Re-covered Bar Stool Cushion

I've been slowly updating things around the house. It must be this pregnancy thing - because I'm in serious nesting mode!

I found this wonderful printed fabric at Jo-Ann's - and it was 50% off. Score! I decided it would be nice to update our bar stool cushions using it.

Can you see why I wanted to update them? Pretty gross right?

I used the existing cushion as a sort of template for the fabric. I folded the fabric in half and laid the cushion on top of the fabric. I added 3 more inches around the existing cushion to allow for the wrap around of the new cushion.

These marks indicate where I decided to cut the fabric.

I cut out two circles since I was making two cushions.

Serge around your entire circles. If you don't have a serger you can use a zig-zag stitch or even cut out the circle using some pinking shears.

Now take some elastic. I used a pretty thin size of elastic (I don't remember what width though, sorry).

Here's how to make your cushion cover so it will hug the actual stool. Take your elastic and line it up on the serged (or zig-zagged) edge. Manually move your needle down so it will keep your elastic in place. Before you begin sewing pull your elastic really tight so you have no slack over the elastic you'll be sewing. Go real slow, and make sure that you are catching the elastic and the fabric together. Go around the entire circle, continuing to pull the elastic so it's always tight while you sew. Don't forget to backstitch at the beginning and end!

When you are done and you let go of the elastic it should end up puckering up like this.

This is what the underside of your new cushion cover should look like.

At this point you could leave it like this and cover your old seat cushion. I wanted to "polish" it up a bit so I added some button details.

Start off with a button cover kit like this one.

I ended up cutting the old seat cover off so I could still use the cushion for the stool. I handstitched each button to the cover and through the cushion so the buttons were nice and secure.

After sewing on all four buttons this is how it turned out. A much better looking bar stool cover that I can live with. I love fabric! It's amazing how much it can beautify your ugly things. :)

I want to sand and paint the bar stools next but that will have to wait!

Thanks for reading!