This one is for Katie M...

As previously blogged about here, I finally covered these two ugly ottomans that I bought a year ago at the church garage sale. In the first post I just showed the before and after of the first ottoman, but by request of Katie, I attempted to take step-by-step pictures of how to cover these ottomans for the second one. Hopefully this will help those of you get an idea of what to do should you want to cover a piece of furniture as well.

Step 1:

Now for these ottomans, I chose to use decorative cording to separate the top of the ottomans from the sides. If new to sewing, I would not suggest using this stuff because it is difficult to sew and can be frustrating even if you aren't new to sewing. Instead, I would just measure the top and sides and just sew a regular seam. If you are using cording, pin all sides to the piece that will be the top of the ottoman. Carefully sew all sides together. If using a material that is not reversable, make sure you have the wrong sides facing out. If not using cording, skip to the next step.

Step 2:

Now pin the side piece to the top piece with the wrong sides out.


Step 3:

It should look something like this when completely pinned. Sew all sides together to the top piece and then pin and sew the two remaining sides together.


Step 4:

If using a dark opaque material to cover an old piece of furniture, you dont have to remove all the old upholstery. In this case, I just cut off the ugly dust ruffle and removed the legs before I started covering the ottoman.

Step 5:

If you would like to add extra padding, you have a couple of options. You have several options of padding thickness but it is always cheaper to buy the thinner padding and add several layers if desired. In this case, I used 4 1-inch layers because this thing had virtually no padding what so ever. If using several layers, you should use some kind of spray adhesive to hold them all together slightly and keep them from moving to much when you are trying to assemble everything together. Spray the adhesive on the ottoman, and then between each layer you are adding.

Step 6:

Cover everything with a thin layer of batting so that the final product looks and feels smooth on all sides. Make sure that you measure the batting to be a little longer than the ottoman on each side.

Step 7:

Use a staple gun to secure the batting to the bottom of the ottoman. Staple in one or two spots on opposite sides then finish stapling the remainder areas. You dont have to staple many places for this step because you will staple more securely when you add the cover.


Step 8:

Cut the corner pieces as shown below or tuck them into the sides. I have covered both ways before. I just pick the option that looks and feels the smoothest.

Step 9:

Slip the cover over the top and turn upside down to begin stapling. Pull the material firmly but not too firm and staple in a few areas starting in the middle of one side (if you pull the material too tightly, you will create puckers in the material). Repeat that step on the opposite side you just stapled. Next, repeat these two steps for the other two opposite sides. One you have a few areas stapled on each side, you can fill in the gaps leaving the corners unstapled for now.

Step 10:

After you have finished stapling all the sides, manipulate the corner material so that it looks somewhat like this and then staple several times for security. Sometimes you will have too much material and will have to cut some off before stapling.

Step 11:

I forgot to take a picture of the next step so this might seem confusing but for a final touch, you can tuck the extra material under itself and add some more staples to avoid future fraying. I did this for all the under sides of the ottoman.

Step 12:
Pull the material firmly but not too firm and staple in a few areas on one side.
Screw the legs back on and you are finished! I hope this wasnt too confusing. It is kind of hard to type out all the instructions but good luck!!