USS America

 I thought …
“gee, that would make a cute door decoration for summer”.
I’m nothing if not crazy ambitious!

I’ve seen antique liferings, ring buoys, or kisby rings in antique stores before.

I never bought one because there were usually too many dishes, linens, old spools,
antique books and many other things claiming my attention.
OK game on!

After mulling it over for a day…I finally figured out my plan of attack.
 This is not a difficult project but there is lots of glue drying time needed
so
go to the beach, have a glass of iced tea, swim in the pool, or swing in a hammock
in between gluing sessions…see, perfect for summer!

I started with a 16″ flat foam ring…
Now, you’re not saving anything but a munchkin with this thing 
but it’s only a decoration.
I mean I can barely get one thigh through the opening…
too much blogging I guess
HOWEVER
If you want to get all literal on me, go get a bigger one.

Here’s the deal….. I was in WalMart, it was 8 am
(because I had just dropped a kid off for camp at 7:30)
and 
I didn’t feel like waiting until Michael’s opened
..so 16″ it was
The round one won’t look right so try and find this flat foam type.

While I was in WalMart, I picked up some fleece stuff
because I wanted to wrap strips around this ring to soften the edges and make it look all
” life-ringy “
I just used scotch tape to hold all the ends together. The strips were about 3-4″ wide.


Then, I cut a circle from a drop cloth. 
Trace the ring onto the circle…you won’t see it and then add about 6-8″to that. 

Cut it out. Center the ring on the cloth and cut a small hole in the center…about 1″ is all.
 Then cut pie wedges all along the small circle….
keep the ring on the circle so you don’t cut too far…
but don’t get all paranoid because we’ll cover it later.


I used a  real drop cloth…like I mean it has paint on it and stuff….
so this is the time to use one if you have it 
and save your nice drop cloth for cute pillows and drapes.

Get the modpodge out and pull up and glue the pointy things to the ring…
pull taut and hold them in place with pins.
try and get the inside of the ring nice and smooth.
Then, start gluing the sides. Use a generous amount of glue just along the sides 
and just over the edge of the ring. 

You want the glue to seep into the fabric a bit because it makes it easier to smooth out the wrinkles. 
Hmmm….I’m thinking I’ll use modpodge on my face tonight…I’ll let you know how it works…
Anyway……
Pull up the sides in sections, trying to get them as smooth as possible. 
Don’t worry about what is now the back of your ring…we’ll handle that later.
Once you have it all glued in place and held with pins, 
slap on more modpodge over the sides and front. 
This will stiffen the fabric, shrink it just a bit and let you smooth out wrinkles.
Let it dry completely….I left mine for a few hours.


After you’ve had your iced tea, check if it’s secure, remove the pins 
and trim off the excess. See the points showing?

This next part isn’t hard to do, just hard to visualize maybe.
We need to cover the area that isn’t covered where we cut the 
pointy things and smoothly cover the inner part of the ring.
Cut a wide strip of canvas which is long enough to 
curve around the inside of the ring.
Cut it wide enough to cover the gaps left on the front where you cut the 
pointy things 
and go through the center hole and wrap to the back and cover the trimmed edge.
You’re trying to create a smooth look from the front, through the hole and to the back.
I know it’s hard. Look at the pics and think hard.