With the chunky piping, hand-basting the welt to the top seems to be mandatory.  The chunky piping makes it a bit hard to stitch on the machine, even with the basting, but perservere!  You can do it!  I had to sew two pieces together to make a welt long enough to go around my cushion, so before I started sewing, I estimated where the seams would land – I wanted them fairly evenly distributed on either side of the cushion.  Once I got it all basted, I ran it through the machine….um, twice, ’cause I didn’t do a very good job the first time.  The stitches need to be right up against the piping, without actually going through it.  The bottom, however, can be pinned instead of basted, as you don’t have that troublesome piping to contend with.  I stitched the straight side first:
attaching the bottom

attaching the bottom

 Then pinned the heck out of the curved side:

lots o' pins

lots o' pins

I used a 5/8 seam allowance since I had cut my welt so wide (and now that I have my pillow together, I sort of wish I had made the welt even shallower so the cushion would fit in a bit snugger, but c’est la vie).  Once it’s all stitched, rip out the red basting stitch and turn your pillow inside out.  You could iron it if you wanted, but you’re just going to wrinkle it by sitting on it, so why bother?  Stuff in your chair pad and have a seat! 

my office chair

my office chair

My chair cushion is slightly wonky, but so am I, so I am embracing it’s imperfections.  I made the back cushion a couple of months ago when I moved in (I had tried to recycle my other seat cushion and was not happy with the results, hence the new seat cushion).  Here is the coordinating curtain, using this idea for reverse applique:

work it.

work it.

*If you have any questions about any of the steps, please ask!
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