Making a cushion cover for the porch

Yesterday I showed you how to use some 10″ fabric squares along with Therm Fleece to make some attractive and useful bowl cozies.

Today’s project is another one that will help you use up some of your fabric stash and create a bench pillow that will be perfect for both inside and outside use.

The bench pillow form I used is 16″ x 38″ and is available in fabric and craft stores.

I used fabrics from Northcott Banyan Batiks collection for my bench pillow cover.

materials

• ½ yd [.4m] focus fabric; I used a large floral print

• ½ yd [.4m] accent fabric (bright green); this is used for the pillow front and the corded edge

• ¾ yd [.7m] background fabric

• 1 yd [.9m] pillow back; I used the focus fabric with the large floral print

• 120″ of cording. I used a soft, ½” diameter cotton cording.

cutting instructions

• accent fabric 2 – 1½” x WOF (width of fabric, approximately 40″)

• background fabric 3 – 8½” x WOF
• focus fabric 2 – 6½” x WOF
• for ease of handling, cut the WOF strips in half so they measure approximately 20″.
  

  Let’s start sewing!

• Make a strip set using 2 background strips, 1 accent strip and 1 focus fabric strip.

• Press seams in one direction. Press carefully so you don’t distort the strip set.

• Cut the strip set into 2½” segments. You’ll get 8 segments from the strip set.
• Make 2 more strip sets like this and cut them into 2½” segments. You need 19 – 2½” segments for the pillow top, so you’ll only need to cut 3 segments from the last strip set. Keep the rest of the strip set for another project – maybe a smaller pillow?

Come back tomorrow and learn how to re-arrange the strips to create your own original pillow top!