Shooting Staples--Fun with Upholstery Gun

My cousin had a benc which she wanted some cushions for.  I said.."Oh, I can do that."  I had some fabric that I wanted to audition for her.  She chose a beautifully coppery-brown fabric with an embosssed floral motif that I had picked up in the remnant area of a home fabric store.  Given that the bench needed something low profile, I thought that a 1/4" piece of plywood, cut to size and then padded and upholstered would fit the bill. We purchased all that we needed.

Then, as bad luck would have it....my air compressor broke.  (Yes, I know that you can hand staple, but I'm not going to).  And then I got busy with other stuff, and just let life get ahead of me.  I finally circled back to it, and had one other small delay...I wanted to double check measurements, and my cousin was out of town.  Once measurements confirmed, the bench seat took all of 35 minutes to complete.  No cuss. No fuss.  I take that back, I almost shot myself with a staple--and something may have slipped.

One thing that I had remembered from a video long ago was to overlap the foam at the front.  It created a nice round profile.  And my fingers/hand remembered how much hand strenght you need to pull and keep things tight. I delivered the upholstered board on Sunday.  It fit perfectly, and it looked very professional and elegant.  The fabric was a perfect choice.

In order to get my sewing area in ship-shape, I ordered a 2'x4' woolrug pad (Nature's Cushion) from https://ecorugpads.com/shop-all-rug-pads.html.   This avenue seemed more cost effective than the other products that I saw (specifically sold as a presser mat).  In preparation for its arrival, I asked my husband to be on the lookout for a 2' x 4' piece of plywood.  Where he works there are castaways.  He found such a castaway....bowed terribly.  I figured I could get most of the bow out of it with some create problem solving.  I took it upstairs near the weight machine (gathers dust).  Over the course of several days, I placed weights on the board:  on the ends, in the middle, and on the ends with the middle supported in an attempt to flatten it.  I mostly succeeded.

On the internet I saw many videos on how to make your own pressing mat.  I simply did the following:

• Covered the scrap piece of plywood with Reynold's Wrap for moisture protection.  I could say 'heat protection', but I'm not quite sure that the heat is going to be a problem there.
• Placed my 3/8" felt pad on the foil-wrapped side.  
• Cut a piece of cotton/linen to cover top and about 3" around all three sized.
• Pulled out the upholstery gun, affixing the linen snugly.

I used the linen becaue it was pretty; I got it on sale; and the board is on top of a wicker 2 shelf bookcase which is exactly the dimensions.  So it looks nice.  Frankly, it may NOT hold up...but I'm in "so-what" mode.  I know that it will take the heat and keep my quilting squares snugly in place.

I'm very happy, and the ecorugpads.com has excellent service.  I ordered the wrong thing (thought I was ordering a wool blend mat).  Emailed them.  It had already shipped....they recalled it and gave me a full refund.  I was prepared to accept the shipment and use the product somehow.

My hands and fingers are a wee bit sore from those two back to back projects.  But I was glad to get some stuff put together that is useful to me and others.