We Have A New Cushion!

Yes, Mike is still working on refurbishing the teak decks (and he is nearly done), and, he mounted the Tack Tick displays on the helm guard (shown here).  But because he's trying to keep the interior clean, Jenny has the chance to make some new cushions.

Tack Tick displays

We decided on the Sunbrella Dupione family.  Sunbrella is waterproof and breathes, so if a cushion gets damp, it will dry out and not mildew (provided that the air's humidity factor will allow it to dry).  After watching all the necessary videos (and then some) on Sailrite's web page (sailrite.com), she was ready to take on the project.

While we were in the Sassafras River, we measured the size for cushions around the dinette.  We decided to start with the three that were the seats next to the table.  The old cushions were well worn and soft so that we felt like little kids at the table.  The cushion behind the dinette and the insert cushion will be tackled later.  (The current ones are in decent shape.)  Armed with the measurements (from a tutorial online), we proceeded to order 4" Lux Foam HQ cushions wrapped with dacron from The Foam Factory (foambymail.com).  It arrived fairly quickly and came packaged very small.  Then it expanded:

Foam arrives!

Supplies

 

The fabric was ordered too, along with foam piping, and zippers.  (You can see all the supplies above.)  Once that arrived, the project was underway.  Making the piping was not too difficult.  A 1 1/4" piece of fabric is cut and sewn around the foam piping.  Because we have an LSZ-1 Sailrite sewing machine, the pressure foot has a cut-out for the piping along the left side, so it made it fairly easy to make the piping.  Many pieces had to be pieced together, but the video showed the easiest way to do that to avoid creating too much bulk at the seam. 

Piping strips cut

Piping finished

Then the piping is sewn to the front and back panels of the cushion.  When sewing the corners, the piping needed to be snipped in order to lay smoothly around the corner.  Tacking it in place we took the video's advice and used our hand stapler, taking care to remove the staples after the seam was sewn.

Sewing piping to panel

Piping sewn to panel

Making the zipper boxing came next.  This part was a little scary, having never used a continuous zipper before (but having installed zippers in my younger sewing days).  But it turned out to be easy.  The trick was remembering to open the zipper before sewing the last panel to the boxing, and closing the cushion.  Otherwise you had an inside-out cushion cover and no way to put it on.  On this first cushion, I remembered.

Sewing the zipper

Opening the zipper

Attaching the boxing

Cushion cover sewn (inside out)

So there you have it ... a finished cushion.  And, it looks almost professional!  Just one down and two to go (before ordering more fabric for the settee, the aft bunk, the salon bunk, and the remaining dinette cushions).  We will be experts at cushion-making before this is all over!

Finished cushion