Make a Gardening Knee Pad

June 28, 2021 An Kesenne

Gardening Knee Pad Tutorial

This gardening knee pad or kneeler is made out of fabric leftovers, both for the outside fabrics as the filling. Using fabric scrap filling is very satifying to me, the more I can repurpose, the happier I am!

gardeing knee pad on the grass with little flowers

gardening kneeler in use, women sitting on the knee pad

My mom loves gardening and I made her a knee pad and I'm sharing the tutorial with you today.

We have a small city garden, but I don’t do a lot of gardening... I plant something new every year, but I’m also letting nature take over a bit. It is more like a wild, informal garden. I remove some weeds, but not all. So, I’m not on my knees a lot in my garden. At my parents house, there are beautiful flower beds and my mom is constantly rearranging her plants, so for her this little cushion will come in handy.

A kneeling pad protects your knees from the hard work of gardening, and protects your clothes from dirt and grass stains. I added an elastic to the side so you can roll your pad up and secure it, or use the loop to hang it on the wall where your gardening tools are.

And... I didn’t buy anything to make this, not even filling! I decided to use fabric scraps. Do you also find it difficult to throw away fabric scraps? It brings me joy when I can reuse and repurpose items and make beautiful and useful things without spending much money.

What You Need To Make This Kneeler

For this knee pad I used two different fabric types. I chose vinyl for the bottom because it’s easy to wipe clean. For the top of the pad, I used a soft sweater fabric from my stash that matched the flowered vinyl. You can choose whatever fabric you want as long as it is a bit sturdy and easily washable.

For the filling, I dove into my scrap box, gathered the small pieces and the 'ugly' fabrics and cut those into small pieces, keep them smaller than 2 x 2 inch.

Once you know the principle of how to make this knee pad, it's very easy to change the size. The measurements in this tutorial give you a pad of approximately 19 x 8 inch.

SUPPLIES
- 2 pieces of fabric: 22 inch x 9 inch: 1 cotton + 1 vinyl piece
- 1 piece of wide elastic, 10 inches long
- a pile of fabric scraps

2 pieces of fabric and an elastic to make a kneeler

pile fabric scraps you can use for filling

How To Make Scrap Filling

Fabric scrap filling is not as soft as polyester filling, but it gives your pad a bit of weight – which is perfect for this knee pad. You can also use scraps for other floor pillows or a seat pad for your terrace chair. The smaller your scraps are, the better. To cut scraps quickly into smaller pieces, you can also use a rotary cutter, just like chopping veggies :-)

I also used fabric scraps as filling for other sewing projects, like when making these little fabric letter pillows. When cutting up the scraps, you can make this job considerably faster using electric fabric scissors.

How To Make The Knee Pad in 10 Steps

1. Cut 2 fabric pieces, both 22 x 9 inch.

2. Position the elastic strap in a loop in the center of one of the 2 short edges of the vinyl fabric, on the right side, the loop towards the inside. The elastic loop is sandwiched into the fabric with all the raw edges lining up. Secure the elastic on the vinyl fabric with stitching at 1/4 inch.

a piece of elastic attached to a piece of vinyl fabric with a sewing clip

3. Sew together 3 edges right sides facing at 1/2 inch seam allowance. Leave 1 long edge open and don't sew all the way up to this edge. Stop/start at 1/2 inch from the open edge. We need to fold in this end in step 9 to create a hem.

4. Trim the edges a little.

5. Turn the fabric right sides out, push out the 2 corners and iron flat. The elastic is now on the outside.

6. We are going to create tubes/channels for the filling by adding stitch lines every 3 inches. I am using temporary markings as guides for the topstitching. Draw 6 lines with a temporary fabric marker parallel to the short edges of the fabric pieces.

7. Sew on these help lines through the 2 fabric pieces but stop 1/2 inch away from the open edge and don't forget to lock your stitch in place. Trim your excess threads.

8. Add the fabric scrap filling to the channels. Make sure the tubes are filled to the top, but leave room for a 1/4 inch hem.

9. Now fold in the 2 open edges to create a 1/4 hem. Pin or clip the 2 edges together over the entire length. Keeping this edge closed is so much easier with sewing clips.

using sewing clips to close the edge of a gardening knee pad

10. Topstitch on your folded edges to close the kneed pad and keep the fabric scraps from coming out. Edgestitch at approximately 1/8 inch from the edge. If you want a more invisible seam, you can also close the seam with an invisible hand stitch or a ladder stitch.

using a sewing stiletto to keep the edge closed under the sewing machine

This is it.

The hardest part of this tutorial is the edgestitch in step 10, keeping everything together and sewing a straight stitch, without the fabric pieces peeking out. My magic wand was a big help when manoeuvring this knee pad under my sewing machine.

My mom is very happy with this kneeler. Spending extended periods of kneeling or sitting on the ground, is now less strenous on her knees and she is protected from moisture, cold or sharp objects like rocks or thorns. As this kneeler is lightweight and foldable, easy to carry she also takes it to outdoor events like picnics or camping trips.