dining room slipcovers

make your own adirondack chair cushion followingthe steps in this video. a good quality adirondack cushion made from sunbrella fabric can costalmost a hundred dollars from a retailer and if you need more than one it gets expensivequickly. save money, learn more and do it yourself using supplies from sailrite. let'sget started, angela from the sailrite loft is going to show us how it’s done.the first task in making adirondack chair cushions is to take a few measurements offthe chair. the backrest does curve inwards in the center, but we will be cutting ourfoam to a square shape, so we will measure from the outside edge of the backrest to theforward edge of the chair. write your measurements down on paper. next measure the opening atthe front of the chair from inside arm to

inside arm, ours is 22 1/8 inches.for the backrest measure at the center location up to the highest point of the chair. finallymeasure across the back of the backrest as shown in the video, ours is 21 inches. drawa rough sketch of the chair and write those measurements down on that paper. angela isgoing to round the figures down slightly, but that is not required or recommended.for the foam we will be using a compressed or densified polyester called nu-foam. thisis a rather inexpensive option and typically most adirondack chair cushions are made fromthis type of foam. however, another option is an anti-microbial polyurethane foam fromsailrite. this polyurethane foam is what is commonly found in most of the furniture madearound the world.

angela has marked the foam to size and willnow cut out the two shapes (one the bottom and one the backrest). the compressed polyesteris 2 inches thick and it is best cut with scissors. it is nearly imposable to cut thewhole thickens with scissors at once, so we will cut the top half (approximately 1 inch)then cut the bottom half. if you choose to use the polyurethane foam it cuts easily withan electric kitchen knife. the foam should be tested in the chair toassure it fits, it should be rather snug as the cushion cover will typically shrink thesize of the foam slightly. mark the backrest following the contour of the chair’s back.that backrest foam is sitting on top of the seat bottom foam below. then trim to size.sailrite highly recommends using a sunbrella

upholstery or furniture fabric for adirndackchairs. sunbrella fabric is one of the world’s best outdoor/indoor fabrics, for more informationcheck it out at www.sailrite.com. to calculate the length of fabric required(must be a 46” wide fabric or larger) just add the backrest height to the seat bottom’sdepth plus add 6 inches for extra fabric and the middle hinge.this fabric is 54” wide so angela has folded it in half to make both the top and bottomplate of our cushion. at that fold she will cut it to size following the stripes of thefabric for a straight line. now she can overlay the opposite half so the pattern repeat isthe same for the top and bottom plate. after that is done she will use straight pins andsecure the two layers so the stripes are directly

over each other. this is possible with thisfabric, but may not be the case with other pattern repeats. often cushions still looksgreat even if the strips are not matched up between top and bottom plates, it is a preferenceonly and not a rule. pin the fabric at several locations alongall 4 sides. next take the foam pieces and find the centerand mark it with a marker. lay the foam over top of the fabric assemblies so the centerlines up with where you want the fabric’s pattern to fall. our strips are so small onthis fabric and thin that this is not too important, but for larger stripes or patternsthis may be more important. angela will place the backrest foam on thefabric, just for reference, she will not trace

around that yet. step 1: trace around theseat bottom foam with a fabric marking pencil, chalk or other light colored pencil. the lineswe are striking down will be on the inside of the cover, so erasing them will not betoo important. she uses a yardstick to help press down on the foam as she marks the fabricunderneath. step 2: strike a line 2 inches up from theseat bottom’s edge. this wide straight edge is exactly 2 inches wide, so we will use thatto mark up from the seat bottom. step 3: strike a line 1 inch up from the lineyou just struck down. this yardstick is about 1 inch wide. the 2 inches will be used forseam allowance and also for the boxing portion of the cushion that will wrap around the sides.the 1” will be used as a hinge between the

two pieces of foam.next position the backrest foam so it is set along the line you just struck down, be sureit is centered also. step 4: mark around the outer edges of thefoam. here angela is going to use a yardstick to help her in the marking of the straightsides. step 5: mark 1 inch around the outside edgesof the backrest and the seat bottom. this illustration shows those lines fading in andout. to accomplish this task use a ruler and placemarks 1” around the outside of the lines that were struck down previously on the fabricthen strike new lines with a straight edge. remember the lines you strike down will bein the inside of the cover when it is done.

