When you look at the frequency of my blog posts,you probably can tell, with just 2 weeks (!) left to 'd-day' I'm more active than ever. I spend almost every day behind my sewing machine, working on baby-related and other projects, running up-and-own the stairs and just not sitting on my butt... The days just seem to fly by. I think every day that I really, really should pack a hospital bag, but on the other side, I don't experience early signs like Braxton-Hicks contractions and I don't expect the baby popping out just like that...
People around me say this is the 'nesting instinct', and I'm definitely feeling very energetic and productive these days and I do have an urge to organize and finish unfinished projects. I can't complain, I have no annoying pregnancy symptoms at all, besides quite frequent trips to the bathroom and tired legs at the end of the day from running around... But: no back pain, no swollen legs, no heartburn, and I don't even need a nap during the day!
Let's be honest, working on fun and creative projects is still better than cleaning the house all day long, right?
We have a teak wooden outdoor bench at the dinner table which we use a lot. Up until now we've kept the original seating cushions (just because it was easy) which were quite ugly yellow and red colored, and even after several attempts to have them cleaned remained stained.
Lately, I've visited a nearby IKEA store quite a few times to buy baby-related items (like my fav. project-bathtowels) I came across these cotton rugs. They only had a few left-overs with brown stripes. For 1.49 euro a piece I thought it was a bargain and I took 4 of them. The idea was to use them for the bench.
As you can see the rugs have a rustic texture and they are not perfect (like the stripes don't match perfectly) but they are really sturdy, so ideal for intensive use:
material & sizing:
my finished size: approx. 50cm x 145 cm
- 4 IKEA 'Signe' woven cotton rugs
- 1 meter of IKEA 'Minna' fabric for the back
- mattress for cushion stuffing
step-by-step:
I didn't make step-by-step pictures this time, but what I did was:
- cutting off the shorter, knotted edges, and then zigzagged them to prevent fraying.
- then I sewed two rugs together, pressed and steamed the seam and then strengthened the seams with topstitching on both sides of the seam.
- I used IKEA's sturdier cotton 'Minna' fabric for the back with an overlapping seam and simple velcro closure.
- I kept the rugs as long as possible and folded under, so it looks good from the sides too! (= the back fabric is shorter than the front)
- For the stuffing I simply recycled the old mattresses (complete with cover and all) and made the new cover a bit smaller (both in length and width) for a nice, firm look.
Below is another project from a few days ago, the roman blinds which were lying around for about a year of 1.5?... I wrote about how to make those here.
The total look is much more cleaner and coordinated (until we saved enough money to have the bay-windows placed instead of the old window...)
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