Giant Floor Cushions - TUTORIAL

Due to the fact that we have such a ridiculously tiny house, we don't have a lot of furniture in our living room.  While it would probably be plenty for most people, it just isn't for our family of 6 (especially since 4 of those people seem to keep getting larger!).  So, I decided to make some floor cushions - 4 to be exact.  They were super simple and the kids LOVE LOVE LOVE them! 

Whenever the boys are not around, Alanna piles them all up and lays on all 4 of them.  Although, once the boys notice this, she is sure to lose some! 

They make great GIANT floor pillows when watching TV.

And because of their thickness, they are super comfy just to sit on.

TUTORIAL

Items needed for 1 cushion:

2 yards of fabric

thread

stuffing - a note on this below

Fold your fabric with right sides together.  I don't like to waste a lot of fabric, so I didn't fold it right in half.  Fold accordingly.

I used a 2'x2' piece of plywood for my guide.  I placed it on top of my fabric and cut it about 3 inches wider all the way around.  You should now have two pieces of fabric.

With right sides still together, sew around your squares with a straight stitch, leaving about a 5-7 inch hole on one side.  

 With a hot iron, iron open your seams as shown above.  This will make your seams look so much nicer when you are finished.

Now, fold your corners so that it looks like the above picture.  You want the seams on each side of the corner to lay exactly on top of each other.  Now, with a marking pen and ruler, make a line that is perpendicular to the seam.  I made my line about 6 inches long.  The longer this line is, the thicker your pillow will be.  I wanted mine super thick. 

 Sew a seam right down the line you just made.

Now trim the excess off about a half inch from your newly sewn seam.

With your scissors, snip open the ends of the fabric.  You can see the cut next to my finger.

You snipped the fabric so you can do this next step, iron open your seam.

Now is when we stuff our cushion.  You have a few options here.

You can use a standard fiberfill.  You can get this at walmart really cheap.  The thing is, this will flatten over time and you may need to re-stuff it sooner than you would like.  But, even still, it is the cheapest option.

You could use plastic pellets found in bean bags.  This is a big expensive but a good option.  However, this could get heavy for little ones to tote around.  I would put a handle on your cushion if this is your filler of choice.

You can also use shredded foam.  This is expensive but it is awesome stuff.  It's so soft and comfortable and your end result will be lightweight.

I used the shredded foam and 1 cushion required about 3 bags.  (luckily I got it on sale AND had a 50% off coupon for joanns).

Once you pick your filler, stuff your cushion and sew up the hole.  I just top stitched mine closed.  

There you go!  Easy floor cushions that your kids will love (and probably your husband too if he is anything like mine).