How to: sew a half-round seat cushion cover - for my outdoor wicker chairs

After procrastinating for a couple of months, I sat myself down in front of my sewing machine and finished these long overdue cushions and pillows.

To make a regular pillow with a zipper at the bottom like the two zig-zag ones I made for the chairs, you can use this tutorial.



Today is all about how to sew a seat cushion cover that is half round. I used the old covers as my guide. If you don't have a cover to go by, you can measure the cushion and then ad half an inch for seam allowance on all sides.



After I cut half of the cover, I folded it over and used the first cut as a template for my second cut to have a perfectly symmetrically cover.



For the second cover, I lined up the first one with the pattern. Just because. You don't have to do that.



Here are my four pieces for my two covers.



I measured around the circular part of the cushion and bought a zipper that length, which was 24 inches for my covers. They only had dark blue, so that is what I got.



I sewed the zipper in between the two strips. When you add your zipper in the middle like that, your cushion becomes reversible, which is great if you spill something on them and it won't come off.



Then I laid the strip of fabric with the zipper along the curved side of the cushion and measured how long the rest of the strip needed to be.



I cut that strip and made it a bit longer, just to be sure. Then I sewed the long strips to the zippered strips.



Then I pinned that strip to the two cushion sides. Make sure when you pin that you pull and pin the strip a bit short on the two pointy corners that will be facing you when the cushion is in the chair. That way you won't get a pleat when you sew it later.



At that time I sewed the other end of the strip to the the other end of the zippered strip, cut off the excess and pinned it. As you can see I didn't remove the rest of the strip from the cushion pieces. Trying to get done fast...

Un-zip the zippers so its easy to the turn the covers right side out after you are done sewing.



Then I put the cushions on the floor to gauge that the covers looked straight and that I hadn't turned the top piece of fabric in relation to the bottom piece because that would make the strip pull weird on the finished cushion.

Then I sewed all the way around. Turned them right side out, ironed them and put them in the chairs.

Let's do a quick before picture of the white covers I had before. This image is from May, when I spray painted them.



And this morning. The lighting was so different, but it's the same color even though it looks darker here.



I also got a good handle on all the back pillows in the lounge area, so stay tuned for that reveal Friday next week!

Update: Here is the patio reveal.