Bench Tufted Cushion

I want to apologize to everyone who reads this post about my poor documentation!
I took a few photographs at the beginning of this project with the idea of documenting it well but once I got into the sewing part,  I forgot all about blogging and the step by step pictures.

Materials:

Painters Cloth
Sewing machine
Scissors
Thread
Baking twine
Sewing needle
Tapestry needle
Pencil
Poly-Fil

Instructions:

The top of my benches measure 36 L x 12.5 W
I wanted my cushions to be smaller than the top of the bench so I measured the fabric to be 36L x 25W giving it 1/4 inch seem allowance on each side. Keep in mind that once filled with poly-fill, it will shrink tremendously so if you want your cushion to fit your bench top, you might want to add 2 or 3 extra inches of fabric to every side.

1. Measure and cut your fabric to size. I preferred to make one big rectangle and fold in half (I will still sew 4 seems though). Iron.

2. Mark your seems with a pencil and pin the fabric together

3. Sew all edges but one small opening (in the center of one of the sides) that is big enough to fit your hand for stuffing. (sewing picture missing).

4. Turn inside/out and iron making sure the points are completely out. (no pictures here either)

5. With a pencil, mark where you want to tuff your buttons or string. See pattern above
My marks are 6 inches apart (this may look confusing but I don't know how to explain it better without pictures).

6. Stuff with Poly-Fil

7. Sew the opening with invisible stitch (again, no pictures of me sewing but you can search invisible stitching)

front side

Back side

8. Thread your baking twine into a tapestry needle and vertically insert it down the cushion at the mark and pull it through the other side and again up the top. Tie a tight knot and cut string

As you can see my cushion is much smaller than the bench top. I wanted to give it room to slide when sitting on it.

Your are done!
The "Sel de Mer" pillow is an Etsy find. Its is hand crafted by TheNestUK