Footrest Redo

My 13 1/2 year old fat cat, Kitty, has been having difficulty jumping onto the couch and bed. I've been saying for months that I needed to make her a step stool - and I finally did it !

This old foot rest was made by my grandmother many, many years ago. She was a seamstress and did some basic upholstery work,  too. This is one of the items she made. It has wooden legs screwed into a base of plywood. She made a brown fabric cover to go over an old red velour couch cushion, stapling it to the bottom of the plywood. I remember this footstool (and another one that mom still has) from when I was little. Grandma passed away 22 years ago yesterday; this is one of the items of hers that I kept. 

It has been out in the garage for years, hubby sat on it while working on cars or as you can see, used it to hold items while he painted them sometimes. Sad to see that it was ruined.

I actually forgot all about it being out there and was going to cover an old storage crate to make the step for Kitty, but he remembered the footrest and asked if I wanted to try to save it. It was, after all, the perfect height and size for kitty not to mention a sturdy piece. 

We sanded down the legs and plywood. I stained them. 

I had a large piece of stretchy denim fabric mom gave me a long time ago to make something of, but hadn't used it yet. I'm not sure if it was something from grandmas fabric stash or something mom bought. I thought it would be a good sturdy fabric to withstand the cat claws as Kitty jumped off and on it, but I wanted to look for something else first. There are no fabric stores where I live, but a nearby Walmart still carries some fabrics so I looked there to see if they had something I liked. No luck. There was a pretty piece of brown fabric that would have been nice to use to coordinate with the furniture,  but it was too pretty and I didn't think it would hold up well to cat claws (and $10.97 a yard!). 

I decided to cut up the denim to make a cover for the old foot stool. I thought about stamping some designs onto it before sewing and decided against it (but wish I had tried it anyway, it looks pretty plain).  I am no seamstress (I did try to make clothing and other items for the kids when they were little) and like to take as many shortcuts as possible so this project was a pretty quick one - and it shows !

I measured the cushion, added and inch to each side, used a large yardstick and pencil to mark the measurements on the back of the fabric and cut it out. Unfortunately it wasn't quite long enough so I had to make two seams on the side pieces. Note to self: if I decide to recover it again, I need to trace around the wooden base to create the top piece. The corners really should have been rounded on it.

I cut out the pieces, made a seam on the two long side pieces then laid them down on top of the top fabric piece  right sides together and stitched them in place . No, I did not pin it in place either; I'm too lazy to waste my time and prick my fingers pinning, unpinning ! Remember, I'm no seamstress (sorry, Grandma!).

I was pleased (relieved!) that it fit well enough so I stapled it to the bottom of them footrest. 

I think it will work just fine for the time being. Kitty has used it twice that I know of.

Edited to Add: I totally meant to enter this in the challenge at 

Anything But a Card Challenge 6: A Stitch in Time: use any time or stitching element

I thought it would fit for two reasons: my sad attempt at upholstery (stitch) and the fact that it was made so long ago (time) by my grandmother, redone present day by myself. I forgot to link it up in time, oh well. 

Thanks for looking =)