Please explain how to make a box cushion

this video is brought to you by sailrite in this video we're going to be showing you how to make a box cushion and this cushion includes piping and also a stripe which makes a construction a little bit more difficult by the time you're done watching this video you too will be able to make your own box cushions angela from the sailrite loft is going to show us how it's done in this video we're going to be retasking this old cushion with a new cover so we're gonna remove the old foam and reuse it to make a box cushion the old cushion here was filled with the compressed polyester sailrite sells this compressed polyester it's called fairfield polyfill new foam and that compressed polyester was actually wrapped with a batting material again sailrite sells that as well anja has placed that foam on top of the fabric and then rolled it over once to determine the length of fabric that she needs to cut to create the top plate and the bottom plate for our boxed cushion in order to cut the top plate in the bottom plate out at one time we'll fold the fabric in half so the outside surfaces are facing each other lay the foam on top and then we'll trace around it with a pencil a box cushion consists of a top plate in a bottom plate and boxing that's the fabric that wraps around the edges we want the top plate in the bottom plate to be the exact same size as the foam so angela is holding the pencil right along the edge and tracing around the foam following the same shape as the foam after she's removed the foam she'll verify that her lines that are straight are perfectly straight with a yardstick if they're not she'll straighten them out once we're satisfied we'll take a hot knife and cut the fabric out using a hot knife helps to prevent the unraveling of the fabric which is really a pain to work with if it's unraveling on you so using a hot knife we're cutting the top plate and the bottom plate out at the same time we wanted to show a demo of using scissors versus a hot knife notice that when the fabric is cut with scissors it unravels easily and quickly imagine how badly it will unravel as you constantly work with your plates boxing and piping it can be very messy but if you use a hot knife like the sailrite edge unraveling edges are almost totally eliminated if you don't have a professional hot knife like this you can sometimes use a wood-burning tool a soldering gun or you can use pinking shears which will help the polyester fabric has a tendency to bond to itself once it's been cut with a hot knife so we have to separate the panels with scissors after it's been cut out with the knife if you choose to use a Sunbrella furniture fabric you will not have to use scissors to help separate the fabrics once the hot knife is used they pull apart easily since this cushion has stripes we don't have to worry about lining up the top plate in the bottom plate when it comes to sewing them together this cushion has stripes we're going to use those as matchup marks but let's talk about cushions that have no stripes for cushions that have no stripes like these two plates we want to stack the plates on top of each other and make match up notches at the corners and even along the long runs here you can see we're using scissors and cutting small triangles that don't go so deep into the fabric that they'll show up after we're done selling you can also use a hot knife in lieu of scissors because our cushion has stripes we don't need to worry about this because the stripes will help us to line up the top plate and the bottom plate as we sew it to the boxing we've already so in the boxing to this plate and that will be shown in a later step so don't panic we just want to show you the process of making the match up notches now we need to transfer the match up notches that are on the plate to the boxing to do this just fold the corner as angela does here and then transfer that mark directly from the corner to the corner of the boxing she's using scissors here to make a triangular cut will do that at each one of the corners just lay the corner down flat and then be sure that the mop the match up knotch on the plate is directly across the mash-up mark that you will install on the edge of the boxing these notches will make it possible for us to sew on the two plates so that they're directly across from each other when we sew them on to the boxing and we want to do that place a match up mark approximately every two to three feet that way when we're sewing we can use those as a to be sure that we're sewing the plates on correctly here we're doing to the middle section we marked it with a pencil and then we'll notch it with the hot knife now we'll place that assembly on top of the other plate that has the mat match up notches already in it then we'll take it to the sewing machine and as we sew we'll be sure that the mashup marks are on top of each other so here she's selling a half inch away from the raw edge of the fabric this cushion has no piping here she's being sure that that matchup mark at the corner will line up perfectly and then she holds the fabric as she sews it so that the top plate and the bottom plate are matched up perfectly as we come to the end of our sewing you'll see the match up notches are a little bit off and you'll notice the top plate