Mattress Topper to Seat Cushion Inserts

Mattress topper turned cushion inserts...

Have you heard or seen one of the many adverts for Dormeo? The Italian designed "octaspring" mattress company has been going hard at marketing its premium topper over the past several years.

When I first saw one of those infomercials, I thought to myself — hey, we have a Dormeo mattress!

The reality was, our octaspring mattress was underneath a two inch "comfort" topper. When hubby and I first purchased the mattress, we found it to be a tad firm – even though we prefer firm – and ultimately decided to put a quilted topper on it.

 

Our old quilted mattress topper..

Several months ago – having been constantly reminded of the awesomeness of Dormeo – I thought that it was high time (ten years) to ditch the old topper and reap the benefits of the mattress itself.

But what to do with a used king size mattress topper?

---

---

Most municipalities don't accept bedding of any type for resale at thrift shops, so that option was out from the start.

When I spread it out onto the floor for a closer examination, I saw how compressed it was where we had lain, much thinner than the outer sections where the original thickness had been preserved. Nevertheless, a thought occurred to me about how I could upcycle at least part of this item.

See this?

Wicker patio set...

This was an inexpensive patio set that was originally purchased for additional seating in hubby's warehouse/man cave. When we purchased a gazebo for our back yard a couple of years ago, it was brought back home for our own use. My backside was pressed to the middle of the little love seat quite often this past outdoor season, resulting in a noticeable dent forming in the middle of the – cheap – foam insert by mid-summer.

When cheap foam gets crushed, it stays crushed; there's really no saving it. The underlying material in the mattress topper could, however, be fluffed to some extent to restore some of the original volume. I decided to cut up the topper to make replacement inserts for the three chairs.

Marking up the topper and cutting the required pieces...

Of course, the first step is to remove the existing inserts and measure them. I then took those measurements and drew lines on the topper to mark my required cuts. I determined that each insert would be best made by stacking two layers of the topper together.

Two layers of the old mattress topper stacked together...

This particular topper was designed like a fitted sheet, with a full wrap-around skirt section along the sides. That part was made out of an elastic, meshy material that would come in handy to "bind" the two halves together.

Ready for "binding"...

The project stalled for a bit as I pondered how best to finish it off. Obviously, I couldn't just take it to my sewing machine and have at 'er.

Despite knowing that it's ultimately a hand sewing job, there are still considerations to be made as to how to minimize the amount of hand sewing required. The finished insert needs to be an easily handled piece that can survive being pushed in and pulled out of a cover. The simplest way to achieve that would be sufficient for me.  

---

Check out crafty classes at Creativebug! [affiliate link]

---

My solution ended up being a combination of double-sided tape and generous stitching. The double-sided tape held the binding material down against the topper pieces so that I could get by with just using a long basting stitch as reinforcement.

Closeup of a bound corner...

All of this ultimately took me a few months to complete as I ran out of wide width double-sided tape early on and couldn't find any at my local dollar stores. I finally got lucky in Penticton, of all places, when we were there doing our annual tour of the Okanagan in September. During the search, I learned that not all double-sided tapes are equal. Some are definitely not suited for fabric.

Checking for fit...

Once I was able to carry on, I knew that because I measured and cut carefully, there was no way that the end result wouldn't fit. Still, it's a sigh of relief when everything zips up smoothly at the end and the project is deemed a success.

I still have a section of that topper left and have thought that it could be used to make pet beds. However, we don't have any pets so it's not a project for me.

However... do you remember these?

Tote bags to seat cushions...

I originally filled these up with old towels that would otherwise be destined for the refuse bin, but pieces of an old mattress topper can certainly be used as stuffing as well.

By the way, it just occurred to me that this is the second bedding related upcycling project that I've blogged about over the past year. Last February, I posted about reusing the mesh from a vellux blanket to make reusable produce bags. Quite pleased to have saved some things from our landfill.

'Til next... 🇨🇦🍁