Project: Entry Bench

So with Olive's baby blessing coming up... Tomorrow... Micah and I decided to add about 18 million little things to our lives.. Ugh. Kill the crafty side of me please, she creates so much stress!

Our entryway is pretty open, about 12'X6', and boooooring! We don't have any furniture so the wide open hallway is awesome but blah. 

So we are repurposing our old entertainment center from Ikea. I forgot to take a before picture... :(  the color was similar to this.

Ours is 17"D, 75"L, & 24"H. We wanted to get a cushion for the top so it was a bit cozier. Also, our pet bunnies scratched the top horribly (from jumping up and off of it) and we wanted to hide those marks.

My initial thought regarding this idea was to buy a cushion or 2 to go on top. Save myself a massive headache at attempting sewing... since I don't do crap like that... or didn't do crap like this til now. Ugh. Crafty-self needs to stop!

Anyway, after calling around and driving to several stores (Wal-Mart, Pier 1 Imports, World Market...) We quickly realized how expensive and hard to come by these cushions would be! the biggest size we found was 46' and it was $80. Uhhh no thank you! Unless we wanted to get a sweet hawaiian print one from Wal-Mart which was $19.99, I was going to have to make them.
*cringe*

Mentally I panicked a little, but then got to work. We went to Joann's to use their ever-frequent 40%off coupons, found the fabric & supplies we needed, then set to work.

So we used the measurement of 17"x37", making 2 cushions. 

I had Micah (my painter, carpenter, anything-I-can't-do-er...) paint for me. 

While he painted, I pulled my sewing machine out. 

Now, warning, I've never sewn anything before, never taken any classes... So this is a "how to" if you have no idea "how to."

Supplies:
-3" foam, 37"x24. We had to cut the 24" down to 17". 
-Home decor fabric. We needed 37" long plus 3 inches for each side of the foam, then for myself an added 1 inch per seam, so I could sew the lines without dying for fabric. So total 45" long. Then the same logic for the width, of 17" foam, another 3 for then sides and 2 more for both sewing lines, for 25". So we had Joann's cut 50" of the fabric, which was 54" wide.
-cushion grip fabric. It has little rubber bumps on it so the cushions don't slide. Micah's genius idea! We only got enough to cover the base, 17"x37". That fabric was also 54" wide, so we only needed 37" long. 
-batting, to wrap the square-edged foam to give it a cozier feel. We bought enough to wrap around the entire cushions, so about 70 inches for each.

To begin, I just laid out the fabric, inside out.

I then pinned it along the top edge, centering it.

I then laid a foam cushion out, wrapping the fabric over it to see where the sides should start being sewn together, and how the ends would meet up. Since the top fabric was so much longer than the bottom bumpy fabric, it got a little confusing.

Pinned the sides next, making sure it was aligned at the bottom, I sewed those sides no problem.

Then the corners. Ah corners! It wasn't just a straight line anymore! :( no lie, I had major issues figuring out how to sew them.. Especially at 12am when I started on this project... So it was honesty just a pin and guessing game... It turned out pretty good actually! 

I then enlisted Micah's help. Who was busy doing this:

It was taken at night so the color is a little off... And it's super blurry. But it's a bright turquoise. 

I had Micah wrap the foam cushion with batting & we safety pinned it, leaving the pins in even when we stuffed it into the fabric cover. We put the rubber bumps side on the same side as the safety pins. 

So I then passed out at 2am, exhausted and left them for the morning.

I pinned the  outside, opting to hand sew the ends closed. 

I found out that I used about 2 times the length in string. The way I sewed it was starting out going down into the fabric, then pulling the needle up & out, keeping the string taut.

the finished product!

Now I just need an entry table and some art hanging on the wall!