Hope Chest Seat

 This morning I had a strange desire. Uncommon. Unusual. Weird. Out of the ordinary. I wanted to sew. I thought, "This humidity and lack of sleep is doing something to my brain." I do not like sewing. In fact, I hate sewing. I can sew, and quite well, but I have a strong distaste for it. Normally. I wasn't sure what to sew at first, since I prefer projects with words in their titles like, "Quick" and "Easy". However, there was one project I'd been thinking about doing for a while, since I saw it when I was looking at something else on the internet. I was looking here and found simple instructions for a window seat cushion. Now, at Christmas time my Mom gave me one of those foam "egg" mattress pads that go on your bed. However, instead of helping my back to feel better, it hurt worse. =S So I took it off of my bed, and my sister rolled it up and put it under the blanket I had on my hopechest. Thus, the state of my hopechest below.

 the problem was that it was always wanting to slide off, bunch up, or something, and it was difficult to open my chest as well. So when I found this tutorial, a solution made its way into my mind.

 Now, I love pictures. I love tutorials with lots of pictures. Step by step pictures.Close up pictures. Any kind of pictures, I love em. I'm a visual learner. =) So I thought to make this a little more interesting and inspiring, I'd show you some pictures to illustrate how I made the seat for my hope chest.

1.

 First, I took the other things off. Mmhmm, yup, that is a necessary prerequisite. 

2.

 Secondly, I gathered my materials. I used a foam mattress pad and some fabric that I bought a long time ago in hopes of making curtains, but I never got around to making them.

 3.

 Then I opened my cute little sewing box that is supposed to help motivate me to sew, I took out my measuring tape, and I measured the area that I wanted my seat to cover. Then I followed the directions on the Sew Like My Mom blog, which are as follows:

To make the cushion, I measured the top of the seat, subtracted 1 inch from the length and width, and cut 2 pieces of 1″ foam to that size. Using spray adhesive, I glued them together. Then to make the cover, I winged it! I cut a top and bottom piece the size of the foam, plus a 1/4″ seam allowance all the way around. I cut a 2.5″ strip the length of the entire perimeter of the cushion, then making it up as I went along, I sewed the top to the side, sandwiching my piping inbetween. Then I did the same for the bottom piece, and left an 8″ hole to stuff the cushion inside. Once the cushion was flat inside, I whipstitched the hole closed.

 4.

Next, I cut the foam. But I didn't take pictures of that. Or the trying to glue the two pieces together. Notice I said trying. If you have spray glue, use it. I'm convinced it would be better than the liquid stuff. Probably better than a stick too, but I didn't try that. After I set the foam aside, I cut the top and bottom pieces out of the fabric.

5.

 I feel like I'm back in school, writing directions for an English assignment and trying not to use the same directive words more than once. First, second, next, then...

Anyways.

I used a rotary cutter to cut a 2.5 inch strip for the side of the seat.

6.

 Almost finally, I sewed. Bad picture, but it works.I sewed the strip to the top section first, and then I sewed on the bottom piece, leaving one end open to put the foam in. 

7.

 The almost finished product!

8.

Just as I was ready to clean up, I found this flower that I had made a while ago and a black ribbon. Using "Sew No More" I made it into a little bow.

So then I pushed my foam into the pouch, whip stitched it closed, and voila! Wait, I'll show you the finished product in a minute, but I want to show the "before" again. Just for effect.

Now. Voila!