Shaving Off Foam

I had no sooner bragged to my husband, “I’m pretty good at this” than I realized the foam piece I was trying to shove into the cushion cover was just too big.   Mistakes like this are humbling.

I am working on this little project for Anadel at the same time I’m trying to make the window seat cushions.  She has 8 dining room chairs with very old, tired, stained seat covers.  I checked on what it would cost to get the work done professionally and it came in at $1200.  So I offered to do it for her.

I brought home one of each size cushion.  I started by cutting a diagonal hole in the bottom of each cover where I inserted a zipper to facilitate laundering in the future. 



Then I washed them with a lot of soap and Clorox to try to remove years of stains.

I made a pattern for the foam inserts and went out to The American Foam Center to get them cut, always a trip in more ways than distance. 



After carefully encasing the first foam piece in dacron (by hand), I went to put it in the cover.  That’s when I discovered my patterns were too big by about 3/8” on all sides.

So back to the TAFC where I had to twist Stewart’s arm to drop what he was doing and shave off the extra foam.  We agreed on $1 a cushion.  I put the dacron back on and tried it before leaving this time.  A perfect fit.

So now I have 2 out of the 6 done and ready to return when I go for my piano lesson on Thursday.

Most people never think about what’s inside a cushion if it’s reasonably comfortable.  I now know exactly what’s inside and what size it must be to fit properly.  Useful information if I ever take on a job like this again.