Simple Cushions for Wicker Set

3 Materials
$50
4 Hours
Easy

Hi, I'm Liz from Simple Decorating Tips a DIY and decorating blog. Here is a tutorial to make simple cushions for a wicker furniture set.

Once I found the right wicker furniture, a small sofa and 2 chairs, I then realized the cushions needed a bit of tweaking… Here I share with you the step by step, vintage wicker easy sew cushions tutorial… Sewing new cushions may not be as difficult as you think. Here are a few tips and shortcuts to make it as quick and easy as possible.

This was the chair 'before'.

I removed the old cushions.

and set out to make a paper pattern.

I actually found that a roll of cheap wrapping paper worked great for this. I pushed it into the corners as best as I could.

Then cut out the paper to make sure it totally laid nice and flat in the chair frame.

For the cushions on this vintage wicker I chose 2″ foam. You can cut it with an electric knife, which is an especially helpful tip if you’re cutting 4″ thick foam to get a good straight edge, but for 2″ foam, I just snipped it with regular scissors and it turned out fine.

Then onto the fabric…

I just laid the paper pattern out on the wrong side of a single layer of the fabric, making sure the print of the fabric was going the correct way, and lightly traced around it with a pencil. (or chalk works better) Then with the measuring guide out if front of my scissors, I just cut around the pattern. Because the foam is 2″ thick, I made my cut line 2″ wider than the pattern to give me a generous 1″ seam allowance.

When cutting the 2nd piece of the cushion fabric, (you’ll need a top and bottom piece) I recommend laying the 1st piece you just cut out, right on top on the fabric and using that as your guide.

Be sure you place it with the right sides together, and again check that the pattern is going in the right direction.

Pin the top and bottom of the cushion, right sides together. I always use two pins together marking where I am supposed to start and stop, or inevitably I will be sewing along, and go way past the stopping point. If that does happen, it’s no big deal, you just need to rip out some stitches to make the opening large enough. So for these cushions, I left most of the back of the cushion open to get the foam inserted in after the cover is turned right side out.

Once the 3 sides of the cushion cover was done, I turned it right side out. For the back of these cushions, I folded the raw edges in and pinned closed the opening, lining up the front and back evenly.

Now at this point, I knew I was going to have a pillow on the back of the chair that would cover a seam on the back, but if the seam would have been exposed, then I would have hand stitched this pinned back so that the seam would lay flat and not show… but I was in a hurry and these would be hidden, so I put on the zipper foot attachment of my sewing machine, placed the needle all the way to the left and just held the stuffed cushion up to the sewing machine and quickly stitched it shut. This method is super fast, but it does leave a bit of a flange seam. Another option is to insert velcro, ties or even a zipper. Those are a little more involved, but not too bad, just more time.

The new fabric works great with the bold color of the rug.

I love the vintage style of the fabric too, it really does look to me like it could have been from the 20’s or 30’s when I believe the wicker dates to.

For more tutorials and ideas, be sure to stop by Simple Decorating Tips, I'd love to hear from you!

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Liz at Simple Decorating Tips
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  3 questions
  • Pineapple Pineapple on Apr 17, 2020

    Nice looking cushions but what if they need cleaning?

  • Narie Narie on Apr 18, 2020

    If you did 4 in foam , wouldn’t you have to cut pieces for side?

  • Ellie O'day-Harris Ellie O'day-Harris on Apr 18, 2020

    How much fabric did you use for set?

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  • Deb Deb on Apr 27, 2020

    Great idea, am redoing my back porch and I love the bright colors, had already picked out pillows in similar colors. Wondered where you got the rug, terrific colors, have looked everywhere for something like that, it ties everything together.

  • Daisy@TX Daisy@TX on May 07, 2020

    Love your colors. I will try this have wicker settee and two chairs also appear to be same size. Now I need to purchase the material. I have similar rug bought at Wayfair. Thanks for sharing.

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