angela is feeding in a little bit faster than she is the bottom plate you can see that by all the XS little wrinkles and that's completely acceptable what you want you can manipulate typically by moving one plate faster or slower than the other just don't do it over too short of an area gradually make adjustments ensuring that the marks match up that's an overhead look at how match up notches are used now let's go back to our main project next measure the thickness of your foam here you can see the compressed polyester with the batting wrapped around it and as we press it down slightly you'll notice that measures three and a quarter inches next we'll cut boxing she's going to first straighten this edge because it's not cut straight there are no set in stone rules for making the width of the boxing typically we make the width of the boxing the thickness of the foam plus a quarter inch to a half inch for seam allowance that makes for a tight fitting cushion and we think it looks best that way so since our foam with the batting measures three and a quarter inches we're making boxing strips that are three and three-quarter inches we've added a half inch for seam allowance the next measure the width of the zipper they will be used for your cushion we're next going to concentrate on cutting the zipper plaque or the boxing for the zipper our zipper measures one and a quarter inches so we'll add that to the width of the boxing that we've cut out which is three and three-quarter inches so three and 3/4 plus one and 1/4 equals five inches we're going to cut a single strip for the zipper plaque that is five inches wide to go around the perimeter of our cushion we need two regular boxing strips and one zipper plaque strip so three strips in total to that our boxing and one that's a zipper black since we're using a striped fabric we have to be careful how we join the boxing strips together our cushion requires two strips of boxing and one zipper plaque will not join the zipper plaque to the box and because it's striped we need to be careful to make the stripes uniform so here angela is laying the fabric for the boxing on top of itself so the inside surfaces are facing each other then she takes it to that stripe and marks where she needs to sew it in the center of the stripe here so that when she unfolds the boxing it will be the same size as the stripe on the fabric now we'll take this boxing over to the sewing machine and sew a straight stitch right along that pencil mark that she marked on the fabric sewing the two halves of the boxing together be sure to reverse at the beginning and also at the end to lock your stitch in place for this cushion we'll be making our own piping out of the same fabric the cushion is made from we're going to make a bias piping so we're going to cut the fabric along the bias of the fabric mainly because it's a striped fabric typically I choose to do a straight cut binding which usually results in a good cushion fabric piping is usually cut to one and a quarter inches and width that's what angela is marking here on the fabric along the bias she'll then strike a line with a pencil and a yardstick so she can cut the piping cloth to the right width if your cushion has stripes as ours does you can choose to cut a straight cut piping instead of a bias cut piping but you'll have to be careful to line up the striped pattern if that's important to you since we are cutting on the bias of stripes we'll be at a diagonal and it will typically not clash with the striped pattern of the fabric here's a look ahead at our finished cushion with the piping cut on the bias she looks good if you want the stripes of the piping to match up with the cushion stripes you can cut a straight cut binding along the fill of the fabric but just know that it requires more effort to line up the plates boxing and piping stripes a task that can be done but is more labor-intensive the piping for this cushion is cut along the bias but if I have my choice and I don't have to worry about stripes or patterns I'll usually make a straight cut binding it saves on fabric waste out of the four strips of piping cover cloth that we cut we need to now join those together we overlap them as shown here in the video at 90 degrees to each other and we try to match up the stripes so that they look good as well if your fabric has stripes then sew across the width and cut the excess fabric that hangs over the edge that joins one strip to the next do that on all the strip's that are required we're going to be using piping on the top side and the bottom side that's a preference not a requirement there are multiple ways to make piping we're going to use double-sided tape and baste our piping cover to the foam piping that you can purchase from sailrite however you can also sew it in place here's another project in here we're going to take some fabric that's cut to one and a quarter inches fold it over our foam piping place it in the ultrafeed ls-1 with the cording foot which is standard in the sewing machine and sew it together instead of using the double-sided tape once it's been sewing together then we can take it over to our plate and add our boxing as we are doing here then take it to the sewing machine and sew it yet again this will make our assembly our plate our piping and our boxing and