Outdoor Furniture Refresh

If you know me, you know one of my love languages is throw pillows (also Twizzlers, in case you want to send me a gift 😉). Even as a young person, I have loved changing up my decor. I would re-arrange my room, re-organize my drawers, change up my posters -not you Ben Affleck from Armageddon. You’re not going anywhere. Wasn’t I cool? Yeesh.

Anyway, knowing me also means you know I really enjoy a good deal, and pillows cost about $25 a piece.  Ouch.

In the last two weeks, I have re-covered, as in used my sewing machine to re-cover,  5 outdoor pillows and 6 throw pillows. I have re bobbin-ed the bobbin thingy at least three times, re-threaded the needle many, many times (there are 5 steps. Do not forget a step. The whole thing will go funky and you will cry) and even changed my thread color completely more than once. I have gained lots of confidence with my sewing abilities and although I still have a very elementary understanding, and obvious lack of terminology, I love how I have been able to change the look of pretty much all my throw pillows and outdoor furniture for about $45. That includes ticking, and printed duck. If you know about fabric at all, those are two types that are never, or rarely on sale and are about 9.99 per yard.

Here’s the sewing machine I use. It’s a Singer Simple *, and as the name suggests, it actually is pretty simple, and intuitive to use. It is a pretty popular model as well, as I have found many you tube videos and blog posts out there about maintenance etc. So the information is available, should you need it.

When we bought this outdoor furniture it came with a good amount of pillows, which I liked, but they were….ugly. They just were. Anyway, obviously I got over it since I am just now recovering them.

Here’s the “before”:

Also, I have had to flip over all the cushions since the frickin’ frackin’ squirrels pulled holes in them for their dadgum nests.

To recover the couch cushion, I got an indoor/outdoor tablecloth from Hobby Lobby for $15, with a 40% off coupon. It is a bright, light navy. It’s comfy enough to sit on, but durable enough to be on the porch.

To cover the couch cushion, which is one large cushion, I stretched the tablecloth over the cushion and then “gift-wrap” style folded the corners in.

I used safety pins to attach it to the corners, as well as at the back to prevent it slipping. I didn’t feel like sewing it was necessary, but you do you. Overachiever. 😏

I bought a yard of a blue ikat printed duck, and a half a yard of the yellow striped duck. That was exactly enough to cover two 18 x 18 inch pillows (in ikat) and one rectangular pillow.  

The lemon pillow was from last year, at Target. If I were buying an outdoor pillow this year, it would be this precious bicycle pillow. But, I’m all about using what you have, and I still love this lemon pillow and I think it looks just right.

If we share the same taste, and you’re looking for outdoor pillows and/or cushions, Target really has so many cute ones. Lots of yellows and blues, florals AND they are 25% off this week.

Shopping there is what motivated me to finally re-cover my cushions. That, and the great weather we were having.

As always, I love all the questions and comments, so keep them coming! I have a post coming up Friday, so come back then to check it out!

Thank you for reading! XO, Steph

*Were you to purchase the sewing machine using my provided link to Amazon, I would receive a portion of your sale. This is at no extra cost to you.