Bird Floor Cushion

A few weeks ago, I came across the tutorial for this floor cushion from livingwithpunks. I had a pile of old couch cushions I kept in the corner as floor cushions, but this seemed like a nicer way to achieve the same thing. Plus, it's a chance to sew something new. It was on my mental list of things to do! Before I could start though, I needed some supplies.

For Black Friday this year, I once again went down to the Los Angeles Fashion District to explore it's wonders during a weekday. Black Friday isn't a big part of shopping there, although a few shops, like Michael Levine, had some discounted fabrics, it's mostly that some shops aren't open on the weekends, so it pays to visit on a weekday and the Friday after Christmas is the only non-holiday type day I have off of work every year. (I realize I should make a post about the Fashion District in general, because it's pretty awesome for crafty/sewing types!...one day!) I picked up some odds and ends there that I needed to finish projects, like elastics of all sorts and cording to finish off the floor cushion. I also managed to go to Joann's yesterday and came across this awesome canvas-type bird fabric in the Red Tag section. I immediately wanted to find some use for it and realized the floor cushion was a great candidate. (I think I might also have enough left over to make a couple bike seat covers as well!)


So last night I dug through my fabric stash and decided I liked the idea of making a floor cushion that was reminiscent of a tree stump with birds on the top and bottom. I managed to find a fuzzy green and brown corduroy scraps from a thrift store grab bag to finish off the tree stump look. I pretty much followed the tutorial, cutting out a 22 inch circle for my more adult bottom, cut ~11 inch sides and I didn't include the handle. I also didn't bother to pin anything together... because that's how I do things some of the time.

Overall, I really like it! I filled it with the insides of the old couch cushions as well as some leftover foam from recovering my kitchen chairs. I think if I had bought specific filling for it, it maybe would have looked a little less lumpy. Also, my circle sewing skills obviously aren't perfected yet. Despite those things though, it looks pretty cute, does what I wanted, allowed me to use an awesome fabric, adds more nature imagery to my urban-y apartment, used up some scraps and cost me less than $10 in materials to make. Sounds like a successful project to me!