Step three, Bolsters to you!

A trip to a big cloth shop in Palmerston North was productive, all sorts of interesting stuff. Years ago one of me Ex's was right into making clothes and stuff, and she used to drag me from shop to shop looking at cloth and other junk for hours at a time. I hated it. Boringboringboringboring. She thought it was a great joke to wait til I said I was going to wait in the car then be absolutely concerned about my opinion about some cloth she hadn't quite found yet, it was vital I dog her foot steps and tell her what I thought. 'I don't give a shit.' was generally it.

Amazing how stuff changes when you are interested!

With a rainbow of colours and patterns at my whim, I ended up choosing a medium weight plain white rip-stop cotton at NZ$12 per meter. By my half assed calculations 3 meters would be enough. The upper bunk foam proved to be thinner than the bunk squabs and it was this I chose for bolster packing.

The 1st step was easy enough, decide on the dimensions. 300mm high turned out to be a useful size and was easy to work with so I went with that. Other dimensions were equally easy, just fill the gaps. I was going to need 4 in total, 2 backs and 2 ends. The 2 backs were 1 and 2 seat length respectively, the ends were the same. I wanted the covers to be separate so they could be removed for washing at some point in the future, easy enough. So, cut the foam to sizes, stretch the cloth over, cut and sew. No great trick and since they would be covered up, didn't have too lovely. Fortunately. It's been awhile since I used the sewing machine and I was no great shakes even then, but I managed to stumble through.

Spaced out over a couple days, it was no great effort.

Slightly harder were the covers, these had to neat(er) with a flap held down with inch Velcro at one end. A bit of dicking about but another day got it sussed. Now the fun part. As nice as the white bolsters looked, there was no way I could leave them like that, they would be scunged up and dirty in no time flat. They also needed to fit in the decor. Dye them, of cause, but I wanted a pattern too. Tie dye time! Yeehaa!

If the hippy movement of the 60's gave us nothing else, tie dying at least will endure. OK, so it also gave us pot and electric rock, both of which I'm grateful for, as well as free love, tho this proved to be something of a misnomer, in my experience at least free love is generally the most expensive kind. Back to tie dying.

I like green, it's cheerful and outdoorsy, so at the same time I got the cloth I also got a sachet of Lemon Green Dulon. The thing to remember about home dying is it always (in my experience) turns out lighter than you think, so get darker dye.

Tie up the covers, mix the dye and drop then in for an hour. The dye looks a promising colour. Pull out, rinse and carefully clip away the strings. Oh hell yeah! Just like I wanted! You have any idea just how rare this is? Wash them in the washing machine, hang out to dry and......

The duck's guts! A maybe a bit darker might have been nice but this way it should lighten the otherwise dim interior of M-B. Now to sew on the Velcro and stick the other half to the wall.

In a rare flash of foresight I thought to sew the hooked part to the bolsters and have a fluffy part glued to the wall. This way if I have the bolsters down for whatever reason, the fluffy bit will be nicer to lean against and hopefully won't trap as much stray lint and stuff. I wanted dark brown Velcro to sort of match the paneling but that wasn't to be had, tan or white were my choices, so tan it was.

Decide on the height, stitch the Velcro on, glue on the other half with F2 glue (love those solvents! No wonder drop-kicks huff the stuff!) aaaaaand...

Tahdah!

Cool or what? This the 2 seat side. At the top of the picture you can clearly see the false wall with the squab inside.

The single seat side with coffee sack pillow and bean bag on stand-by.

The view across the table, false wall and squab on right. Soon I'll build a flip top for that, it's just the right height for an arm rest or place to put a glass, can or what ever. Will stop the squab getting sun blasted too, as well as insulation. I think the pale green and tie dye goes with the recycled timber nicely. I'm quite pleased with myself, M-B looks more like a home and less like a demolition site. Just wish the other coffee sack would arrive so I can finish that as well. The bolsters against the back wall are not held in place tho I may do this later. They are just long enough that turned the other way up they are comfortable to lean against. Worked out quite well, really.

Loving the coffee sack!

Is it just me or am I making progress?