we cannot use a straight edge to trace aroundthe back rest, so carefully trace around the upper back rest 1 inch away from the firstline. step 6: connect the back rest to the seatbottom by carefully tracing a curved line. nothing to fancy, just a natural curved linethat is about the same shape on both sides of the cushion.since we are using a sunbrella upholstery or furniture fabric we can use a hot knifeto cut the fabric to size. we are using sailrite’s edge hot knife which heats up in only a fewseconds and cools down in a minute or two. cutting with a hot knife will seal the edgeof the fabric and keep it from unraveling. a hot knife typically not be used on naturalfabrics like cotton, but any synthetic it

will usually works great.between the backrest and the seat bottom a fabric tie will be installed to help keepthe cushion on the chair. also midway up the backrest a tie should be installed on bothsides there as well. angela is marking the fabric at those locations.it is also important to leave an opening along the side of the cushion to insert the foamin a later step. so, she also marks where she will start and stop sewing, leaving anopening just large enough to easily insert the foam when the cushion plates are sewingtogether and turned right side out. where the fabric ties were marked she drewa “t” indicating an exit point for fabric. everywhere else a dash line indicating startor stop sewing.

since the fabric has been hot knifed whencut to size the fabric will likely be slightly bonded together (melted). so where the openingfor the foam was indicated she will now open or separate the fabric at that opening spoton both the bottom and the seatback position. also while you are separating the plates mightas well separate the fabric where each fabric tie has to be installed. keep the rest intactso it makes the sewing of the plates easier in the next step. if you did not use a hotknifeto cut the fabric you will likely have to pin the plates together so they are directlyon top of each other when sewing in the next step.before sewing the plates together we need to make the fabric ties. we are going to usean acrylic soft braid binding to do this.

however, you could use some of the scrap fabricand make your own. our fabric ties are cut to about 24” and knots are tied on the twoends. find the center of the tie and then insertthat folded over center into the cushion so the fold just protrudes out of the cushioncover. do that for all the fabric tie locations. the tie that goes where the cushion openingis on the backrest will not be installed until the cushions is closed up, so skip that tiefor now. next sew up the cushion cover starting at one of the start marks.we are using a v-69 polyester thread with a size #16 needle. the sailrite ultrafeedls-1 sewing machine with a walking foot is doing our sewing. we will sew a straight stitchabout â½â€ away from the raw edges of the

fabric. try to keep the stitch length about6mm in length to reduce puckering of the fabric. a good practice when you reach a corner isto bury the needle in the fabric so it is at the lowest position down, then lift thepresser foot and rotate the fabric lower the presser foot and continue to sew.do not forget to leave the opening for the insertion of the foam. you can see those spotsvia the marks you made earlier, do not sew those areas closed.now we can turn the assembly right side out via one of the openings. next take a measurementof the seat back foam’s height, ours is 29 inches. remember we added 1 inch alongall the edges of the cover, so add 2 inches to this measurement for a total of 31” forour cushion cover. next measure the seat’s

depth, ours is 17 inches and add 2 inchesfor a total of 19”. some of you are thinking, what about seam allowance that was about 3/8”when we sewed the two plates together? yes, you are correct, but we are just trying tofind the approximate location where the hinge seams will be placed. these two measurementsshould be very close to one another, if not on top of each other, take the average ofboth and find the center. from that location mark a half inch away on both sides, as shownin the video. at those two locations we will strike a lightline with a pencil, soapstone or chalk and then sew directly on top of the lines creatinga nice pocket for the foam and a hinge all at the same time. these two lines are 1 inchapart from each other.

insert the foam into each opening in the cushion.you can expect the foam to be slightly larger than the cover for a nice tight fit. so, itis also necessary to push the foam into the corners so it lays centered in the cover andit also nice and flat. the final step is to sew closed the opening.to do this create a small hem on both open edges of the cover fabric and then sandwichthe plates on top of each ot1 incher, so they look good. then sew along the edge rememberingto reverse at the beginning and end of you sewing to lock the stitch in place. keep thestitch close to the hemmed edge for the best appearance, we are trying to conceal thisstitch to the best of our ability. a helpful hint for beginners is to pin the fabric togetherprior to sewing to hold it in place while

you sew.notice that angela sews a few inches then stops and rotates the sewing machine’s balancewheel by hand so she can bury the needle in the fabric before she will continue to makethe hem along these two edges. in doing this the assembly will not move and her stitchis consistent. let’s move on. the procedure to installthe backrest foam is the same, except that we need to include a fabric tie at the spotwe marked on the fabric. after the foam is inserted find the location for the fabrictie which should be opposite the tie on the other side.here is the mark we made earlier, transfer that mark to the other side so, we can seeit more easily when we are sewing the opening

closed, we do not want to forget to installthe tie. now sew the opening closed as you did previously.when you come to the place where the mark is insert the tie and continue sewing it closed.the adirondack cushion is now complete and ready to be tied onto the chair.coming up next is the materials list and tools we used to make this cushion.in general it only takes 2 yards of fabric and a sheet of foam which is about 26” x51” to make one adirondack cushion. for more free videos like this be sure tocheck out the sailrite website or subscribe to the sailrite youtube channel. it’s yourloyal patronage to sailrite that makes these free videos available, thanks for your loyalsupport! i’m eric grant and from all of

us here at sailrite, thanks for watching!

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