No Sew Project: How to recover your outdoor cushions using fabric and a glue gun.

I recently was fortunate enough to get to play around with some beautiful fabrics from Riley Blake Designs.    There is lots to choose from, and whenever you want to inject some color into a room, paint and fabric are always sure things.  I recently shared this quick tutorial over on Mom It Forward, but thought I'd share it over here, in case you missed it.

We do a lot of entertaining and much of it is on our patio.  Because we are in Southern California, we're able to change up the look of our patio furniture pretty regularly with just a little fabric and a glue gun.
If you can wrap a present, you can re-cover a cushion.

 

Riley Blake Designs has some amazing fabrics and I knew this fun paisley inspired print was just the thing to bring a shot of color to my patio.

We recover our cushions regularly because they were looking a bit worn, but are still perfectly comfortable.  Because we use a glue gun we can change the fabric as often as we like.  The last fabric we had on our cushions was a black and white combo for a Halloween Party.

Start by measuring the widest part of the cushion and the sides.  The width of the cushion was 25" and the sides were about 3" high.  25+3+3 = 31"  then I add another 6" to ensure it will wrap around to the back.  I cut a total length of 37 inches.

The next step is to pull the old fabric off of the cushion.  The fabric always pulls off and the old glue sticks to the cushion.  This allows me to toss the fabric into the washing machine and save it for future projects.  I love that I am able to use these materials over and over again.

Take the cushion and center it on the new fabric.

See?  The old hot glue sticks to the cushion, not the fabric so you can reuse the fabric over again.

This is just like wrapping a present, but instead of paper it's fabric and instead of tape, you're using hot glue.

Just like a present... fold up the sides and glue.  Then fold the "ends" and secure them as well.

The fact that this "seam" is present doesn't matter on most furniture.  No one sees the bottom of the seat cushion, and most chairs have a back support that hides the seam on the back cushion.

Is it going to last forever?  No... but then again, I don't want it to.

I love being able to change up my patio, depending on the event. These chairs were perfect for the Mother's Day Brunch we recently hosted.

Colorful cushions and a Mother's Day Mimosa... Nice!

So remember: It's OK to recover old cushions.  It's OK to use a glue gun to do it.  It's your patio... do what you want!