Week 17: Front Porch Outdoor Cushions

So this week's post is about me trying to make some cushions for my front porch chairs.  Jake told me how uncomfortable the chairs were on his back, so one of the "musts" for these cushions was to make them so they had a back to them.  Here's a picture of the chairs after we painted them last fall for our front porch.

My first thought was that I can do this! My next thought was, I better check and see how much these are to buy instead of make. :)  Then I decided the chair size wasn't the same as most of the chairs where the back and seat cushions are adjoined, so I thought I would tackle the project.  I researched some DIY blogs where people made their own cushions from foam, batting, and fabric, so that's what I did.

I used 2 existing cushions we had to determine how much foam I needed.  After drawing it out on paper, I headed to Jo-Ann's to buy some foam.  I ended up buying 1 inch thick foam which provides a thinner cushion but gets the job done.  I was happy when the foam by the yard at Jo-Ann's was 50% off as this ended up saving me some money!

Here are all my supplies:

-Foam
-Electric Carving Knife (to cut the foam)
-fabric
-Scissors, Pins, Thread, etc.

I was an idiot and didn't buy enough fabric (first bought a plain ivory color at the request of Jake) so then I had to go back and buy the correct amount.  I figure I'll use the fabric for something else another time since it is neutral, but I was secretly happy it didn't work out so I could go back and get something a little more colorful.  Good thing all of the outdoor fabrics were 50% off too!

Next I laid the "template" cushion on the foam and used a marker to mark on the foam where I would need to cut.

Next I used my electric carving knife to cut the fabric.  I was really nervous at first but it was so easy to cut through!  Also I thought it was interesting that the first time I used the knife it was to cut foam and not a turkey! I've only had it for about 2 years. Maybe it's time I start cooking meat a little more :)

Once I had both the upper and lower part of the cushions cut from the foam, I used a ton of the leftover cotton batting from all those quilts I've made over the year.  I hot glued the pieces together so they would stay.  I would recommend this layer over the foam as I did notice a little more padding verses when I sat on just the fabric and foam.

Once I covered the foam with the batting, I then laid out my material with the right-side facing the cushion and cut the fabric.  I chose to have the part of the cushion that would face outward (front part of seat and the top part of the upper cushion) to be the end that I wouldn't need to sew so there wouldn't be a seam across the whole thing.  When I cut the fabric I just laid it out on the bottom, put the cushion on the fabric, then folded the remainder on the top.

Next I pinned around all the remaining sides, traced the pinned area with a pencil, then took out the pins at the bottom of the cushion so I could get the foam part out to sew the fabric.  I couldn't get close enough to the cushion part to sew the fabric right up to the edge with the foam, which is why I took it out to sew.

Here is where I got wrapped up in the project and forgot to take pictures, but after I sewed the 2 sides, I trimmed the edges to be along the seams I sewed, reversed the fabric to be right-side out and put the foam back in there.  I then folded the un-sewn side under and sewed it shut with the foam in the fabric since this side would be facing the back of the chair.

Then I repeated this for the 3 other cushions.

Lastly, when i had 4 complete cushions, I placed them on the chair and pinned the sides together to hand-stitch the top and bottom cushion together.  This was really annoying and hard to do because I didn't leave myself with enough fabric to easily pin them together.

Finally, I was finished with this project!

I did have a few take-aways....

1) Sometimes buying things already made is worth the hassle of trying to DIY.
2) This project was really frustrating for me...I didn't mention earlier that my original measurement of the upper cushion was too big so it stuck about 2 inches over the back of the chair and looked really strange.  Which of course I didn't know until I had sewed the upper and lower pieces together. So I had to do a lot of seam ripping to get the foam out and cut it down, put it back in the sewed fabric, and stitch the upper/lower cushions back together.  HUGE TIME WASTE!!!
3) I am ok with how they look but not 100% satisfied.  But they are comfortable so I guess that is most important!   I think I will be happier when we take the hideous curtains down...which Jake loves so I am leaving them for this summer but I'm definitely going to replace them for next year :)
4) I am glad this project is over with!!!