Lately, I have been doing a lot of hand stitching – applique, embroidery and quilt binding.  When hand stitching, I like to have a place to rest my your feet higher than the floor in order to make myself more comfortable. Unfortunately this was something that I did not have in my new craft room.

Wanting to add one, I starting looking around the room to see where I could store the footrest when it was not being used.  The size of a place to stash the footrest would be the limiting factor for the size of the footrest itself.  With the room maximized for storage, I was not finding a good spot to keep one.  So, I put off purchasing one.

This past week  I have been working on binding a quilt.  As a temporary measure, I pulled out one of my storage boxes from under my long arm table and used that to prop my feet on.  It worked out fairly well, just the right size, but a bit too low. So, to get the height right, I  put a folded flannel quilt on top of it.

Unfortunately the quilt I used was a favorite of my cat, Onyx.  Most times, when I went into my room to sew, she was sleeping on the quilt. So, I needed to figure out a more permanent option.  

A trip to Hobby Lobby to purchase a few items (2″foam, 5/8 yd print canvas fabric and elastic braid) and I was ready to make a slip cover to place on the storage box.  First, I cut the foam to fit on top of the box lid (10.5″ x 14″).  Then, I cut the fabric to 20.5″ x 24″.  A few box seams in the corners, a hem with the elastic into and I was done.

Now I have  a colorful and comfortable foot rest. When not in use it fits nicely into the original storage spot without taking up any space in my room.

I even had enough leftover fabric to make a nice throw pillow for my sofa.