How to Make Foam Cushions

If you know how to sew (or glue) you can make your own chair pads or covered foam cushions. Make them to match your decor, recover old ones that are tattered. You can make a pillow using the same steps. It's a snap! Here's how to do it...

Things You'll Need

Sewing Machine (you can use glue but it just doesn't do the same thing)
Fabric
Optional: buttons

Foam
Quilt batting

Instructions

- 1
  What you're going to do is essentially make a fabric envelope that will hold your cushion. If your cushion is very thick, it may actually resemble a flat box of fabric (sides are wider). The goal is to make three sides, stuff it with contents, then stitch the rest close.
- 2
  Measure your foam piece. You don't have to leave it a square but for this article we'll pretend you're doing a square. Fold your fabric with the right sides together. Mark a square that's about 2" longer on all four sides. Cut it out and use straight pins to hold the pieces together.
- 3
  Sew the three sides. Don't be afraid to give it a nice corner. For the third side you can sew the corner but do not go more than 2" from the ends. Now you should have a pocket with all three sides, and the corners of the fourth side. Ready to move on?
- 4
  
  Trim your seams all the way around, not too close to your stitched line, maybe about 1" away. To make the pocket have nice neat corners, you'll want to snip the extra fabric off the corners. I usually just cut the corner off (making sure not to cut the line I sewed). Turn it right side out. On the fourth edge, use you iron to fold over the edge by about 1", this is going to make sewing it closed easier.
- 5
  
  Take your foam square, and wrap it entirely in batting. This will soften the cushion and make it last longer. Go ahead and slide the entire envelope of fabric over your cushion. You won't have a lot of play to stitch it close, but you should have enough. Using heavy duty thread that's doubled, go ahead and stitch it closed. If you're really fancy, you could sew in a zipper so you can take the cover off for cleaning.
- 6
  
  You're finished. To make it decorative, you can put buttons on it, add piping around the seams, make it different fabric on each side...let your creativity be your guide.

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