My Giveaway ended late Friday night, and Saturday I told Rafflecopter to select the winner – and Raff picked Tonya S. Congratulations Tonya – your package will be shipped out today!
I want to share a little tutorial I did awhile back. How to slipcover a small ottoman. Ottomans are the perfect thing to use for your first slipcover project. They are small and have straight lines, now fancy curves or geometry to figure out.
You can also see my ruffled ottoman here, a cute ruffled ottoman I made for a friend, and one of my very first ottoman slipcovers.
This slipcover is so simple and can be made even more simply if you don’t want the ruffles. 
This is the ottoman I started with. Good bones, still comfortable for an extra seat, but looking a bit dull and worn. A slipcover is the perfect update for quick, easy, and cheap.
For the style cover I made you need to cut a piece of fabric in a rectangle shape, large enough to cover as long on each side as you want it to cover. I plan to paint the legs so I wanted part of them to show.
I also wanted ruffles. For the ruffles, tear strips of fabric the width you want.
Ruffle your strips of fabric. I used my ruffle foot, but you can run gathering threads and gather that way too.
Sew the ruffled strips onto the rectangle of fabric.
Lay the fabric, right (ruffled) side down on the ottoman.
At each corner pull the fabric together firmly and pin.
Sew along the line you have pinned, on all four corners.
Trim seam. Serge or zigzag edges if you want.
Turn right side out and place on ottoman. It should fit perfectly! If it needs it, you can tweak the seams a bit. 
I left mine a bit shorter than I really wanted it because I planned to put a band around the bottom.
The vintage sheet I used for the ruffled top part had a lovely scalloped edge. I cut the scalloped edge off and used it as my band. You could add a ruffle, a pleated band, or just a plain band. Or you could just hem it and leave as is.
I liked the finished result. So did my Mom. And since this sheet was in my Mom’s stash of stuff and it had belonged to a woman we knew when I was a little girl, and it has sentimental value to us, my Mom gets this ottoman. I’m just waiting to see what color she wants the legs painted and then I’ll finish it up 😀
If you have and ottoman that is looking tired or you are just ready for a change, don’t toss it and spend money on a new one! You can make a slipcover for it so easily! You can even skip the ruffle part and just do a simple cover using the method I showed you. Hem it when you have the corner seams sewn and viola! Instant new, fresh look!
You can see more of my slipcover projects here, and here, and here, and here, and here.
Jill
Sew a Fine Seam
Follow along with me here:
Thanks for sharing this tutorial. I don’t own a sewing machine or know how to sew like you, but it was fun getting to see how it’s made. It looks easy enough. Your mom will enjoy her new ottoman! I like the scalloped edge you added to it too.
You don’t have a sewing machine? How can anyone live without one?!! LOL! Just kidding of course 😀
Jill, great tutorial! Last month I was cleaning out old fabric and saw a kilt (from Scotland) that I had worn 40 years ago. I knew the wool was still in great shape, so I cut it to fit a small foot stool, tacked it on the sides with upholstery tacks, and for the final touch put the large kilt pin on the corner. I’m an army brat and moved a lot, so I can’t always return to a place I may have enjoyed living. Now every time I see it, I’m reminded of good childhood memories. Cheryl Ann
Cheryl Ann that is super cool! What a fun way to use something that has so much sentimental value and I absolutely LOVE that you used a kilt pin on it!
Hope you have a great weekend with your family Jill. Did you all do anything special? Hope you at least relaxed some.
You make it look so easy Jill. Doing it the way you showed, great tutorial by the way, makes it seem much easier. I think I might actually be able to do this, make it look like something decent. So glad you shared this very useable project. Altho I’m not a ruffle person,love how ruffles look on ottoman. Your Mom is lucky lady to have you for her daughter in more ways than one. She’ll treasure that little ottoman because you made cover for it.
I have little foot stool I got at Target on clearance with metal legs. Would look more cottage with cover I think. Might use part/or all of a vintage tablecloth to make the cover. I’ve been making pillow covers using parts of vintage cloths and whatever else I can find to make them with. The pillow covers I had made just weren’t cottagey. Love the look of the flowers and even the fruit. Goes better with the vintage cloths I used on chair and one on seats of couch.
Hubs told me yesterday I’ve spent more time cleaning this couch than I have other one. I did keep the Broyhill couch we had really clean also since it was white with blue subtle plaid . My new to me couch is very much like the Broyhill in style. Broyhill was couch we bought in MT, hubs/daughter got rid of it when I was gone, then we got the ugly couch. Guess somebody else didn’t think it was ugly, was sold at thrift shop right away.
Hope you have a good week, try not to work so hard. YeahI know it’s easy for me to say since I don’t have kids and a business. I can only imagine how hard you work all the time.
Yesterday was digging in sewing room and found all kinds of lining so got one pair of l/R panels lined yesterday. Will work on other pair this week, maybe even today.
Hubs was working on my sewing machine, hasn’t been sewing right, something to do with bobbin. Was tension on bobbin, he adjusted, fiddled with it for long time then got it going the way it should sew. Hooray. Was ready to chuck the blasted thing. It’s a EuroPro, got it thru Fingerhut when we still lived in KY. Has all kinds of stitches I’ve never even tried to use. Guess I should try them out but afraid to mess up machine again, lol. Happy summer days
Thanks JaneEllen! you know what? My machine has a ton of stitches I never use either. There are so many things the machine does that I love and use but so much I will never use. Wish you could order them with just what you will use! LOL!
How clever are you using a scalloped sheet edge. My scalloped valances were kind of a disaster as I tried to do them by hand. Thanks for the excellent tips!
I love repurposing old sheets and linens into something new!