I’ve been hoping to replace my patio cushions for some time
now, ever since the charming squirrels we had at our house in California decided
that it would be great fun to chew up my nice Crate & Barrel outdoor
pillows. So, I decided instead of purchasing new pricey pillows and cushions
(just for the squirrels and pecan trees to make a mess of), I would reuse and recover
my existing chair cushions with outdoor fabric. It proved to be a relatively
easy project, they took me about a week to make after work and during naps on
the weekend.
I forgot to take a before picture – but here’s one of our
patio set in our California house. Pre-squirrels.
I decided to go for a solid blue cushion (Robert Allen Baja
Linen Marine) and patterned accent pillow (Robert Allen Baja Ogee Marine). The fabric looked beachy and summery, which I liked. I
got my fabric at Joann’s during a 50% off sale, and I needed about 5 yards of
solid blue, and just barely squeezed four pillows out of 1 yard of patterned
fabric. I also had to purchase new pillow inserts for accent pillows, since
when I opened up the ones I had been using, they were just stuffed with
batting, and I wanted to use a pre-made pillow form. I ended up finding four
12x18” Weather Soft pillow inserts at Joann. I also picked up some outdoor quality
thread (yes, they make this, I had no idea).
Since I was reusing my old cushions, I carefully took apart
the fabric around my old cushion using scissors and a seam ripper. I then used
the old fabric as a template for my new piece of material. With my piece of blue
fabric folded in half and the template also folded in half, I traced the shape
of it using a piece of tailor’s chalk.
By folding the fabric in half and cutting both sides at once, this assures that your front and back pieces are exactly the same size. I put some pins in the piece of fabric before I cut it, just to keep the two sides together while I was cutting. I did the same for a long skinny piece of fabric that would be the back and side edges of the pillow. The front edge is made by where my fold was. Check out the photos if that’s confusing.
The next step was to pin together my cushion pieces INSIDE
OUT (so that the right sides of the fabric are facing each other, and your
seams end up being on the inside of the cushion when you flip it right side out.)
I stitched them together, leaving most of the back of the
cushion open so that I could fit in my large piece of foam.
Then I turned my cushion so it was right side out, and
stuffed in the foam piece.
Then, pinned together my opening…
And I hand stitched the opening using a blind stitch. There’s
a good tutorial on how to do this here.
Here’s the final result! They came out pretty nicely, though
maybe not Crate & Barrel quality (I debated adding some piping along the
seams, but that seemed too complicated for a novice like me).
Maybe we’ll have a couple more weeks before temperatures
here in Texas reach the 100s and we won’t be able to enjoy sitting on them
until the Fall. Now if only I could keep the squirrels away.
