Some cush for my tush

Back to the patio we go! I am loving these summer days- it will never end, right? I just can't imagine winter coming back. I live in the wrong climate. This girl needs sun and warmth. That is why this fall and I am shirking those first cold days and going to MEXICO!! Yup, I just booked my annual vacation and a friend and I are packing up some emergency maple syrup and flying to Mexico to visit a friend there. So excited!!

But back to the patio. I needed to spruce up the cushion on my folding chair. When I original got my patio furniture at Ikea, my chairs were bright red and fun.

However, by the time two years of sun exposure had done it's work, it looked like this:

I lost one chair in an unfortunate body-slamming incident (or so I imagine, I was down in a guest suite with some friends when it happened. I picture it went down with honour). Therefore I had only one ugly, faded cushion to deal with. I had looked at Ikea and other places for a new cushion but they either cost too much or were not the right "look".

So I did what I am always doing lately, and I trekked to Fabricland and then busted out my sewing machine. I decided to up my game this time and do some piping on the edge of the pillow. I find that gives a pillow a very "profesh" look and I was excited to try it out (I had sewn piping once before in high school).

I started out by measuring my pillow. It was about 16" by 16", in case you are looking for a chair cushion size for your own project. You can really see in this photo how faded the pillow was. Yuck

Then I cut out two pieces of my material leaving a 1/2 inch allowance for the seam. I loved this fabric! It is from the "outdoor" section so the pillow will be all good on rainy days (but I expect it still will fade. That is just life). It was super easy to cut straight by just following the straight lines in the pattern.

Next, I placed the two pieces right side together and laid my piping in, while pinning in place. You want to place the "bump" of the piping in towards the middle, so that when you flip the pillow case right-side-out, the piping will show along the seam. I pinned it all close to the edge because I only had 1/2" seams here. After it was all pinned I made sure it was still 16" from piping bump to piping bump.

Now we are already onto sewing! When sewing on piping, you want the bump just to the left of the foot and you want to make sure you sew in nice and close, but not OVER the bump, because you want it to stick out of the edge of the pillow (but you don't want the flat part picking out too- so go slow and steady). Sew around 3 edges

Then shove your pillow in! I was planning on not making this cover removable and sewing all the way around, but you can always sew a zipper in.

Now you have to pin the last side to the piping, with the pillow inside. I wanted to sew this last seam on the machine, but it would NOT fit with the darn pillow in. Too close of a fit. So I just sewed it by hand. It aint pretty, but it does the job and I was way too lazy to try and attempt a hidden stitch!

Finally, toss it outside and enjoy the new pretty chair!!