We love Stokke Tripp Trapp chairs. We love them so much that we have two of them. One for each kid. If you haven't seen them, this is a wooden chair designed in the 70’s. It looks really good, doesn't take so much space as the plastic one, is easy to clean, comes in all sorts of colors and best of all they aren't made out of plastic. They are quite pricy but since they are so well made, you can find them fairly easily second hand... or may be even third or fouth, who knows? :)
Until recently it didn't bother us not to have any cushion since it was easier to clean that way. But we just started to be really serious about potty training our little one and I finally felt like making something warm and soft for him to sit on.
So here is how to make a cushion that will work with any generation of Tripp Trapp chair.
::What you need::
- a Tripp-Trapp chair (to make the pattern)
- a piece of (organic) cotton for the outside
- some batting for the padding (needlepunched rather than bonded, so as to avoid glues and resins)
- matching thread
- scissors
- a paper bag
- a sewing machine
::How to proceed::
1. Unscrew the seat so as to release it
2. Open a paper bag or take a piece of paper that is large enough.
Display the seat on the paper and trace around it with a pen.
Trace another line 2 cm (3/4") around the first line (seem allowance.)
Cut your pattern
3. Repeat 2. so as to get another paper pattern.
Draw two lines along the long side at 7 cm (2" 3/4) from the top and 7 cm (2" 3/4) cm from the bottom.
Cut out the second pattern and keep both external strips.
4. Lay the three pieces of the pattern down on the fabric. Cut the fabric. Cut the larger piece of pattern twice.
5. Lay the larger piece of the pattern on some needlepunched batting and cut four times the pattern to get four pieces.
6. Hem both smaller pieces on the inside.
7. Take 2 (out of the 4) pieces of batting, put them on top of each other, at the back piece of the cushion right side on top, and then both stripes you just hemed. Serge or zigzag on 3 sides (leave the curved side untouched).
8. Take the remaining 2 pieces of batting, add the top part fabric right side on top. Serge or zigzag all around.
9. Take the top part right side facing up, add the back piece right side against the top part's right side. Pin both pieces together and sew on three sides 1 cm from the border (still miss the curved side).
10. Cut each angle, 2 mm before the stitched line. Turn inside out but leave stripe on the curved side the wrong side facing up.
Sew and serge (or zigzag) the curved side of the cushion. Turn the stripe inside out.
11. Find the center of the cushion and mark it with a pin. Measure the clasp of the chair (width + thickness... mine is 6 cm). Measure also how far it is situated from the border of the seat (mine is 4 cm). Draw the button hole.
12. Sew the button hole. My sewing machine didn't know how to make one that big all by itself, so I had to figure out the width of the satin stitch for both ends and the sides, and make sure that both lines were parallele, but it wasn't that difficult after all.
13. Cut the center line of the button hole using a seam riper making sure that you don't cut any of the thread.
And voilà! Your cushion is ready!!!
Don't forget to screw everything back on and make sure your chair is secure! :)
This is my first tutorial in English, what do you think?
Don't hesitate to ask if some parts seem unclear to you and I'll try to improve it. :)
It's been a while since I noticed this card, I was just missing the opportunity to buy it. Unfortunately it came for my dear friend Ronda who is recovering with an incredible energy from a strange auto-immune disease. Hopefully it is going to cheer her up. :)
