DIY Bench Cushion

Tah-dah!!! Mimi's bench gets a makeover.


I hope Mimi enjoys seeing her old bench gettin' some sugar. It was a labor of love and frustration. While the craftsmanship is not stellar, by any means (I have a long way to go), the finished project is fully functional. Again, I exploited the expertise of my MIL (Cathy, homemaker extraordinaire) and really appreciate the time she took to help me out, including creating a template for me to work from.




We often have different perspectives and teaching me requires a lot of patience on her part. So thanks Cathy if you're reading this. And as always, thanks to my mom, the other Kathy, for sacrificing your sewing machine to my personal sustainable living cause AND giving me all the extra material from when you had that chair reupholstered years ago. I know you would be happy to help me with this stuff too if we lived closer to each other. I truly am blessed with a great mom and mother-in-law (despite not always showing it due to my confrontational nature and our personality differences). Anyhow, I hope both moms accept a little pre-Mother's Day gratitude.

Back to the cushion. I found several ways of doing this while gathering my research. Ultimately, for simplicity sake I chose the the two-piece, no-cording option. Creating the corners was the most tricky part.



You can also see where my stitching wasn't great. I think this was due to me pulling or tugging the material through the machine, as opposed to just guiding it. I imagine my technique will continue to improve as I work on other projects.



I've also improved my relationship with my iron. I have learned Irons Are Your Friend when it comes to sewing.



Overall it was great to start off with this:




And end up with this:



Jury is still out whether or not I could have found a 3'x 12" x 2" bench cushion for less than $25.