I started with donated fabric samples for outdoor fabric. These are pretty easy to come by if you are not terribly picky about having the current season’s patterns and styles. Many furniture, and upholstery stores will give these away for free in large binders.

I had about 50 pieces, but to re-create this project, you may only need 30 depending on the surface area of the seat you would like to cover.

 

I cut all of the labels/tags off of the corners of each sample.

And evened out the remaining shape so that I was left with slightly rectangular squares. Odd shaped polygons (or whatever, since I was never very good at geometry) are more difficult to connect in a pattern FYI. Its easier to work with consistent shapes when sewing. You will see why below.

Uniform rectangularish square! Once again, I had about 50 of these shapes cut- you may need less, or more depending on the surface area.

Next I attached all of my squares. First I sewed them with matching polyester heavy duty thread into strips of 5 with the longer sides together.This allowed me to have a more uniform strip size once I was ready to sew the strips to each other.

I was exceptionally careful to ensure that all squares faced the right side. It it such a pain to have to seam rip or start over when 2 or 3 squares out of 20 are facing the wrong side of the fabric. By attaching all of the squares into strips first, then attaching the strips, I found it was easier to protect against this problem. The end result of this strip is a 5×5 (or in your case 3×3 or 10 x 10 depending on your project) piece of fabric.

Remember: Each stitch should be done twice. Back stitching is nice- but on a project like this where the finished product will be sat on, left outside and put up to a lot of wear and tear, you will want to have a double stitch to protect all seams from splitting.

This is the original seat.

If you are a staple gun pro- you may be able to do this step on your own. If you are like me, seek assistance from a friend to help pull the fabric taut while your staple it in place. Trim all excess fabric once everything is stapled in place.

Here is my finished seat cover that cost me nothing but time, and the cost of a few staples.

Thanks for stopping by!

-s