My craft journey this year began with signing up for the upholstered cube class at the workroom. I've been looking forward to taking this class for about a year but, with university and work, I was never able to take the class whenever it was offered...til now! Being very crafty and handy, I always wanted to do some carpentry work but, not signup for a carpentry class at a community college, so when I knew that the workroom was offering a class that merged carpentry and sewing, I was elated!
The first Sunday class, was all about constructing the cube. Erin provided us with 5 planks of wood and nails and spent nearly half of the class time gluing and hammering away. My main concern during this first part was making sure that the nails went straight in without sticking out or splitting the wood. At some points I hammered nails into knots which Erin told me was ok if I hammered really, really hard.
After hammering, came the cutting of the foam. Erin brought an electric carving knife which did the job superbly. Then I used a staplegun to keep the foam in place. Using a staplegun for the first time was...something. I was supernervous, especially about having my finger in the trigger. It reminded me of those movie scenes where the guy who has never held a gun is shaking their hand and randomly pulls the trigger. I was scared I was going to accidently pull the trigger and hurt someone with the nails. The sound of the staples coming out also made my heart jump quite a few times.
Then it was time for the polyester batting. This was a quick sew but it was tricky to put on because the batting had to be stretched without being teared.
Soon after the lining and the cover came together fairly quickly. Careful cutting, marking, pinning made the sewing a snap. The most important thing I learned is definitely how to round and sew corners.
The final step was cutting a dust cover to cover up all the fabric and the staples.
The next most exciting thing about the ottoman was getting the legs which I found at Lee Valley on King and Bathurst. I have to say that I saw very nice legs at Home Depot but for price reasons I ended up getting these adjustable legs.
Ta-da! My finished ottoman! I'm so happy with it! I want to make so many of them but it's going to be an expensive hobby- at least for now!
