Outdoor Swing Makeover

By jennifertryon

Posted July 10, 2020

In DIY, Tutorials

This is a pretty nice, but not nice swing. We can do better.

Here is the BEFORE.

Seat Cushion & Pillow Supplies

9 metres of outdoor fabric
Zips on a roll
9 metres of cording
2 metres of accent fabric for piping and pillows
Basic sewing supplies – I sewed the seat cushions on the Janome MC 6650 as it’s a great heavy duty machine perfect for heavier weighted projects.

One of my all time favorite supplies …and I keep all colours on hand … is Zips on a Roll. This is basically a roll of zippers you can make any size. I can’t even tell you how many projects I’ve used with these, and being able to measure whatever size you need is amazing.

So for the backs of the long seat cushions I used a 5 foot length of zipper and for the throw pillows just one-foot length.

The zippers make it easy to take off the new seat cover to throw it in the wash. (and yes…it’s the old cushions inside the covers).

Here’s a link to the Facebook live where I redid the seat cushions, here you’ll see how to box the corners & sew-in the piping.

Sewing outside is my new favorite summer sport. So often I want to work on projects which means spending hours away from my family in the sewing room downstairs. So, I decided to just bring the machine out. Now I can be out, watching and interacting with the kids in the pool or playing in the back and still keep working away.

Piping your cushions isn’t difficult. and really makes your cushions look custom!

Once you start piping things, you’ll never not pipe them. it’s so easy and looks so good.

I like to use 2 or 2.5 inch strips for my piping. You can cut on the bias if you’re inclined. I don’t always. You’ll see in the Facebook live how to sew your strips together. And a TIP when you’re wrapping piping cord, use your zipper foot, but don’t sew too close to the cord. Save the super close stitch for when you’re sewing the covered piping to your cushion material. If so sew too close when wrapping the piping you might see some of these stitches in the final reveal, if you’ve not sewn close enough. This can happen on the corners especially.