In Denial

Like most teachers, I'm in denial that the summer is coming to an end and its time to be thinking about setting up my classroom and getting ready for another year. Luckily not all teachers are like this, as a friend of mine asked if I could make crate seats for her classroom. I jumped at the chance - it gave me a project to do and I wasn't the one paying for it! It fit perfectly into my spending freeze :)

Essentially, I made seats that fit into crates that she already had for her classroom. Now the crates can do double duty: they still act as storage but now also serve as seats.

The process was simple enough, albeit a bit tedious. We purchased two 2 x 4 foot pieces of plywood, two bags of mid-loft batting, and 2.5 yards of fabric. The most time consuming part was cutting the plywood to fit perfectly on the ledges of the crates. I measured the openings and ripped the plywood down to roughly 12.5 by 15.5 inch rectangles. Listening to the advice of my husband, I used a spare 2 by 4 as a guide to run my circular saw against. This helped me make cut straight lines.

 There was a little bit of trial and error at first to see if the wood would fit into the crates, but it actually happened quicker than I expected!

While watching some tv with the husband, I cut all the fabric and batting down to size. Since I was making 6 seats, this was easy but a little time consuming. Then it was time to upholster the seats. I laid the fabric face down, then layered the batting on (I used two layers to make the seats a little softer), and finally put the wood on top. Be sure to put the side of the wood that you want to be visible face up.

I used the fancy-pants stapler to make quick work of the upholstering. I started by putting a staple into each side, making sure to pull the fabric and batting tight before stapling.

I left the corners for last because corners are not my friend tricky. Basically, pretend you're wrapping a present and tuck the fabric and batting in and then put some staples in there quickly before it unravels. Ok, maybe its not that dramatic. Repeat this six times, and I had this:

Lastly, I wanted to add some handles to make it easy to pick up the cushion to get to whatever Miss Lance is storing inside. Instead of using ribbon, I decided to sew some handles with the same fabric. I basically made this up as I went, so I'll do my best to explain. I cut the fabric into (roughly) 2 by 5 inch strips. Then I ironed over the short edges and hemmed them. Easy so far. Next, I ironed a quarter inch hem on both long sides and then folded the fabric in half. Maybe a picture will help.

Pretty much, I was left with a stronger half inch wide strap. I simply sewed that together and I was all set... of course, multiply this by 6 as well.

As for attaching the handles to the seats, I stuck with my trusty stapler and secured the handle to the bottom of the seat.

See how when the seat is in place, the handle sticks out nicely and its easy to grab?

I love these! I can't wait to see them in Miss Lance's classroom and I really can't wait to hear what her students think of them. It almost makes me wish I taught third grade so I could use them in my classroom. I'll have to think of something that would be a little taller for my middle schoolers. Any ideas?

These would also be really great in a playroom at home with little ones. Anything that doubles at storage is great in my book!

Do any of you teachers have similar things in your classroom? I am starting to get excited about getting into school to set-up my classroom. Who is with me on that one? Anybody??

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

Linked Up at:

 Simply Designing