it is sewn in place rather than baste it in place typically you don't need to base anything in place if it doesn't have a pattern or stripe to it there it is finished let's go back to showing how angela is basting the piping together by using the double-sided tape this is a quarter inch basting tape for canvas and basting it on our piping cover and then folding the piping cover over the foam cord you're assured that you're not going to see the preliminary stitch that holds the piping together there is no stitch so you won't see it in the end results so it is an alternative and Angela likes to make cushions doing it this way now most people typically sew it in place as we showed earlier so the choice is yours you can sew it or you can use double-sided tape and baste it we've made enough piping for both the top side and the bottom side of the cushion we have our boxing we have our plates and we have the fabric for the zipper plaque we're going to work on the zipper plaque next before we can assemble everything we need to create our zipper plaque there are multiple ways to create a zipper plaque here angela is determining where the zipper plaque will stop and she cuts the excess off with the sailrite edge hotknife to determine the length of the zipper plaque you want it large enough that it makes it easy to insert the foam but you also want this seam to fall in the right spot we want our seams to fall in the back of the cushion so they're not visible when the project is done so we've cut it to size now we'll cut ours if er the length of that zipper plaque plus a few extra inches we'll fold the boxing that was created for our zipper plaque and a half so the outside surfaces are facing each other then you can iron it if you like or crease it on the edge of a sharp table you want a good crease there now we'll place our zipper on top of the folds so the teeth are centered on the fold to determine where to create our stitch we want our stitch right along the outside edge of the zipper flange now we'll set the zipper aside and sew the boxing we want our stitch to be half the width of the zipper our zipper was one and a quarter inches so half the width would be 5/8 inch and we place the deluxe magnetic guide there to help guide our zipper plaque as we're stitching it together this will be a preliminary stitch that will be ripped out in a later step now where we created the fold we want to cut it carefully with scissors so that we cut right down the length of the fold once that's done we'll splay the folded portion out so that we can sew our zipper on this side of the zipper plaque if we've done it carefully and correctly this zipper plaque should now equal the width of the boxing that we made earlier notice how the zipper teeth must be facing the right direction the teeth are on the underside this is a coil zipper a vis lanza / it doesn't matter which way the teeth are facing now we'll take it to the sewing machine and we'll be careful to line up the coil zipper so that it's centered between the splayed out portion that we just sewed together and cut down the fold we want to go slow on this first stitch because if your zipper wanders then technically your zipper FAK will not be correct in your teeth will not be centered the teeth should be centered right on that stitch that we made at first the sailrite 111 sewing machine that we're using with the mc-scr power system has a cording foot installed you'll notice we're using the cording foot throughout the entire installation or sewing of this box cushion now we'll turn the zipper plaque around so that we had used the same side of the foot to sew the other side now since the zipper is secured we can sew this side fairly quickly you'll notice the right side of the presser foot is up against the teeth though the teeth are facing down so you really can't see them but it is running right alongside the teeth so it's placing the stitch about the halfway position of the zipper flange we'll cut off the excess zipper because we don't need that anymore now we'll take our deluxe seam ripper and rip out the preliminary stitch that holds the zipper plaque halves together this creates a beautiful zipper plaque for a cushion so your zipper is hidden between the flaps of fabric to protect it from the elements or to make it look nice both of them it accomplishes a common mistake that people do and making zippers is forgetting to put the slider in place we've taken the teeth and pulled them apart so they come apart at the end and then we're feeding the fat end of the zipper slider onto the teeth so the two sides are even then we push it or pull it into position this is a non-locking slider meaning the slider can be opened or closed without having to pull on the slider polar because our cushion is a striped cushion we're going to based everything together to be sure that our stripes are lined up so we're going to use a quarter inch basting tape around the entire perimeter of this the top plate because our fabric has stripes we will not have any problem lining up the top plate in the bottom plate when we sell them together if your cushion doesn't have stripes you need to concentrate on making match up notches as we discussed earlier in the video if you need to reference how to do that go back to chapter 1 before we can sew the boxing on