Pattern & How to make a cushion for a Tripp Trapp

As promised I have made a how to for making your own Tripp Trapp Cushion. This pattern and instructions are for personal use only.

Firstly my free Tripp Trapp Cushion pattern is here for you to download and print out. It prints to 6 A4 pages, only after I painstakingly copied it onto A4 paper with my son's textas and scanned it did I realize it would be tricky to print 2 of those pages as they are full bleed. hmm bear with me and I will fix that soon, but for now it wouldn't be too hard to get around with adjusting print settings and adding selvages back in.

Now for the Instructions:

Cut out all pieces on the fold, you will require .75 of a meter of your chosen fabric and .3 of a meter of 1cm thick foam available from Clark Rubber. Take care to add in the selvages to the seat base and back pieces as marked, these were omitted to fit it to an A4 page for printing.

Finish the non-seam edge of the 4 overlap pieces as marked. Finish the sides of the top seat back piece (the smallest one)

Attach the hook and loop tape to the seat back pieces. Use the hook & loop tape to attach the 2 seat back pieces and stay stitch them together at the top.

Stack in order the seat base foam, one fabric seat base piece (faced upwards) the two seat base overlaps, (faced downwards) and then finally the remaining seat base fabric piece.

Pin & sew closed all flat edges, leaving the curved (back) side completely open. Be sure to catch all layers in your seam, avoid Trim the corners.

Turn and press flat.

 Fold the curved overlap piece over so the right sides are facing together and sew closed. The original Stokke Cushion has a serged seam here.

The turn back over so the seam is hidden and you can call it done at this point. Although the marked top stitching is optional but will assist in keeping the cushion flat.

If you intend to use the babyset put the marked buttonhole in for the strap. I have put this on the pattern, but personally I would fit it to the chair at that point to ensure it was in the right location.

For the seat back cushion lay the foam, one fabric piece facing upwards, the already finished overlap pieces facing upward and then the remaining piece facing downward.

Pin and sew around all edges except the flat bottom. The slit between the armrests and seat back are very difficult with an overlocker. For this cushion I used my sewing machines zig zag on those areas. Sew this as a open ended rectangle around 15mm wide. Trim the corners, cut the Y shapes to assist turning.

Turn and again the original Stokke cushion has an exposed serged seam along the bottom.

If you don't have an over-locker, (or like me yours breaks a $#&%* needle on the corners of the armrests moments earlier and it's now dinner time) use a tight stitch width and wide zig zag close to the edge and trim it neatly.

Then put the vertical top stitching to separate the backrest and armrests.

Sew on the hook & loop tape to the marked areas.

Take care to make sure the hook tape on the top piece reaches it over the top part of the chairs seat back to comfortably meet the middle loop peice. (The curved pocket is for the babyset backrest, you don't use this hook & loop tape when it is on)

The hook tape at the bottom is only attached on the lower long side on the Stokke cushion. This allows it to come forward to get around the lower bar of the seat back.

And TA DA your done, it's not hard at all, just fiddly and requires a bit of careful aligning of the pieces.

How to draft a pram liner pattern

As promised here is a new How To on drafting a pram liner pattern and sewing the liner. I have used a Maclaren Quest for this, but made liners for lots of different prams in this way. My previously posted Mountain Buggy & Baby Jogger City Mini liners are made in this same way.

 Materials
.5 meter Easy Trace or Kwik Trace (available from Spotlight)
a ball point pen
.5 meter of fabric for each side.*
.4 meter of 1cm thick foam (available from Clark Rubber)

* if you choose a pattern which is one directional you may need to increase this accordingly.

It is usually much easier to get a good fit for your liner by removing the seat of the pram, (this also gives you a great opportunity to give it a good wash. ) Once off lay it out as flat as possible, fold any folds outwards. Lay the Easy trace over and pin it down, by pushing pins into the seams, this will avoid doing any damage to your pram fabrics. 

Then using a ball point pen (which won't bleed through) trace the seam lines,  buttonholes for straps and any important folds, by top stitching them on your liner will seat much neater. Be sure to minimize movement so it is as even as possible. 

When complete put your pram fabrics aside, neaten the lines and add a 15mm selvage around the edge.

Once you've traced the seat it is time to neaten it all up. It is important that it is symmetrical and that it matches the seat. Fold it in half (and hopefully!) it should be close.

Clean up the lines, straightening them, adjust the button holes etc. Referring back to the seat as much as needed. When it's done cut out your pattern and your ready to sew!

Cut the foam and each fabric piece out. Take care that the fabric is in the right direction.











Lay the foam on the bottom and both pieces of fabric right sides together on top.

Sew around the edges leaving a 5" gap, ideally at the top as this section is usually covered by the hood.

Turn the liner the right way again, check the edge seams to make sure they are neat and even. Press.

Hand stitch close the opening.

Sew around the liner 5mm from the edge to give a neat look and structure.

Refer back to your pattern and mark the button holes and fold lines for the seat back etc with pins.

