Made this to sit on at work before the company unlocks the store. They don't have benches, but a concrete floor and they make you stand in the entrance where everyone tramples over. It's inconvenient to stand and eat at the same time, they can take over 30-40 minutes for them to unlock and sometimes even make us late for the job. I don't know why they can't delay people's shift by about 10 minutes if they can't open up on time or why they take their sweet time to unlock particularly when they've overslept. Usually employees should be allowed to have time to go to the loo, eat and dry yourself if drenched with rain before a shift starts.
So I designed this seat pad out of foam insulation gold foiled flooring underlay which is waterproof, slightly warm and cushioning, this stuff was left over when my sibling was sound proofing their computer case. This was cut 60X38 centimetres, with the foil side down and on top this lovely beige strawberry fleece was sewn around the edges with black polypropylene strapping. I like to hoard fabrics, the fabric shop is like a little kid in a candy shop for me. It's not that fun now with the obnoxious insults received in there half the time (Portsmouth Fabricland which has now closed down) and they don't seem to stock that much variety anymore, it matters to be able to touch fabrics when one sews, and their photos are really awful quality online. Anyway, had a huge thing for strawberries at one point, hence several fabrics stored in my room feature strawberries.
The foam was cut in half and joined by a piece of fabric cut out of my mother's old work bag, it was recycled after the end of it's life, but the fabric is still good. The fabric is plastic coated polyester fabric, the material you find on most luggage, so it is waterproof. This allowed my seat pad to be folding, portable and lightweight. Added two small 'D' rings at the fold and polyester strapping to attach a strap for travelling and concealed the nasty looking edge with the binding from the strap of the bag. The mat is finished off with magnet to keep it closed, but will flip over if it rains.
It's not perfect since I made it for myself, there's a couple of wonky bits, but no need to be a perfectionist when it is not for sale, made it in 2-3 hours after all. It'll be good for those wet park benches when it's warmer and want to sit outside, I'm also using it at home, to sit on the cold floor board, to do some Chinese calligraphy.
