I wanted to reproduced the tufted seat cushion on this Papasan chair for my son’s nursery so he can cozy up and read with his stuffed animals
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Easy Sewing DIY - Papasan Chair Cushion Replacement
I have been holding on to this Papasan chair and foot stool since the beginning of our home renovations. Originally given to me by a relative who was downsizing, I thought it would make for the most comfortable reading chair in Cyrus’s nursery once he started moving. I had this vision of him climbing into it with all his stuff animals, sitting in it all cozy, having the time of his life, ‘reading’ books. I knew it had potential to become a furniture piece he could grow with too so I held onto it for almost two years, moving it from one storage spot to another until all my renovations were done. With literally nowhere else to store it I decided it was time to use it as intended. Since the Papsan chair cushion and foot stool had been through an entire renovation, I really wanted to replace both cushions. I never wrapped it up in plastic or protective sheets so it had been exposed to quiet a lot of dust and for my own peace of mind, I thought it would be best (not to mention fun!) to DIY new tufted cushions. As someone who studied fashion design and worked for an upholsterer back in the day, I can confidently say this is great project for beginners and the principles you learn in the below video can be applied to an array DIY sewing projects.
Thankfully my girlfriend Amanda was open to sharing her atelier with me. She an amazing wedding dress designer that I became friends with during my days at Greta Constantine and it was so nice to catch up and spill some tea! It was also so nice to be back in front of a sewing machine. This project definitely brought a flood of memories from my fashion design days and a desire to try more creative sewing projects. It had been over three years since I had sewn anything and two since I got rid of my sewing studio, so it was a nice walk down memory lane.
The original Papasan chair and foot stool cushions I wanted to replace!
Since I had the original cushions all I had to do was deconstruct the old cushion, throwing away the stuffing and using the red fabric as a pattern. Since I did like the original tufted look, I made note of where they were in case I wanted to follow the exact same placement
Once I had completely deconstructed the pillow, I gave it a good ironing, flattening out the seams before pinning it onto two layers of fabric. For the fabric I am using a soft, almost fuzzy, khaki, polyester fabric with some weight and thickness to it.
With that all laid out nicely and the ‘pattern’/ Original cushion fabric pinned on top I could cut my pieces out.
From here, all I had left to do was sew! Remember, good sides should be together, sandwiched on the inside. As I neared the end, I made sure to leave a 10 inches opening so i could later add my stuffing.
I loved being back in front of a sewing machine!
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After sewing comes tufting but before you do a tufting stitch you want to turned the sewn pieces right side out and give the seams an iron so it helps them sit flat. You wont be able to do this step later after you add a tufting stitch so its important you do it first.
Side bar- I actually stuffed the small foot stool cushion first before doing the tufting stitch but found it very difficult to do the tufting stitch, so later for the large seat cushion, I did all my tufting stitches first before stuffing which made things way easier and definitely the way to go
When it comes to stuffing, I used a hypoallergenic polyester pillow stuffing that I bought 35lbs of (way more than I needed for this project - may have only used half!) from a local supplier. I really wanted the cushion to be that perfect medium, not to soft and not to firm, so I made sure to move the polyester pillow stuffing into all areas, really stuffing it down to create the density I was after.
Once the pillow was completely stuffed and I had achieved my desired density, I could hand stitch the opening close before standing back to admire my work!
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Update: Cyrus loves his new reading chair and my vision of him climbing into it with all his stuff animals is now a reality!
Alright friends, thank for joining me for another episode of Soh At Home! I hope you enjoyed this tufted cushion DIY and gave it a thumbs up. If you have any questions about replacing your Papasan Chair Cushion feel free to leave them in the comments below. I did start a new Instagram for my new Soh At Home series, so if you would like to show your support, feel free to give it a follow!
Until next time,
- Soheila
