The race is on to get the new mattress made before launch - April 22.  Last week my husband and I worked together to mark and cut the foam.  We removed the mattress from its cover and placed in the floor.  We folded the paper template in half and lined up the straight center line on an outside length wise edge of the foam.  (This was my husband's brilliancy.  Rather than cutting the foam in half, we used the outside edges as the new centers, less cutting and straighter center lines.)  I then used a marker to outline the pattern on the bottom side of the mattress.  On the topside, I used the marker again to outline the pattern, however, for the edge that will rest against the hull, I added 2 inches to the width, to take into account the outward curve of the hull.

Next we ran to the mall.  Why?  It turns out our bread knife is only 8 inches long and this was exactly the width of the mattress at the diagonal cut that fits against the hull.  We needed a longer knife.  We could only find one 8.5 inches long, but that extra half inch was the difference between workable and difficult. 

Now the tricky part.  We propped a bathroom mirror against he wall and stood the mattress up on edge.  I held the mattress skill, while Eriks used the two outlines to guide his cutting.  Using the mirror,  he was able to watch how the knife was lined up against the outline on both sides of the mattess.  (Another brilliancy of his.)  Working slowly, he did a great job of cutting the angled cut for each side.

I will draw a diagram of my pattern to post in my next entry, which will also describe creatign the new mattress cover.