since we've chosen to install piping we're going to base the piping on to this plate on the back side of our cushion we'll start at the middle position with the piping hanging over the middle position by approximately two inches and start basting our piping in place on this the top plate we want the edges of the piping to be flush with the edge of the actual fabric when you get two corners that are gradual like this you don't have to cut relief spots but when you get to a sharp corner like we will the front of the cushion we actually have to cut a few relief cuts in the flange of the piping so here at this hard corner you'll notice who takes your scissors we don't want those relief cuts to be cut too deep into the flange because we don't want to see them when the cushion is all sewn together so she cuts only approximately 1/8 inch away or a little bit closer to the piping but not so close that it will show up when we're done and notice how the fabric expands there at the corner to make a nice transition again we're using a piping that was cut on the bias here when we get to the backside of the cushion we want to cut it so that it's centered that Center stripe is our center line of the cushion and notice there's excess piping we want to unfold the 1/2 of the fabric overtop of the piping and then we want to cut the piping so that it is flush watch what she does here in the video and then we'll create a hem on the X the excess fabric that's hanging off to one side so be sure you don't cut that off cut the one side so if you peel that back so you don't cut that and cut this so they're flush that should make both of the foam piping ends completely flush and it does now should create a hymn on the end of the excess fabric and she's going to create a diagonal him because that really looks best that is a preference as well then folds it all together using the basting tape to hold it in place so now our piping has been installed around the edge now we want to install the boxing and we're going to put double-sided tape on top of that piping this is a quarter inch basting tape be sure to keep the basting tape away from the piping we do not want it to show up when the whole cushion is finished otherwise it will catch dirt so if anything leave a little bit hanging off the edge if your flange is a little bit short notice that it's not right on top of the piping so our stitch will basically hide all the glue reason we're using basting tape is to line up all the stripes we'll peel off the transfer paper and here we're beginning at the front of the cushion where the seam Junction begins and we line up the edges basting all around the perimeter be sure to line up the stripes not the stripes of the piping but the stripes of the actual plate with the boxing if you don't have stripes this is not that difficult stripes always makes a cushion a little bit more difficult to construct but as you can see it's not so hard that it can't be done there's nothing we can do to line up the stripes on the ends obviously they run a different direction so we're not going to worry about it there when we get to the back side of the cushion we're going to stop this one short and join our zipper plaque so we'll actually stop at that back corner and then we'll work on our zipper plaque lining up the stripes starting at this Center so here we're going to stop just about right here this is the back edge now we'll install our zipper plaque if your cushion we're not a stripe you could sew your zipper plaque on to the actual boxing prior to installing anything but since we have to worry about stripes we want to do it in sections like this so we start at the center the backside of the cushion and base this together all the way to the ends once we're done with that then we'll continue the boxing around the other side of the cushion just as we did on the opposite side next we'll take it to the sewing machine and start sewing not where the zipper plaque begins or ends I should say but a few inches from the where the boxing starts here so we're leaving a couple inches on sewing and we'll sew all around the perimeter to where the boxing and the zipper plaque start on the other side so so all the way around we're using a cording foot in this sewing machine because the piping has to go unto the tunnel here at the corner we'll bury our needle make any adjustments or turns that we need to make and sew slowly at the corner to be sure that we make a nice neat corner and it catches as close to the piping as possible without penetrating it okay so all the way around and we'll stop right where the junction is of the zipper plaque here we're sewing along the front of the cushion where we've joined the boxing together and here we're going to stop about two inches short where we will join the boxing to the zipper plaque and we'll do some reversing there to lock our stitch in place now we'll start sewing again approximately a couple inches from the end of the zipper plaque and sew all the way down its length to the other end and stop a couple inches short there too because we need to join the zipper plaque end with the boxing end on both sides so here we're sewing to the other side and we'll stop a few inches short there then we'll concentrate on joining up these if our plaque in the boxing so that it looks great we are