The New and Improved Love Nest!

See that off white chair, way off in the corner?

That is the love nest.

I bought this super comfy dish chair from Urban Outfitters almost 4 years ago after an extremely rough summer in grad school. It is one of the most comfortable pieces of furniture... ever. Soon after, it was affectionately named the love nest... not because I have a waiting list of boys that want to cuddle with me in it. No, it's because the love nest is where my friends and I cry and tell each other our sad tales of boy drama. Frequently around my house, you'll hear someone say "do you need to sit in the nest?" which is code for "do you need to vent about your love life, or lack thereof?"

The love nest has been a faithful companion in 4 different houses over the past 4 years. It was when I moved into my own house that I decided to show some love back to the love nest and give it a make over. As soon as I bought my new couches, I enlisted the help and creativity of my blogging inspiration, Kathy. After picking out some fabric that was daring for me, but not too daring, we went to work!

First, we measured several diameters of the cushion and finally settled on the mode (the one that occurred most often...).

Then we laid the fabric flat to cut out a diameter square.

I carefully marked the square...

... and cut along my own dotted line.

Now, the next part was pretty interesting. Have you ever tried to cut out a circle without a pattern? It is very difficult. We had the genius idea of constructing a compass out of a safety pin and yarn. The safety pin would be attached to the center and the yarn would be the length of a radius to trace out the circle arcs. (Sorry, lots of math vocab, but I've got to be true to my education.) But the safety pin wouldn't stay in the direct center as it moved which would create an uneven circle. Now, mind you, I'm a math teacher and a little on the anal side, so of course that was NOT going to work for me. But as anal as I am, I usually reach a point where I say, "screw it, I'm just going to make this up." So here's what I did...

I folded the sqaure cut out into fourths, traced a quarter of an arc and then cut out the four folds individually (only because the fabric was so thick).

And look, it totally worked.

Can you tell that's not a perfect circle?
Good, neither can I!

Cutting out was the hardest part.
Kathy zipped those ends together on the sewing machine in nothing flat.

Then we stuffed the nest in it's new outfit, hand stitched the opening shut and now,
my living room looks like this:

I love it!
Not in love with the couch pillows,
but that's for another day and another dime.

Thanks Kathy for your help and creativity!