Last Fall, we experienced the storm damage that ruined our patio set.  Fortunately, shortly after that we found a new patio set to purchase from the end of season clearance.  But, then shortly after that, we had a visitor that found out that we stored our pillows, chair covers, and my drop cloth in our deck box.  The little visitor, also made quite a mess of it.  The mouse (we assume) destroyed our chair covers, drop cloth, and one of the brand new pillows.  I think I was too angry/upset to take a picture of the brand new pillow that was torn to shreds, but it looked very similar to the pictures of the drop cloth and chair covers below.

Fast forward to Spring.  As soon as we got the patio furniture out, I began searching for pillows that would coordinate with the pillows for the chairs.  Since we got the patio set on clearance, we can’t get any matching pillows now.  The mouse destroyed one pillow, and took a few nibbles from the trim on a second pillow.  Luckily, we have 4 perfectly fine pillows.  My search was to find 2 that would coordinate that I could use on the chairs for the ends of the table.  I have been everywhere – every department store, hardware store, discount store, everywhere!  I could not find a pillow that would coordinate with ours at all.  Today, my search ended at Jo-Ann Fabrics.  I figured if I couldn’t buy a pillow, I could certainly find fabric that would coordinate.  It was still more challenging that I thought, but I finally found something I liked.  I bought one yard of outdoor fabric and two pillow forms.  I lucked out and the pillow forms were on sale 50% off, and I could use my 40% coupon on the fabric.

I got everything I needed to make 2 pillows for $18.  So, I went right home and got to work.

Since my pillows were 16 x 16, I cut the fabric into widths of 16 and left the length at 1 yard.

I followed the same steps I did with the shower curtain pillows, except I didn’t have any finished edges to start with, so I needed to sew both ends.

Then, I folded it right side in with the overlap to make the envelope.

I pinned near each end and in the overlap to hold it in place when I started sewing.

After I sewed both sides, I flipped it right side out and inserted my pillow form.

The back looks like this:

My sewing is definitely not perfect, but good enough for me.  After all that time wasted searching for a pillow, I was able to quickly sew 2 pillow cases to get the look I envisioned for the patio chairs.

I’ll share the rest of the patio set soon.  It is finally getting back to normal again.  Anyone else end up sewing after you can’t find what you are looking for?  Or, do you start by looking for fabric first?