This client had been waiting a long time for this project. Last fall she asked me about making outdoor cushions but we were in the middle of moving so I had to put her off until recently.

The cushion set consisted of one large, long cushion and two smaller cushions of identical dimmensions.

When thinking about making outdoor cushions it is important to consider a few things.

Where will these cushions be? In the sun? In the rain?

We have all had those outdoor cushions that got left outside during a rain storm, without water resistent fabric the cushions are soaked thouroughly and take days to dry out.

The best fabric when making outdoor cushions is to purchase some type of waterproof fabric. The navy for this cushion make over was this Otterex Waterproof canvas from amazon.

The fabric wasn’t bad to work with but definitely much stiffer than a nonwaterproof fabric.

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For the actual construction of the cushions the process is the same.

Gather the supplies you need.

Tailors chalk
Yard Stick
Quilter’s Ruler
Regular Tapemeaure
Electric Rotary Cutter
Size 18 needles
Bonded Nylon thread, this is especially helpful to hold up against the weather. It is much stronger than cotton thread.
Zipper (you will need a long length so rather than buy it to size, purchase a yardage of zipper and make your own)
Cotton cording

When the cushions are the same size make a template to trace them out

For this cushion set there were two cushions the same size, so I created a template using a old sheet. This template I could use to quickly trace the cushion shapes onto my fabric.

Once my template is made I always lay it over the existing cushion just to make sure that I have the shape exact, making sure all the corners are rounded identically and other such details.

Pro Tip:

Sometimes the side of the cushion where the zipper goes is a slighly different measurement than the front side. In order to keep them straigh I always mark the zipper side with an “X” on my templates.

For more on cushion making check out a previous post.