inside instead of poly stuffing. I also figured that I could duplicate them myself.

I have some double-sided plush material left over from the giant dog bed I made to go in the truck. I think I make dog beds more than anything else these days. I found a silhouette of a bear and a fox on line and printed them out. I thought the bear would be easier than the moose I saw in the store, with all those antlers to go around - in addition to the legs.

I was left with this once the bear was cut out of the material. I think it looks more like a porcupine.

But I pinned two together and got to sewing. Until I got to the first turn. It is incredibly hard to sew double-sided plush, especially making tight corners. I gave up on the animals pretty quickly but i really wanted to make them toys, so I thought, "How about a bone? They love bones."

I quickly cut two rectangular pieces of material, sketched a bone shape onto one, and sewed them together, leaving about 3 inches open along one side to turn it right side out. I didn't cut out the shape first, to give me more material to hang on to as it went through the sewing machine.

Once it was sewn, I cut off the excess material and turned the bone right side out. I grabbed my left over foam from this bench project and cut out a bone shape, slightly smaller than the material. I forced the foam inside the bone shape; it's not as easy as polyfill, but it's definitely gives a firmer toy. And I figured, even if they did rip it open, there wouldn't be stuffing spilling all over the place.  A few hidden stitches to close up the opening and it was done. The second one was just as easy. I let Chloe choose which one she wanted first.

Check out the happy dogs. It wasn't easy to get a shot of Sasha with hers - she hides because she thinks you're going to take it from her - but Chloe was quite willing to show hers off.

So far they've held up really well. I have lots of leftover foam so there might be a whole pile of toys in their futures!

Storage Bench Makeover

Ahhhh, sorry for not posting anything DIY/decor-ish last week. I took this vacation thing very seriously. While I worked on a project every day, I couldn't motivate myself to write about them. 

But now it's a new week and I guess it's time to report in.

Do you have one of these chest/benches? 

I think almost everyone has one, or has a friend that has one. We bought it once upon a time to use as a coffee table. But things change, furniture arrangements change, tastes change. I wasn't in love with the faux leather material, and the top sagged because there wasn't any support in the lid. I was afraid someone would sit on it and fall right through.

It sat in a storage room for nearly a year, but this week I dragged it out and gave it a makeover.

First I removed the lid from the body, and then I removed the staples holding the mesh-type fabric to the bottom of the box and the lid. Every.Single.Staple.

As you can see below, there was just some webbing and padding in the lid. I measured and cut two pieces of 1x6 to provide support. The frame has a bit of a lip so I was able to slide the two pieces of wood in snugly underneath without having to use any screws. The top has plenty of support now and the sag is completely gone.

I bought some grey wool suiting fabric a long time ago, specifically for recovering a few of the benches and stools we have that came with less than stellar original coverings. I wrote about the one at the foot of our bed here. This wool fabric is so beautiful. It feels soft and expensive, and I just want to pet it all the time.

I started by recovering the bottom part first. I cut four pieces of material, one for each side, with a couple of extra inches at top and bottom - some to fold under the base to be stapled, and some to fold over the top and inside the box. I had originally planned to staple the material inside the box, but after putting in a few staples I realized that it looked just awful. Tom suggested I use velcro instead. I bought the kind that is sticky on the back even though I planned on sewing it on. The stickiness allowed it to stay in place on the material without having to pin it.

I sewed down both sides of the velcro just to make sure it was secure. For the inside of the box, I stuck it on and then added staples at each end and in the middle.

For the material on the top, I wanted to add some visual interest. Before I attached it to the lid, I sewed a tiny hem, almost like piping, in each direction across the top.

I stapled the material on to the lid and replaced the mesh. I then painted all of the visible staples with black paint to help them blend in. The final step was to replace the feet and the hardware, reattaching the top to the base.

It ended up being a two-day project, what with having to go out and get velcro, but I'm glad I took my time to do it properly. Before it was recovered, Tom wanted to get rid of it, but now he's thinking we just might be able to find a place for it.