Tutorial Time!!!

 

OLD BEAN BAG TO NEW FLOOR CUSHION

A very good friend of mine gave my girls 2 Barbie bean bags that her own two girls had grown out of.

The were practically brand new and the girls loved them.  We would snuggle up together on those cold winter mornings under a blanket and watch the cartoons.

But now they are looking very sad and unloved and my girls don’t sit on them anymore.  Plus they need more stuffing.  So after I picked up 2 metres of an owl pattern curtain fabric I thought I would retire the poor old bean bags and make the girls floor cushions.

To make the cushions I cut a piece a fabric at 23 inches wide by 51 inches long with the extra 1 inch being for seam allowance.  I want the cushion to end up a 20 inch square that is 3 inches deep.

For the closure I am using a couple of open end zips that I picked up at a charity shop ages ago for a steal.  I want the opening to be 15 inches wide so I marked and sewed across the bottom of the zip and cut off the end leaving about an inch extra and then I used my zigzag stitch, as wide as the stitch can be and secured the other end.

Next I folded the fabric with right sides together, marked in 4 inches each side (this is so I have room to make the box corner) and attached one side of the zip to the fabric.  For a great tutorial on how to sew on a zipper click here.

Now here is where I attached a handle to the pillow.  As this curtain material is pre-hemmed I just cut off the end folded it in half and sewed it together.

I wanted the handle on the side of the cushion so I folded the material in half length ways and then measured down and marked about 23 inches. Then I folded the handle in half, marked and then matched this to the mark on the cushion. Now I just turned each end of the handle down and pinned it to the cushion.

Next I sewed both sides together.  Don’t forget when you are sewing completely around the cushion that you either leave a hole for turning the cushion out the right way and then hand sew it closed or just leave the zipper open part of the way.

Before I turned the cushion cover right side out I flattened the corners our and measured 1.5 inches down the middle, marked and sewed straight across to make the boxed corners.  I did this to all four corners.

Now to just cut off the corners, turn it right way out and fill it with the Styrofoam balls from the old bag.  And how did I do this, well I used one of my litre jugs.

And here she is.  One more to go!

And here it is in use lol!

Happy Sewing!!!