Boxed cushion tutorial

As you have seen if you are a follower on my blog or my friend on Facebook, I went dumpster diving and rescued a bench perfect for my country porch.  It had great bones but needed some spiffing up.  In this tutorial I will tell you how I made the seat cushion.

1. Measure the seat, length and width.  Mine is 24 x 70 inches.  I searched for a 4 inch thick piece of foam and found it at JoAnn's.  Best part it was marked at 50% off and i had a coupon for another 15% on top of that so it was a win.  This was the most expensive thing for this makeover.  They cut the foam to fit for me in the store.  I also purchased a heavy duty metal zipper that was as long as i could find it for the back opening.

2.  I wanted to cover the cushion with canvas.  This is how i figured out how much fabric i would need.

     For the width:

• 24 x 2 for top and bottom
• 4 x 2 for sides
• .5 x 2 for seam (the fabric would wrap around the front of cushion so i only needed a seam in the back)
• this meant that i would need a piece of fabric 57 inches wide

     For the length

• 70 inches for length of cushion
• 2 x 2 for ends (there is a seam in the middle so it will make both ends 4 inches wide)
• .5 x 2 for seams
• this meant that I would need a piece of fabric 75 inches long

     I went to Home Depot and bought the painters tarp that came closest to being the correct amount of fabric that I needed.  Took it home and washed and dried it on the hottest settings to shrink it all that it would so when I washed it later, it would still fit the cushion.

3.  Cut the fabric to size 57 x 75 inches.
4.  Sew the long edge together using 1/2 inch seam.
5.  Press seam open.  (at this point you have a big tube of fabric.
6.  On inside of tube, pin zipper with right side of zipper towards the seam allowance, and with your zipper foot, stitch the zipper in place.  Down one side and up the other.  You will have to unzip the zipper a bit to get started and then zip it back up for the first side then zip it down again to complete the installation.  Once you have completed this you need to open up the seam where the zipper is.  This is where a seam ripper or some really sharp little scissors come in handy.
7.  Next step is to lay the piece flat and fold in half, right sides together, with the zipper on one side and the folded edge on the other.  Unzip the zipper a bit so you can use it once the seams are sewn.  Pin the edges together on either end of the tube and sew them together with a 1/2 inch seam.  Press all your seams open.
8.  Now we have to make the boxed corners.  It is easiest on the back corners so lets do them first.  Fold the corners into a point with the seams from both sides lined up and pin them.  Since the cushion is 4 inches thick, you will need a 4 inch corner, 2 inches above and below the seam.  I measured 2 inches down on the folded edges and marked.  Once that was marked i measured to make sure that the seam was 4 inches long and sewed the seam.  Then trim the extra off the seam and press open.  I did both of the back corners first then headed to the front where there is only one seam.  Being as careful as possible not to twist my tube at all i folded and marked the front corners to match the back, sewed, trimmed and pressed them also.
9.  Next you turn the cover right side out and put the cushion is.  This takes a bit of muscling since the cushion is so large but once it is in and the zipper is closed you will see it is worth the effort.

There was a little extra so I made a couple of small throw pillows.  I really like this one.

Don't forget to check out the tutorial on making the cushions for the back of the bench with the great fabric from Online Fabric Store.