How to Make a Fire Pit Cover

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A fire pit can add ambience and warmth to your outdoor living space. Great for entertaining and gathering, a fire pit can be a focal point of your patio setting. To prolong the life of your fire pit, create a custom cover to protect it from the elements. Sewing a round cover like this is a straightforward sewing project. Our step-by-step video instructions will walk you through how to build your own fire pit cover.
Video Chapters:
  • Measuring & Patterning – 0:43 min.
  • Cutting Fabric – 3:08 min.
  • Sewing Side Facing – 4:40 min.
  • Joining Facing with Top – 8:54 min.
  • Creating Rope Sleeve – 14:04 min.
  • Materials List – 18:32 min.
Materials List:
  • Outdoor Cover Fabric (we used Top Notch® 9 Burgundy Weave #120452)
  • Sailrite® Tex 92 PTFE Lifetime Thread or Tex 90 Polyester Thread (we used Black Sailrite #107130)
  • Seamstick 3/8" Basting Tape for Canvas #129
  • Leechline Dacron 1/8" Black #212114
  • YKK® Barrel Lock Cord Closure 3/16 (Double) #104423
Tools List:
  • Scratch Awl Yellow #2354
  • Scribe-All® Water Soluble Marking Pencil (we used White #120681)
  • Sailrite® Edge Hotknife Package #103800
  • Sailrite® Canvas Patterning Ruler #107040
  • Deluxe 5-1/2" Magnetic Sewing Guide #103597
  • Sailrite® Ultrafeed® LS Walking Foot Sewing Machine #311502
  • Gingher® Scissors Right Handed #19104
  • Tape measure
  • Small ball or other tenting mechanism
  • Wooden yardstick
How to Make a Fire Pit Cover
Learn how to make a custom cover for your gas fire pit to improve safety and durability.

In the video, Eric will demonstrate how he made a cover for his gas fire pit, which will not only add to its life but also helps with safety by keeping the lava rocks that surround the burners dry. When lava rocks get wet they hold moisture and when the wet rocks are heated they can pop and jump out of the fire pit.

For the design of our cover, we decided to make it a little oversized with a slit down one side for easy installation and removal. There’s also a drawstring around the bottom of the cover to keep it securely in place. This fire pit is round, but the same principles can be applied to a square or rectangular cover as well. We also left room for the cover to be slightly tented to prevent water from pooling. Eric’s family used a small soccer ball to tent the cover, but a small pole would work too—it’s okay to be creative and work with what you have!

Material Selection

For this protective cover we chose Top Notch® 9, which is a solution-dyed polyester fabric that’s water-resistant and breathable. It also has excellent abrasion resistance, which was important because the cover will sit against the brick structure of the fire pit. The burgundy weave color we chose features black threads in the weaves, which gives it a multi-tonal look.

In the video, you’ll see how to measure and pattern your fire pit cover, sew it together, and create a sleeve for the drawstring. Follow along to make your own durable and protective fire pit cover.