Concealing an eyesore!

I'm so glad that the holidays are over so that I can start knocking out these little projects! I'm also happy to knock another project off that To-do list! Yay!

So we have this ottoman. We bought it several years ago, and it has withstood several years worth of punishment from the family. Its a storage ottoman and the boys have used it as a barrel, bathtub and prison. The inside is a little beat up from boys and legs being stuffed into it. The outside has also withstood several trials and tribulations. From spilled drinks to projectile vomit. Its seen its share of hardship. Here's what the poor thing looked like 5 minutes ago.

 Isn't that poor thing pathetic looking? The hubs was so tired of looking at it that he didn't even want it downstairs when we put up Christmas. So it was banished to my sewing room. I actually had the new cover for it cut out and kind of sewn up before Christmas, but then the great Christmas push came, and I needed to finish my gifts so the cover got moved aside. Until today.

I cut the circle for the top the same size as the top of the ottoman plus 1" and then measured from the edge to the floor  and added 1". I also measure the circumference around the top of the ottoman. I decided that I wanted to add some pleats, so I just double that measurement. I ended up having two seams on the skirt so that I could allow for the pleats. I also originally intended on having the opposite side of the fabric showing. Its a matte knubby finish rather than the satiny smooth side, but I forgot all this when I picked up the cover today.

Thats what happens when I don't write things down. So today I marked 8 equal sections on the circle and on the skirt. I matched up each of the marks and then put in 4 pleats equidistant from each other. To make the box pleats on the skirt, I simply folded the extra fabric so that the folds met at the mark I had made, and I did this 3 more times.

 I didn't place the seams in the pleats, because I forgot about them, and the seams are showing for the very same reason. I should have placed the seams under the pleats, but I didn't notice any of this until after I sewn the skirt to the circle and realized that the 'wrong' side (which I then made the right side, by deciding to have the shiny side out) was exposed, and the skirt seams were fully exposed. So rather than undo everything I had just done, I took out about an 1" of stitching at the top, just enough to free the skirt seam, and then removed the stitching from the seam and turned it in. I then simply resewed it and the top seam and no one was the wiser, until I just announced it......

 So there's the finished product. She's looking a lot nicer than she had, and the best part? If anything gets on her, I can just throw the cover in the wash, which happens to be about 20' away. :)

Oh did you guys notice that my curtains were gone? Yep, that's another project, which I'm hoping that I get done soon, because I tell you what I can feel the cold seeping in around the windows without those curtains there. Brrrrr. I am going to have myself a cup of coffee {shocked, I know} and prop my feet up on that purdy ottoman. :)

Have a great day guys!