Easy Tufted Cushion Tutorial

I have had these ice cream parlor chairs for a year or so and there was something just not quite cute enough about them... well I remedied that with these adorable tufted round cushions! I really had no idea how to tuft cushions so I just went for it in the way that made the most sense.

But first, I made the cushions. I found this fabric at Joanns and I thought the pink would match the front door pretty well. I want to say I spent about $7 or so on it. I bought half a yard and it worked... but it was a little tight. 3/4 of a yard would have been better. To get the round shape I took various sizes of plates outside to the chairs to see which seemed to be the right size. In the end I didn't have anything quite big enough so I ended up cutting about 1 inch extra around a large pasta serving bowl. In retrospect I should have cut them a little bit bigger than that because once I stuffed them they poofed up and were a little smaller than I had intended. The tufting did help with the poof though.

I picked some ribbon and laid the fabric circle on the chair to see where the ribbon would need to go in order to tie around the metal back of the chair. I pinned the ribbon in place on the right side of one circle (x2 for the other chair).

Then I simply put right sides together and sewed around the circle leaving the space between the ribbons open so I could flip it, stuff it, and sew it up when I was done.

After I stuffed them they looked like this (below). As I said, a bit poofy.

So then I tufted them! I picked 4 spots (the corners of the green medallion here) and went for it. I just tied a big knot in my thread and started from the back. I pulled really tight and went back through about 1/4 inch from where my needle came up and repeated that step 5-6 times. Sometimes I pulled the thread and knot right through the fabric but I just started again if that happened. I think this would have been even easier with small buttons because then the thread would be less likely to pull through plus it might have given an even more finished look to the cushion.

I think they turned out pretty cute! The porch looks more finished and I have an added pop of color. Definitely better than no cushion. 

... and they made for a nice prop in this recent anniversary pic.