Sewing Tutorial -- Cushion

My First Sewing Tutorial ----Beginner Level ----Cushion

     My wonderful husband Adeimar loves to play video games and would clear off my very solidly built coffee table and sit on it so that he could be up close to the action. I of course got tired of having to move everything back because he would forget too. My best friend and her husband had a dinning room chair that they were going to get rid of because someone had broken the back off it. The rest of the chair was still fine so I saw an opportunity to up-cycle the would be trashed item.

     It is now a stool for Adeimar in our living room instead of the coffee table. I felt pretty clever until he stopped using it because it was uncomfortable for long periods of time like Halo battles with his best friend or younger brothers. So I got to thinking ..."Why don't I make a cushion for it?" I ran the idea by my husband to see if he felt like it would fix the problem and once he agreed I got to work.

    There is just one little detail that I forgot to mention....I had no sewing ability at all (prior to this project of course). I enlisted the help of a dear friend who loves to sew and makes quilts and things all the time. I explained what I wanted to do and being the wonderfully crafty person she is helped me to put it all together.

So here is what you will need for this project:

• a piece of foam that is the appropriate thickness 
• enough fabric to cover the selected piece of foam
•  be sure to allow for the seams. For this project we allowed for 1/4 inch seams throughout.
• we also used two different colors
• scissors
• sewing machine
• thread -----we used a grey thread
• snaps
• tape measure
• rotary cutter
• rotary cutter mat
• ruler or straight edge
• pencil
• ironing board
• Iron

Now then lets get started. After you have found the perfect size piece of foam and the fabric(s) that you wish to use, set up your iron and let it get heated up to the appropriate temperature for the fabric that you are using. While it is getting hot take this opportunity to  set up your sewing machine, if you haven't already. Once the iron is ready begin to iron the pieces of fabric that you plan to use to get rid of wrinkles that can mess you up while cutting the fabric to the appropriate size. 

Once the fabric is wrinkle free measure again the piece of foam that you have. We decided to cut our fabric into triangles so that we could make them into squares that we would later use to make a pinwheel pattern. For our project we made about 21 squares total which were two toned. 

Dont forget that when measuring the fabric to turn it into quilters squares   to allow for the cutting and for  your desired seam in this case 1/4 inch . Place the two pieces of fabric face to face. Using a pencil and a straight edge find the exact center from corner to corner diagonally. Darken this line then make two more lines one on either side of the center line that are 1/4 away from center line.  Sew down each of the two outer lines to form two triangles out of the square. 

**HINT** Instead of stopping at the end of each one and cutting it of keep pressing the pedal slowly until you have a few stiches of just thread formed then slide in the next square and form its seam. Continue this until all your blocks have been "chain stitched" together. Flip the entire chain around and sew the second outer line you drew with the pencil. Once all have been done then snip the chains apart. 

Once all of the squares have been sewn cut down each square on the center line. This will give you double the amount of squares that you had before. take them all to the ironing board and iron the seams gently using the temperature setting that is called for on the fabric you are using. 

Then begin sewing your squares together to form the desired pattern in this case we wanted it to look like a pinwheel. Once you are done simply slip the cushion inside and presto you have completed your slip cover for a cushion.

If you want you can sew snaps to make it stay closed but I didn't do that in this case. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and be sure to post any questions that you may have below in the comment section.


Have a wonderful day.