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Outdoor Chair Cushions Pt. 2 - Cutting the foam

6/10/2013

2 Comments

 
If you have read "Outdoor Chair Cushions Pt. 1" you know the saga of my table and chairs purchase and that I now have the materials to make 6 outdoor dining chair cushions.  So, my next step is to measure the chairs and make a pattern for the NU-Foam I will be using.
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Here is one of the chairs in question.
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And here are my measurements.
I'm trying to decide if I can get away with rectangles or if I need to shape the pieces.  So I will make some preliminary pattern pieces first.  I do like that curve on the top though ...
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Looking at the preliminary pattern I can see the seat is too narrow in the front and I want to curve the front of the seat pattern.
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The back of the seat pattern needs to be curved, too, or it won't fit nicely into the bend of the chair.
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Back to my work table to make changes on the pattern.  I will make the back a bit narrower and tape paper on either side of the seat to make it wider and I will round the edges by tracing the shape at the front of the chair.






OK, now I am happy with it.

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This is my giant roll of NU-foam. It needs to come out of the box to breathe. Meaning it's needs a chance to puff up and smooth out after being squished in the box.
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I mark it by pinning it with tacks to the foam and drawing around it with a magic marker.
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BUT ... NU-Foam is really hard to cut! It is killing my hand.  I read on line and it is recommended to cut through it with scissors in layers.  That's a lot easier.  I tried 3 different pairs of scissors before I found the one that I like the best.  The foam dulls the scissors fairly quickly so I am using scissors that I can sharpen with one of those Fiskar's hand held scissor sharpeners.

I use this all the time!

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Well, I didn't count on the fact that the seat padding would lift up the back padding so it now sticks up too high.

I will trim off 1" of the top of the back padding and change the pattern.  And now I only have to cut 5 more backs and 5 more seats ... I am going to have blisters.

... On second thought I better make a muslin of the cover before I cut all that foam. I'm just not sure how things are going to work out at the point where the back meets the seat so there is a chance the foam pattern will change again and I really don't want to cut the foam any more times than is necessary!  After all I am making 6.

Oh, and I need to go buy one more yard of NU-Foam.  The box only has 5 yards and each chair is taking one.  Good thing I have another 50% coupon for JoAnn's.

In the next installment of the saga of the seat cushions, I will make the pattern for the fabric cover and make a test version in muslin.
2 Comments
Jehanni
6/10/2013 01:25:16 pm

Did you consider making cushion covers that "hinge" between the back and the seat? I debate with myself whether I want two separate cushions (easier to carry) or one hinge-y one (I imagine they don't slide around as much).

Reply
Andrea
6/10/2013 09:15:14 pm

That's absolutely what I want to do. I just can't figure out how, until I make the two separate pillows in muslin. I'm not sure where the hinging should happen. I don't want any negative space behind the hinge. I should have it worked out by the next posting.

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    From Andrea 

    I am a commercial pattern maker who is now "sewing over 50"!
    I love to sew and hope to encourage others to come back to sewing.
    The water is fine!!

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