Garden cushions

Relaxing is made possible outside with the addition of outdoor cushions. What can be more rewarding on a nice sunny day.

Garden seating can be a little hard or uncomfortable making relaxing in the garden a bit difficult. Bring your cushions outside and your relaxation is complete.

Plastic or wooden garden chairs are great to leave outside and can be used all the time. They are fairly comfortable to sit on for short periods without the need for any extra padding. But by adding a thin squab cushion to the seat of the chair and an optional one for the back, your comfort levels will be increased.

Another type of cushion that is excellent for outside are those with aboxed edge or a gusset to them. These have a firmer, deeper seat than the squab cushion and are great for larger areas such as bench seats.

One of the wonderful aspect this kind of soft furnishing is that it is extremely portable. Smaller versions can be made astravel cushions. Your outside comfort can now be taken with you to stadiums, on picnics, aboard boats and in parks. Virtually anywhere you will need some extra padding to make your day or evening more enjoyable.

How often have you gone to the park and found that the benches are either taken or not in the best position. Picnic seats can be made with a boxed edge so sitting on the ground is more comfortable and these can be tied together to make carrying them easier.

But enough about relaxing and enjoying a summers day........ there is another side to having a garden or outside area.

By that I mean to have a lovely place you want to unwind in takes a bit of work to get it as you want it. Some people are able to bend while standing up to weed the garden but if you have a weak back then it is advisable to kneel down to do this part of garden work.

What has this got to do with cushions do I hear you ask.....?

Well..... what I am talking about are kneeling pads or cushions which if you think about it are outdoor cushions as well. These have the job of keeping your knees and sometime your shins from getting too sore.

Whether you are working in your garden, relaxing in it, at a picnic or sailing in the lake I am sure you will agree that outdoor cushions are a really good idea. 

Making cushions with cotton

Cotton

a versatile material 

Cotton - this is one of natures natural fibres, the others being wool,linen and silk.

These fibres grow on a plant as a flower similar to a Hollyhock. The flowers come in red, white or yellow and when these die the seedpod opens to show the white hairy down. The long hairs that cover the seeds look like fine wool and these have to be separated from the seeds to make the material. Years ago this was done by people until a special machine called a "gin" was developed to do this and made this process quicker.

This was an important material and has been around for many centuries. The Indus valley and Peru were the places that this fibre was first used. Gradually other places around the world began to grow it as well like the Persian Gulf, Egypt, China, India, North America, and Australia.

There are many varieties and those grown in one country will not grow properly in others as the temperature and humidity all play a part.

Cotton was not grown in Britain. Manufacturing inventions such as "The Spinning Jenny" by Hargreaves, the "Mule" by Crompton and the power loom by Cartwright changed the way it was produced and the cotton mills in Lancashire were born.

Before the fibres can be turned into cloth they have to be spun together to make long threads either by hand or machine. These threads are then woven on a loom to get the final fabric.

This fabric is ideal material for cushion making as it is hard wearing and washes well, although it may shrink. Because of this it is probably best to pre wash the fabric before the casing is made.

It also creases when in the pure form and may be difficult to iron. But mixes well with other fibres like polyester and this tends to reduce the creasing.

This comes in a variety of different colours and weights. There is a wonderful choice of plain and patterned material to please most tastes.

The types of material with this fabric base are Brocade, Corduroy, Calico, Chintz, Damask, Gingham and Lace.

It is best to use a good quality fabric as cushions may need to be hardwearing, however if the cushion is only for decoration, as on a bed, then finer fabric can be used.

It is always worth thinking where the cushions are going to be placed so that you can decide how strong the fabric should be.

I personally feel that any weight can be used for cushion covers as the lighter ones can always be lined for extra strength.