I placed the ottoman on top of the foam and traced around it to get the appropriate size. It didn’t need to be exact because it was going to be covered up.
 

Now that I have my circle, it was time to cut it out. However, this turned out to be a real pain because I don’t have the appropriate tools for cutting thick foam. Normally they suggest using a hot wire cutter as it slices through the foam like a warm knife in butter, so I had to improvise. I started by cutting the first inch of foam with an Exacto knife, then finished it off with a giant sharp kitchen knife. It was rough around the edges, but it got the job done!

Now that I have my two pieces cut out, I can place the topper onto the wood and start working on the outside. Lets see how I did:
 

Next up is the sewing part. My plan is to do this in two steps: one outside layer to hold it all together and add a little more support to the outside, and then my printed fabric for the finishing look. I wanted to use products I already own because I have a mini craft store in my small apartment. I settled with 'quilting batting' because I had a ton leftover and it proved to work quite well. It’s sturdy but soft and has a clinging aspect to it that won’t allow my finishing fabric to feel like it’s slipping around on the outside. I measured out a circle of 18” with 1/4" seam allowance and a 60”x14” piece for the sides and sewed them together. I did forget to snap pictures of that, but once I had them sewn together, I placed it over the top of the two pieces, flipped it over, and pulled it tight with my hands.
 

Working my way around, I pulled it nice and tight and stapled the batting to the bottom of the wood. My staple gun isn’t super powerful and the plywood is extremely hard, so I had to finish the staples by pounding them in with a hammer. There is a lot of excess fabric, which was planned so I had something to grip and pull tight. Then I trimmed it to the right size.
 

It was in this moment that I felt a deep shocking pain. I realized I forgot to do something very critical and important.... and there was no going back and re-doing it...

I forgot to put the foam piece inside the batting before I closed it all together!

Instead of trying to pry all 40 staples from the bottom and starting over, I decided it was easier to just make another outside layer from the batting. It can’t hurt anything and it will add a little more stability to the sides, so begrudgingly I cut more batting and sewed together another layer. What a noob.
 

Once I finished that and got it attached to the bottom, it was time for the fun part of choosing a pretty finishing fabric for the outside. I decided to go with something a little abstract so it didn’t scream ‘bought in a store’ with polka dots or stripes.

I cut out the same sizes as above, sewed together two pieces, placed it on the outside, pulled it around, flipped it over, stapled this layer to the bottom and cut away the excess fabric. I made sure to cut around the brackets on the bottom where the feet will screw into as well.

The final step is adding a layer to the bottom to cover all my staples. I had some upholstery fabric laying around from when I worked at a shop and decided that would be perfect. I cut out the size, about an inch or so smaller than the ottoman diameter and lined it up on the bottom.

Since it was covering the holes for the feet, I had to make sure I provided new holes for the screws to pass through. I measured where the holes should be and used a puncture tool to create the hole in the faux leather piece.