Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Well...Re-Fab!

I don't know about you, but I loves me some accent pillows! They can make a room fab to drab in seconds, and you can change them with the season. I use them throughout my house on the sofa, random chairs, benches, and bed. Even Christian knows where to put the "non-sleeping pillows" from the bed at night!

So it was only natural when it came time to pimp my balcony, I turned to my trusty, old friend, Mr. Pillow. Maybe you can recall my Fleamarket Finds post a few months ago, that is where I showed you the chairs and bench that were from the Fleamarket here in Frankfurt, insert first pimpable item!

I needed some cushions for the chair and bench that are out there, and wanted to use some old fabric from the curtains in our old apartment. We used the curtains in the kitchen to hide the beautiful dumpster our "apartment with a view" looked out on. Now we actually have something nice to look out at, and don't need them anymore!

Here's our old kitchen....do you see the curtains??

How about now?! My new Patio Cushions!

Project Details:

I'm all about Re-purposing things around the house to use in other ways. Example: a teapot for a vase of fresh flowers, turning old pots upside down to elevate shorter ones on the balcony, and old curtains for new pillows! I even made the cushiony inside from recyclable material.

So, just in case you're interested, here goes!

The circumference of my chair was 16 inches. So I turned the fabric wrong side out and measured a line 16 inches long, drawing points at the 1, 8, and 16 inch mark. I did this at various points in a circle, always keeping my 8 inch (mid-point) mark the same.

Then, I cut it out. You still with me?

Next, I sewed along the circumference, of course leaving a few inches open to turn it right side out.

These curtains actually had a lining, so it was a thick 4 layers I was sewing through - I went s.l.o.w. as you can imagine. Christian laughing at me all along because he says, "That's not how the Asian women on T.V. do it!". Um, zip it.

Then, I took some pinking shears and trimmed the excess fabric near to the edge. This helps your fabric not to fray in a way that could disrupt the original seam. Do you see see those fabric scraps there?? Those little beauties will be used in the next part...

I took all the scraps from cutting the two cushions out and shredded them into long strips. THESE, my friends, will be the inside, or the "cushion" part of my cushion! I priced cushions at about $5. No, that's not expensive...but I ALWAYS have these little bits left over from projects and don't have ANYTHING to do with them...well, this time I decided to use them for an actual purpose. I cut them into strips so they would lay more evenly and not "ball up" in one area. You could even use old t-shirts or other old clothing that is lying around.

It worked perfectly to create an layer of padding between the 4 layers of fabric. Not too padded, not too UN-padded. Is that a word?? You know what I mean! I don't need to sit on 5 inches of padding to be comfortable...this did the trick perfectly for me & my bootie! ;)

Here she is in all her glory! I think it's pretty darn cute, and will be making a matching bench cushion for Emma to match! The pimping's not over, because the weather is just NOW turning spring-like over here.

Stay tuned for more Re-Fab updates of our balcony!