A couple months ago my lovely mother-in-law asked if I could make her an ottoman cover for her. We went shopping for fabric (at Jo-Ann’s) a few weeks later. She has a lovely light pink marble surrounding her fireplace and she wanted to coordinate with that.
We found this beautiful soft pink fabric with delicate white swirls in it. It wasn’t too expensive and most importantly it was washable. (As she is known to watch some grandkiddos from time to time, that is an important feature.)
I started with a pattern she had (McCall’s 7531) but made several modifications. I say the term pattern very loosely — it was more of a tutorial printed in pattern form. The pattern didn’t actually sew the top to the bottom piece – it was merely gathered and pinned with upholstery pins (not good for little ones like my nephew) and the bottom skirt was also tied in place with extra cording from inside the piping. Instead, I made it all one piece and attached the skirt directly so it can be easily washed and thrown back on with no effort at all.
You can see the original cover under. The cushion on top of the ottoman was sewn in place and not quite square on the top anymore. Years of use (or just a few years of abuse by certain grandkiddos) and it was a bit finicky to cover. I did also want to hide the seams in the corner pleats, so with a bit of calculations, I figured out how big my two skirt pieces should be so they’d come together and be hidden inside the corner pleats, so the bottom skirt appears to be a continuous piece.
So here’s the finished ottoman — I put it in my mother-in-law’s living room yesterday. She’s off on vacation in sunny CA and she’ll come back to a nice surprise this weekend. Hope she likes it!
Oh and I hope you all have a . . .