Before you sew anything be sure to use a ruler to check they are evenly spaced, or the liner will slant and also hold it against the (reassembled) pram to make sure the holes will line up.

Then sew your buttonholes and top stictching.

And Voila!!! You are done!

Teepee progress

The teepee is able to be played in :) although not yet decorated. It was much quicker than I'd expected.

Using one of the poles as a guide I pinned and cut a 5'7" semi-circle with a 6" semi circle in the center top.

Then I cut 5 strips which were 7cm wide and about 6' long. I overlocked the edges and sewed them on at regular intervals. At first I sewed them with open ends, but the poles need pockets to get purchase, otherwise the teepee collapses.

Once they were done I finished the top opening then sewed 1/4 of the way down the front and hemmed it around the bottom.

I gave it a quick press and put the poles in. Hey Presto!



It does still need something tight at the top to stop the poles sliding out and it falling. For the time being it is working well with a scrap piece of calico. My husband is trying to suggest drilling holes to thread some wire but I'm unsure. It's working so far.

Stay tuned for the window and appliqué!

DUCK!!!

Finn has been steadily increasing his vocabulary lately, but seems stuck on 'Duck' for all things poultry. Culimating in a recent event at the botanical gardens involving a stomping toddler repeatedly shouting "DUCK!!!" as he rapidly approched a rather offended cockatoo that flew away and left Finn looking rather crestfallen.

Imagine our surprise when we saw two honest to goodness ducks on the footpath of our street this morning. It made my little guys day.



-- Post From My iPhone

Picture rail library

Inspired by this beautiful book display library and the clever idea to use picture rails for the purpose I grabbed used 4 Ribba Picture rails from Ikea and made a little library for Finn's playroom. So far it's a big hit! Although primarily for taking books off the shelf and into his trike tailor and back again.

Another BJCM liner

I made a friend another BJCM liner and matching nappy clutch, it doesn't look as nice on my blue, but I think it will look lovely on her Sand BJCM.





UPDATE

I was recently asked for the measurements of this liner, so thought I'd also post them here:

From the bottom of seat back to the top of seat back: 20"
From back of seat base to front of seat base: 10"
From front of seat base to bottom of footwell: 8.5"

Width at top of seat base: 14"
Width at bottom of seat back/back of seat base: 11"
Width at front of seat base: 13"

Shoulder straps are 4.5" apart & buttonholes 1.5" wide.
Shoulder straps are: 8.5", 9.75", 11.25" & 12.5" above the bottom of the seat back.

Side straps are 1.25" wide, they are 6.25" apart and 2" above the bottom of the seat back.

The fold strap buttonholes are 1.5" wide, 6.75" apart & 1" forward from the back of the seat base back.

The crotch strap is 2.5" wide and 3.5" forward from the seat base back.

Baby Jogger City Mini Liner

Since deciding to take my Baby Jogger City Mini to Sydney in May I thought it was finally time to make the liner I have been promising it since it joined the family. I have a whole new love of the Baby Jogger City Mini again now, as does Finn who keeps pointing at things on the liner.

I will post a tutorial for making a liner soon, I have changed my method slightly and like it much more. The BJCM one is slightly different because of the fold strap, but it was pretty simple really, the strap can unscrew on side and can be unthreaded, (which allows you to wash the seat also) then you just need 2 button holes to allow the strap to go through.

When I was done and fitting it back on, and congratulating myself on how well the fabric suited a holiday when I realized we're going in May and it will be cold so I made it a footmuff based on the zips and buttons. This is my first footmuff and I love it.

Tripp Trapp Cushion

My son and I adore the Tripp Trapp, the only part of this fantastic chair that disappoints is the cushion. We even forked out for the 'Premium' one because it had laminated fabric thinking it would be easier to keep clean, which it is compared to our other Stokke one which is linen, the major property of which seems to be an amazing ability to absorb any food consumed nearby.

So essentially to keep the chair clean you either need several cushions or to use it without one at all. Enter my new TT cushion, sporting some new and very cute $3.99/meter Ikea fabric, with foam the whole thing cost less than $9 and took an afternoon; good deal compared to $90 for a Stokke one. ;)

I plan on making more so will try to do a tute with another but really it is quite easy. Using Easytrace I copied the Stokke cushions, the key to the construction is that the front seam of the seat base & bottom seam of the seat back are over-locked closed after sewn together.

Teepee love

I want to make my beautiful boy a Teepee for the playroom, I have been very inspired by a few I've seen about.

I am being motivated by the way this one has been constructed with the guides for poles and the cute port-hole.

I adore, admire and covet the applique technique on the Mozzlehome ones.... for a mere £134.00 +pp.


So I've completed my favorite part of any project.... the shopping. ;)

I choose to use 6' Bamboo poles from Bunnings & 3m of 150cm wide Calico, and so far, with no sewing it seems to be pretty popular already!



Stay tuned for when it starts to take shape.