How I've built an Ottoman

Before our last ordeal and going into the hospital

I had bought a case of red wine (12 bottles)

in a effort to lower my high cholesterol

(somewhere I read that one glass of red wine a day

will lower the cholesterol).

Anyway...

... the wine was packaged in cardboard boxes,

and they looked like this:

Each box would hold 2 bottles,

so I had 6 boxes just like this...

As soon as I unpacked the wine

and piled the containers

I started thinking: "I should make something with this boxes...

they are really sturdy and strong...".

Then the hospital thing happened.

But then...

... two days ago... EUREKA!!!

I had an idea!

The boxes had been sitting in my hallway,

in 2 piles of three side by side

and they just looked like a perfect seat or stool or...

... yeah!... "I think I could do it...", I thought...lol...

And I did, I did!

Just look at what I did!

I meant to take pictures of the all process,

and then I totally forgot about the camera laying on my work desk...

But I'll try to describe to you all how I did it.

First I started by taping (with duct tape) the boxes together;

a three boxes pile first, then the second set of three.

When the piles of three were taped securely and felt quite sturdy,

I taped the 2 piles together, making a cube.

After all the taping and trying it repeatedly

(to make sure it would hold me without collapsing...

... it's really strong!),

I padded the sides of the cube first (4 sides plus bottom).

I did use a staple gun at first,

but only to hold it in place and then I hand sew it.

For the padding I used old fabric bed pads

(I always keep them after they've gone bad for J's bed,

sometimes I even use them for bating small quilts or wall hangings).

For the top, or seat, I've used the same type of padding

and then on top of it lots and lots of bating scraps from my quilting,

and then topped the all thing with more padding.

Hand sew the all thing together

(like I said I've used the staple gun first just to stabilize it,

because it didn't permanently held it,

and then after the sewing I removed all the staples).

And then was easy: searched my stash for a pretty looking canvas fabric,

cut it to cover the four sides first. Hand stitched it.

Cut the bottom square and stitched it in place.

The hardest part was to cover the odd seat shape,

but not that bad... not that perfect neither but...

... I really think it came out really good!

Hand sew a pretty trim all around the seat...

...  et voila!

The girls (grand daughters) have been here

and they disputed the right to seat on it!

And that...

Oh! THAT made my day!

I knew then I had done good!