Window Seat, Part I

Sewing is going to happen again, but I've been a little overwhelmed this summer with a number of things and probably #1 of those things is the kitchen renovation. It was started in mid-May, and here we are, almost to August, and it's still not finished. Cabinets, countertops and the sink faucet are in, as well as the new floor (which happened before all those other things).


One of the fun details we decided to add was a window seat for the bay window. It has turned out to be kind of an odd shape because of the depth of the window and the width. We wanted it to be useful for seating at the table, and since you need to be closer to the table while you eat, it's bumped out a bit in the middle.


I'm going to make the window seat, but it's definitely a bit of a challenge due to the shape. In spite of the odd shape, I do want to say that home dec sewing is some of the easiest you can do, perfect for beginning sewists. Basically, if you can sew a straight seam, and do a little math, you can decorate your home with better fabrics and at a considerable cost savings.


Oh, and there is no fitting (well, on a body anyway)!


Let's get started!


Step 1 is decide on the thickness of the cushion. We're going with 4" thick which gives it a nice expensive and custom look. I've purchased upholstery foam at Joann's before, but with the odd widths, I hit the interwebs, and ultimately found the best deal at OnlineFabricStore.net. Have y'all heard of that shop? It's new to me, but it seems to be chock full of home dec supplies.


I ordered 2 pieces of foam: 24" x 108" and 30" x 54". There's a method to this madness, but look how it arrived:

Quite compressed! That's just one piece, as I had the epiphany to record this process after the first one was unwrapped. Annndddd unwrapped:

These are going to need to be cut into shapes. Yes, shapes. Apparently the easiest way to do the cutting is with an electric knife, so that was ordered and has also arrived. I'm going to start with covering the cushions with muslin because it will make the fashion fabric slide on much easier. More on that in another post. Let's not get ahead of ourselves!


Remember I mentioned odd shape. I need to make a pattern, so armed with newspaper and tape, that's what I did today.

There will be 4 cushions total. The center front will be pointed on both ends and 24" wide. If you can see the rulers in the picture, that's kind of the outline. There will be a rectangular cushion center back against the center window. Then in front of each smaller window on the side will be a cushion that is kind of an odd shape.


That's enough for today. Mr. Sewing Life is not quite sold on the shape of the 4 cushions, so he'll be signing off on this first. Really, there's not a lot of choice.


Next up: the cutting of the foam. Maybe maybe I'll try to get a video of that happening.