Posted by A beautiful weekend warranted some al fresco dining.
However, due to such beautiful weekends being few and far between these past 3 years we have never replaced our sturdy, functional, out in all weathers garden furniture with something more elegant or indeed comfortable.
Hence the need for outdoor cushions.
A trip down to our local Wakefield ‘Fabric Warehouse’ unearthed a fairly good variety of reasonably priced oil cloth fabrics all at £6.99/m2.
And here are the finished articles!
The first one was relatively straight forward to make.
I added a little oil cloth covered piping to the 2nd one.
And for the third one went all out with some mini pom pom trim. -Easily my favourite.
I went for a simple envelope back.
What I learnt
- Oil cloth is extremely easy to work with and although stiff, the machine handled it beautifully, easily sewing through several layers
- You cannot afford to make a mistake as unpicking leaves a row of little holes through the PVC side of the fabric
- If you want to pin, you have to do it in the seam allowance or be left with larger little holes through the PVC side of the fabric
- I should have used larger piping cord on the yellow cushion to make a bigger impact.
- The pom pom trim is very fiddly to sew into the cushion. Ensuring all the little pom poms remained on the right face of the cushion was a bit of a nightmare.
- It was all worth while.
Related articles
- Oil cloth cushion inspiration (lovelucie1.wordpress.com)
Love, Lucie 
Very cute & practical too. I noticed they have some polka dot oilcloth fabric in Ikea at the moment – well, they had it in the French one but I bet it will be in the U.K. too – in both red and white and black and white. Can’t remember how much it was per metre. I nearly bought some but couldn’t think what to do with it. Outdoorsy cushions would be ideal.
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They were very extravagant when measuring out in the shop so I have lots more to play with. Will be searching pinterest for inspiration. I’m bound to come up with something.
Ikea is so tempting for fabric, and usually pretty unique and reasonably priced. I heard recently to get down there when the sales are on for some real bargains.
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They look so good and a great idea to use oilcloth. Love the colours and patterns you have used. Hope you have a good week.
Jill
Christmas Pie Crafts
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At least the patterns light up the garden when the sun disappears. Thank you for your lovely comment.
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They’re great! Very summery. Could we have some weather to go with them please?
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We’ve had a week of lovely weather here but hopefully that’s not all we see of it this summer. Thank you for your comment. X
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They are really summery – and thanks for letting us know how well oilcloth works on your machine (as long as you don’t go wrong). Might have to see if I can find some myself.
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Thanks for your comment. I have quite a lot left over so am wondering what to do next. Maybe some lunch bags or even pencil cases for my stall. I asked for a metre of each and got at least a metre and a half.
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They look lovely! I hope we have lots of good weather this summer so you can get tons of use out of them.
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Hope so. They’re also good for sitting on the grass. X
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The oilcloth patterns look wonderful, perfect for summer.
Ali x
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Thank you. Apparently you can get some iron on coating to turn any fabric into oil cloth so the possibilities are endless! X
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What a really great idea. These cushions are lovely and bright. Perfect for the lovely bright sunny days we get so many of 😉
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LOL, at least I’ll be ready!!
Meanwhile they brighten up the conservatory, just waiting, waiting…..
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I hope they are happy waiting!!
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I have never entertained the idea of using oilcloth to make cushions. What a great idea! I love these, your cushions are pretty!
re: Above message, Yes you can get iron-on to make any fabric waterproof. It doesn’t make fabric stiff like oilcloth. I have used it to make hats with floppy brims. It is great stuff!
Cathy the Bagg Lady
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Gorgeous cushions! And thanks for the info on the sewing with oilcloth. I’ve not sewn with it myself, but this info will be handy to know if I do.
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Thank you. Not much use for them this weekend, though!
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