Turn Off the Lights and Leave.....

I promised to show you how to do some basic tufting yesterday....Here we go!

I am redoing the mattress for the trundle bed.

I took apart the mattress and cut the block a bit smaller, so that I would have room for the blankets.

I cut a piece of card stock just a hair smaller than the block of wood.

Then I cut a piece of quad rule graph paper the same size for a pattern. I centered lines going in both directions so that the tufting pattern would also be centered. I drew dots in a diamond pattern.

You can do the dots in whatever pattern you want, but for the first time, I would recommend a square or diamond pattern.

I then laid the pattern on the card stock and punctured all of the dots with a crewel needle. It is easier to get the thread through all of the thicknesses of card stock, stuffing and fabric if you do this first and it makes following the pattern from the back that much easier too.

Next, with a double thread and starting in the center, I went up from the back through the center hole. I flipped the whole thing over and a few threads from the hole that I came up in, I poked the needle into the fabric and went back to the back. I needed to come back through the same hole that I started with.

Always start in the center and work out. You will find that the work lays a lot flatter and you can keep the fabric on the straight of grain with this method. If you start at one end, chances are you will be way off by the time that you get to the other end.

You should start with as long a double thread as you can manage. It is best to not have a lot of starts and stops on the back.

For the mattress, I didn't bother to do button tufting. If you want that effect, you can go back and do a French knot or a bead in the center of each tuft at this point.

The top still looks a bit rough. You will find that, when you stretch it around either the card stock itself or in the case of the mattress, around the block of wood, it will smooth out.

Before you turn the edges to the back, trim the batting even with the edge of the card stock.

When you stretch it, be sure to start in the center of all sides and work towards the corners.

If you are doing the top of a cushion, simply glue it around to the back of the card stock and then glue that to the block as I did in the cushion for the wicker chair. It gets more complicated if you are doing upholstery on a wing chair or couch. I won't go into that here.


For the bed, I simply glued it to the back of the block. As you can see, there is room all around the mattress to tuck things in.

As soon as I finished, I put the bed back in the cottage to see how it looked. Then I went and put everything away.

By the time I got back, Tessie and the mad pig had settled in under her quilt of choice.

I started to tip toe out, so a not to awaken them....Peace at last.....Then I heard a mumble,"Turn out the lights and leave....."

Then I heard two loud snores in unison. Who knew that pigs snore too?

See you tomorrow.