February's Cushions

It's only mid-Feb and this month's project has been completed! 

My sewing machine had sat idle since Christmas so I was super keen to get back to it. The only three cushions I've ever made were all gifts and given away as Christmas presents so these two are for us and our previously cushion-less sofas! They've turned out rather well I reckon. Both covers were made to fit 35 x 35 cm cushion pads. The one on the left is made from lots of little scraps left over from making the quilt, christmas presents etc. And here's how I put it together....

 1. Cut a triangle with 7 x 7cm short sides plus 5mm seam allowance. Then cut strips of fabric in different lengths to make up the other half of the square. (I chose three strips but it could easily be 2 fatter ones, or 4 skinny ones but that would make it more fiddly as you need to allow for a 5mm seam allowance on the strips too!)

2. With right sides facing, stitch the longest strip to the long edge of the triangle. Again with right sides facing stitch the next strip to the free edge of the first strip. Finally sew the last strip to the free edge of the second strip with right sides facing.

3. Turn it the right way and you get something like this with uneven edges.

4. To smarten up those edges, mark out (on the back) the 7 x 7cm square (plus 5mm seam allowance on each side) and cut off the excess fabric.

5. The finished square should look a bit neater now.

6. Repeat steps to make numerous squares and then sew together. This completes the front of the cushion cover.

7. To make the back cut out two rectangles, the long edges need to be 35 cm in length, plus 5mm seam allowances all the way around. One rectangle needs to have bigger short edges so that the rectangles overlap each other to make an opening. 

8. Hem one long edge on each of the rectangles. With right sides facing (hemmed edge NOT on the outer edge) pin the rectangles to the front and stitch all the way around the outer edges of the cushion. Turn inside out using the opening and insert the cushion pad. Voila! Hope that makes sense!

The typewriter cushion was much more straight forward but looking at the finished item I should've made the boarders a couple of cm wider...oh well, something learnt for next time. Lastly, as the sewing machine was back out in force I also got to do a bit of work on the quilt. All the patchwork blocks have been completed so I'm now in the process of joining them all together. Not long now until the top is finished and the business of wadding and quilting can begin!