Outdoor Pillow Tutorial

One of the things that my hubby and I love about our house is the backyard!! It's not huge but it definitely keeps us busy - plus my hubby rarely gets a weekend off so we don't want to spend it working in the yard.  The yard is fenced in (perfect for our four legged baby), has tons of trees and plants, has a great deck, and is pretty private.  We live in a newer subdivision so the houses are pretty close together but the trees really make our backyard private - which we love!  

I would say our backyard is 70% complete.  We want to replace the fence and add a firepit area.  I'm already dreaming of cool fall nights around the firepit roasting marshmallows and watching college football.  Ok...back to reality...so to get the firepit project started I bought 4 adirondack chairs and that's it.  I kind of need the hubs to help with the actual firepit area and he has been working like crazy lately.  But I can make the pillows for the chairs by myself and that is exactly what I did this past weekend.

I bought 4 yards of Waverly Sun N Shade Lovely Lattice Lagoon Outdoor Fabric from Fabric.com and was able to make 7 20x20in pillows. 

  

This was my first time buying fabric from Fabric.com and I was a little skeptical.  I mean it is so cheap compared to JoAnn's - it was only $11 a yard plus I found a 20% off coupon online and I qualified for free shipping.  When the fabric arrived I was very happy - it was the exact color I wanted!  There was only one small grease spot on the back of the fabric - luckily you can't really see it on the front of the fabric.

I'm sure most of you know how to make a pillow but here are step by step instructions in case you are a beginner. 

Step 1: Cut Fabric - to make 20x20in pillows I cut the fabric into 21x42in pieces

Step 2: Iron the Fabric - get all those wrinkles out

*I decided to iron the fabric after I cut it since 4 yards is a lot of fabric

Step 3: Fold the fabric in half so you have a 21x21in square

Step 4: Iron the crease where you folded the fabric

Step 5: Pin the fabric together - I put three pins on each side of the pillow

Step 6: Sew the fabric together - leave an opening to turn the fabric right side out and to insert the stuffing

 

Step 7: Turn the pillow right side out and stuff it - I used stuffing from old pillows

Step 8: Pin and sew the pillow closed.

There you go!  Now you have 7 outdoor pillows!

The pillows kind of mask all of the yucky stuff on the swing....right?!?! 

Here are the pillows on the adirondack chairs I bought.  The adirondack chairs are made of plastic which is fantastic - they can stay outside all year round.

I also bought four coral and turquoise pillows for the outdoor area from Home Depot.  They match the bench perfectly so I couldn't resist!  Plus they go great with my new turquoise pillows!

Do you have any backyard projects you just can't wait to get done?

~Julia