How to Recover Outdoor Furniture Cushions

I decided to recover some old outdoor furniture for a friend... Turned out not to badly... I hope that my how to will help someone else that needs to do a similar project.

Step 1: The First Step Is to Strip All Old Coverings Off the Cushions..

First I took all of the original covering off each cushion. Yes being outdoor furniture there was a bit of a yuck factor.

Step 2:

Now its time to make a paper pattern... I use old Christmas paper. Just lay out the cushions on your paper and trace around them. Keep doing this till your satisfied with the outcome...Don't forget to do the edging. By drawing only half the pattern I can fold the paper in half and cut out the whole pattern piece at once making the top and bottom curves match.

Step 3:

Make sure to cut fabric for the sides and the piping, ties and save some for the buttons. Now layout the pattern and cut the fabric...The back pannel is cut the same as the front only tn two pieces... I cut each piece about an inch longer than halfway down and half way up so that I would have some to turn under in the center after stuffing the cushions back inside.

Step 4:

Piping makes any cushion look great... Its simple to make just a bit time consuming. Make lots of piping...

Step 5:

Attaching the front to the sides with piping.... I like to use a lot of pins when working with cushions.. Place the front of the cover right side up..lay the piping so that the edges match with the front...then layer the side panel on top of the piping and pin in place... be careful around the curves.. Overlap the piping as shown below when coming to the end of the piping.. Make sure you keep fingers holding down the fabric tightly so that you can see where to stitch closely to the piping. I use a zipper-foot to do this maneuver. Just run your machine slowly around and you will not have any trouble.

Step 6:

The back is made in two separate pieces so that the cushion can be inserted then the center seam sewn up my hand. Remember to add the ties into these seams. You should have one upper panel and one lower panel that each turn back where they meet in the middle.

Step 7:

Now the buttons need covering and added to finish... I got my hubby to do the button covering because I just didn't have the hand strength to do this... at least that's my story ;)