Re-run of my guest post: Ottoman slipcover tutorial

Remember Laurel let me guest post on her blog last week? One project I shared was a tutorial on making a slipcover for an ottoman.

Here it is again:

I got this ottoman to match the gingham glider I have in our nursery. After a boatload of customer service issues with Babies R Us, I actually ended it up getting it for free. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and the price was right, but in nearly 3 years, I've never used it for anything but a place to stack clean laundry.

Moving it elsewhere in our house will be far more practical.

I'll admit making a slipcover seems a little intimidating, but this project is actually quite simple. All the sewing is straight lines, so nothing fancy or complicated, and after the fabric is cut, it doesn't take long at all to complete.

So what I am I waiting for? Here we go...

First, I took measurements of each section of the ottoman. No, I am not a professional artist in case you thought that from my lovely sketch.

Then, for the purpose of the tutorial, I labelled each section:

A: top cushion

B: long side of cushion

C: short side of cushion

D: long side of skirt

E: short side of skirt

F: inside of pleats

Since I knew I would be using ticking stripe fabric, I drew each section so I could have a visual of how the pattern should face once I cut my fabric. If you have an all-over fabric, this doesn't matter.

After my fabric was cut, I started by sewing the alternating sides of the cushion (B and C) to the top cushion (A).

Once the long sides of the cushion (B and C) were sewn to the top (A), I sewed the short sides of pieces B and C to one another. This should end up being what looks like half a shirt box.

I then started on the skirt. I alternated inside pleat pieces (F) with long skirt pieces (D) and short skirt pieces (E). I did this all the way around, forming kind of a tube.

For the skirt, it should go pleat piece, skirt piece, pleat piece, skirt piece, etc.

After the skirt was completely sewn, I pinched the top corners of the pleats together and sewed them shut.

At this point, I was ready to sew the two halves together. I took the top cushion part and put it, rightside up, on the ottoman. I then pinned the skirt to the top part right on the ottoman, being careful to line up the corner seams for the pleats.

I sewed the two pieces together and hemmed the bottom. That's it!

And don't forget to stop by Kimba's for DIY Thursday to see what other creative DIY projects there are out there!