showing a more difficult cushion because of the stripes if it didn't have stripes or a lot of these steps could be skipped but since it has stripes were being careful to line everything up here we'll join those two pieces together and Angela's creating a fold approximately where she wants to sew them together and then she'll take it to the sewing machine and sew it after she's cut it to size we're going to cut the excess out with scissors no reason to use a hotknife here will unravel but the unraveling is rather limited because the size of the fabric is rather short do the same thing to the other side create a fold cut the excess fabric and sew it together we'll be sewing it together next alright there's where we want to create our stitch you could mark it with a pencil or you can do as Angela's doing here holding it together with your fingernail nail right where she wants to create this dish she's gonna basically take a stab at it that way she's done a lot of cushions so she can do it that way we did reverse there I don't think we showed that in the video but we did some reversing there and we do some reversing when we come down to this the other side once the boxing and the zipper black have been sewing together we can rebound off by the piping that has been basted to the top plate and then we can finish up our sewing perfect looks good we'll start about an inch where we stopped sewing and reverse there and sew all the way to the other end where we stop sewing there in reverse there as well notice that Angela keeps the fold down so that it doesn't cause a hard spot you always want to keep the folds in the direction that looks best follow that same procedure for the other corner will not be showing that we didn't show it but we basted the piping to this the bottom plate now we'll take our top plate assembly that's been sewn together and lay it on top of the bottom plate so the outside surfaces are facing each other also be sure to line up the backside with the backside of the bottom plate and now we'll baste the boxing with the double-sided tape that we applied already to the piping just as we did previously being sure that the boxing stripes are lined up with the bottom plate stripes we'll then take it to the sewing machine and we'll sew it completely together all the way around this time we do not have to stop we just have to sew all the way around to where we started in Reverse there and we are done will not show all of this here's the forward side we want to make sure we lay that seam going the same direction as we sewed it on the other side and that we did and now we'll just sew all the way around we are using a cording foot in this the sailrite 111 sewing machine with the mc-scr power system now that we've so on everything together we'll turn the cover right side out and we need to unzip the zipper and turn the cover so the outside surface is on the outside and be sure you push any corners out if yours has corners we're going to use a silk film this silk film is great usually because it provides a water barrier to help prevent water from soaking into the foams if it's used for an outdoor application and our cushion will be used on a porch so it may get wet so we're going to wrap it with this silk film noiseless plastic that you can purchase from sailrite if we were using a dry fast foam with a breathable fabric we would not use the silk film we actually expect the foam to get wet but it dries out quickly with a breathable fabric because this foam is a polyester it too will dry out fairly quickly but we'd rather avoid having any wet cushions at all that's why we're using the noiseless silk film that you can purchase from sailrite if we use the silk film with a polyurethane foam we can use a vacuum and compress the foam using that plastic that wraps around it and it compresses almost 70 percent that helps you to stuff it into the cover because we're using a compressed polyester that really doesn't work for us once we have the foam inside the cover push the cover around until the corners are nice and neat then we'll want to be sure that the silk film is covering our foam so it helps to prevent water from coming into the foam and then we'll zip the cover shut and ensure that we don't zip the silk film into the zipper as we zip it shut roll all the edges around so they're nice and neat and our cushion is now complete that's all there is to making a box cushion there are not many materials that go into making a box cushion besides foam and fabric here's the list of materials that we used you'll find at the sûreté website a plethora of fabric choices from outdoor fabrics to indoor fabrics so choose your favorite today at the sailrite website since we reuse - the foam in the old cushion we don't have to purchase foam but if you need new foam be sure to visit us or call us up at sailrite and we'll help you pick the right foam for your particular cushion application this box cushion was part of the complete fabric porch makeover including other projects that may interest you you may want to click on this video to see before and after shots for more free videos like this be sure to check out the sailrite website or subscribe to the sailrite youtube channel today it's your loyal patronage to sailrite that makes these free videos possible thanks for your support