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Hooking a footstool is easy. Getting the footstool body built and padded is the most common obstacle. And then you need to find the feet, and probably finish them. Don’t get me started on the stapling….. Don’t get me wrong, footstools are wonderful but there are a lot of steps. What if there was a way to completely remove the most difficult (and expensive) stuff?
Start with a premade stool from IKEA
I found this stool while shopping at an IKEA store. It was simple and I loved that I could buy it without a cover.
This stool has been discontinued (Dec 2020), but I will be posting instructions on how to build your own box so you can still use the patterns.
2015 Sauder Village Rug Camp
Because I am still tinkering with the room sized rug, I try to take smaller projects to rug camp. I found this footstool just a month before camp, so it was a natural choice. I remembered that I had a drawing that my youngest grandson drew many years ago of Jackson when he was a puppy. I started with that in the center and then hooked the flowers and goofy shapes on the edges free hand. As it turned out I did not even need the velcro on the bottom. I’ll talk about the finishing in another post. Let’s talk about how I got the project started.
Fast forward to 2016 Sauder Village Rug Camp
It is time again to choose a project for this year. I have a great coffee mug that I received one year for Mother’s Day from my youngest grandchild. We had just bought a broken down farm house about 7 miles outside the village of Pemberville. Nicky knew the house was important to me, so it became the subject of the gift mug.
This drawing would make another great footstool project. I use a program on my ipad called Graphic. It is hands down the best drawing app I’ve found. It has all the complexity of Adobe Illustrator, which is very expensive. In fact, I don’t think you can buy Illustrator anymore, you have to rent it month to month. Graphic is much more reasonable. I love it for drawing rug hooking patterns.
To get started be sure to watch the tutorials on Autodesk’s website.
I loaded a photo of the drawing into the app and traced the drawing on a new layer. Next I added a drawing of the outside of the footstool that I did for Jaksin. Then I began doodling ideas for the areas on the side of the pattern.
Once I had a design I thought would work, I printed it out full size, taped it together and because it is a 3-d design, I traced it onto muslin. I then draped that over the footstool to get a better idea of how the pattern will work. It didn’t work for me.
Back to the app. I adjusted the sizing, added and subtracted as needed. Printed it again, taped and traced and evaluated. This process got repeated at least 3 times, sometimes designs take many more depending on the design.
Designing a pattern is a LOT of work
Sounds time consuming? It is.
Over time the process gets easier, but it still takes many many hours to finalize a rug hooking pattern design. To make the process easier for you, I will work up a few designs based on my standard footstool designs but modified to fit the IKEA stool.
Because IKEA can stop making this stool at any moment (Yikes, they did that in December 2020 – but I have a solution), I am not offering pre-drawn patterns, but you can purchase a paper version that you print, tape and trace. Luckily you only need to do it once because the design work is done for you. For extra guidance, you can print instructions for putting the paper pattern together. Please note that this link will take you to my other website, howtorughook.com where I offer online rug hooking courses.
My Project
Day 1 
Day 2 
Day 3 
Day 4
You can click on the images to see them larger and use your keyboard to zoom in.
Mac: CMD + to go larger, CMD – to go smaller, CMD 0 to return to normal
On a Windows computer use CTRL instead of CMD.
For this project I am experimenting with backgrounds. When the project is finished, I’ll write a post about that thought process.
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Always love seeing what you’re working on. Your stool is marvelous!
Thanks, Ann. I am putting the final touches on the new online Color Planning course. As soon as that is done, I’m dedicating several days to rug hooking. I’ll finish the stool and then publish the paper patterns for download.
Thanks for all the hard work Cindi. I am not math minded and find I struggle with the math of it all. I appreciate your “calculating mind”.
Plus – your work and imagination are lovely
Take care – best wishes for a happy autumn
Madonna
I made a stool for my nephew’s wedding gift. I bought some burlap and traced the outline. Then I had an art student from the University of Michigan create a graphic design. They loved it and I plan on making a second for their anniversary gift. It was super easy to finish.
Hi Cindi- I have always wanted to do a foot stool and when I watched your video and saw the footstool from Ikea it was decided> My daughter just happened to be going to Ikea and I had her purchase me one and I have made my first cover. I have done it so that it has the shape of a box that I slip over the stool and can be removed as I have
decided to make others for it. The basic year round one, a fall design(which is almost completed, and perhaps different ones for different holidays. Thank you for the inspiration.
Will you be having the pattern available drawn on linen or monks cloth instead of paper pattern? I’m hoping so. The house on the top of the stool looks exactly like my son’s new home and would love to hook this!!! I’m being a pest about having the pattern drawn and ready to hook….I know!! lol :)
I will be offering a paper pattern only because IKEA could cancel production of this stool at any time making our patterns worthless. I don’t recommend monk’s cloth for upholstery. It it too saggy and will not produce a long wearing stool. I prefer rug warp. It holds the loops much tighter and will hold up best to the abuse that pets and kids can dish out.
Hi Cindi ! I ordered a footstool from IKEA just the other day. No design yet. I need to finish one of the 3 projects underway !
Thanks for your emails
Joan
Good move. You never know when IKEA will change their product line and discontinue this product. I have plans to head north and pick up a few more for myself. The box it comes in is not that big. I’d rather have them on hand than to risk not having them available.
Brilliant!
What a great project! I have been wanting to hook a stool, but the finishing does sound tricky and I am not good at that sort of thing. I am looking forward to seeing the piece on the stool (as I am sure you are as well!!!). It has a sort of modern look to it which will be an interesting counterpart with your wonderful hooking.
What a delightful project you’re working on! Even though this was designed by a child, it doesn’t look childish to me – definitely folk arty! LOVE!