Seat Cushion Tutuorial

How to Make a Seat Cushion! 

Sassy and Simple 

A few months ago I bought these bar chairs on an awesome sale, brought them home assembled them and found that although they were beautiful the were a little plain and hard. Seat cushions were needed. I looked all around, and nothing was either lively enough or the right shape. Then I decided to make some. But how? I searched blogs and Google to find a pattern but all instructions were (if I found any) grossly simple. Being determined I asked a few good sewing friends of mine to help and we came up with this Seat Cushion! And I LOVE it! and I think that you will too. The instructions are thorough, but truly this is a simple project. I am just spelling it all out in case you are like me and normally need the details when doing a new project. And the pattern can be easily altered to fit your chair! Enjoy. Don't be afraid to ask questions!

Supplies
Fabric (yardage will depend on how big your seat is and how many are making.)
Filling/Batting (the type that you choose can vary depending upon what you want out of your cushion, foam inserts are nice but pricey) 
Sewing Machine
Thread
Scissors
Large Paper
Crayon
(Optional: Zipper)

Reference

Step 1

       Make a pattern of the seat of your chair. I used large paper with the edge of a crayon and snipped away! Then pin it to your fabric. Make sure to leave a border and how much will depend upon how thick you want the cushion. For all cushions it works out to use about a 1.5 in border on the sides.  (That includes the  1/2 inch seam allowance) I made mine 3 inchs thick so I added 1.5 to the top plus a half inch seam allowance totaling 2 inchs top and bottom. Trace your desired border on your fabric with a crayon and cut out. 

You can either fold your fabric in half to get two at one time or just use the first cut out as the pattern for the second so you don't have to retrace.


As you can tell I am not a perfectionist where I know it doesn't matter! My cutting is a little rough and the corners aren't the same but it doesn't matter and you'll see why. 

Step 2 
Place right side together and sew around edges ***LEAVE AND OPENING BETWEEN THE BOTTOM CORNERS*** If you are going to insert a zipper only stitch in about 2.5 inches on both sides. Otherwise just leave it wide enough that you can insert your foam or batting. 

Step 3


Now set this aside. We are going to make the ties. Cut out 2 strips of fabric (at least 2 inches wide and 21 inches long). I only tied mine in knots, but if you would like to make bows, make them a lot longer like maybe 35 inches. 


Iron the strips in half then open and fold the edges into the middle and iron again.

Fold back in half with the iron edges inside. (It is a good idea to fold the edges in on the tips so they will have a finished look). Sew down the edge and set aside. 

Step 4
Next we are going to make the nice crisp corners! We'll start with the ONLY the top corners. Pick the fabric up and separate it at the corner and fold it into a triangle as shown. To make your cushion look very professional make sure that your seems line up exactly on top of each other.You can just feel them and adjust. 

Then lay the fold corner flat on the table and with your measuring tape, measure from one edge to the other the thickness that you want your cushion. Again, mine were 3 inches so I measure 3 inches width and marked it with my crayon. 
 

Then sew across the line that you just drew making sure that the top sew and the bottom seem line up exactly. You should end up with a flap like bellow. You can trim the corner off but really there is no need to, I leave mine.

Step 5
Now we will sew the bottom corners. We are going to do the exact same thing but we are sewing in the ties. Once you have a corner marked, and before you sew, inserted we need to insert a tie. To do this, fold a tie in half  at a slight angle. (The angle helps so that you don't have to sew over so much fabric at one time and risk breaking your needle.) Insert the folded edge inside the top and bottom of your triangle. 

 Then sew over your originally marked line and you'll sew the ties into the corners! If you flip right side out it will look like this:

 Step 6
We are almost finished with the cushion, now all that you have to do is turn it right side out insert the filling/foam/batting and close it off! 

 Optional Zipper with Insert
There are a few options here as well..... I decided that I wanted to make mine like a slip cover so I put a zipper on (see below). And I made an insert doing the exact same process. With my insert I stuffed it with foam pieces and stitched down the opening with my machine. It can also be closed by hand sewing it. 

My insert with the opening stitching closed.

I am not going to go through the steps of putting in a zipper, unless some out there really wants it. But here are a few pictures so you get the jist. Just remember to reinforce the top and the bottom so that as you stuff your insert in you don't rip any seems!  

Your Finished Seat Cushion! 
Congrats! They are awesome! and surprisingly quick and simple! Find some fun crazy fabric and run with it! Don't you love this one?! I am crazy about it, and crazy about IKEA where it is from ;) 
 

Other Ideas
-Add ribbon as your ties to add some different texture
- Sew buttons in the middle of the cushion to get a pillowy effect. (The cannot be done with an insert.)  
- Try using a different fabric on the top or bottom to get reversible cushions! Just make sure that they still coordinate together as part of the bottom one will be visible. 

  ** Thanks Des for letting me post this! Your the best sis ever!