Well Cushioned

I am well-cushioned. Always have been, always will be. I have made my peace with that. And now I have a beautiful new cushion. No, I didn't gain another stone (6,35 kilograms for those of us who do not live in the British Empire anymore...), but I just completed a little home decor project: a bright, red retro cushion.

This is one of the easiest sewing projects ever. Just the right kind of project for messy, lazy impatient crafters like yours truly. Honestly, this is so mind-blowingly simple, you'll get this finished quicker than the time it takes to choose and buy a fancy cushion in the shops. Here's what I did:

I started out measuring my inlet cushion which I had picked up in the Ikea bargain corner for a mere € 1.40 (price tag still visible in shot... um).
Lazy craftress that I am, I chose some red felt as the material for my cushion. The reason: Felt does not fray, therefore you can create all those little circles without having to hem them (unless you like the frayed look and therefore deliberately choose proper fabric...)

Next I cut my red felt to size. Again making it easiest for myself, I cut it in rectangular shape so that the material could be folded in half and I would only have to sew along three sides... (Maybe I should have ironed the material, but hey... will get creases anyway...)

Then came the most time-consuming part: Cutting out the shapes that will give texture and interest to the cushion. I decided on felt circles in three sizes. I simply used three different size glasses to trace the shapes from. Liqueur glass, whiskey glass, pint glass (- please note: no alcohol was consumed during the making of this cushion...)

In total I cut out 60 circles for my cushion - and in the process permanently damaged my right index finger. It is still completely devoid of feeling... *eek*

Some of the circles I cut from brown felt, just to add some extra interest to the design and create a retro feel. Then I played around with the arrangement on the fabric.

I didn't bother to pin the circles onto the felt. Ok, my excuse was that I didn't want holes from the pins in the felt, but really, I was just a lazy bum seamstress. And since laziness is a recurring theme in this blog post, I also didn't take pictures of the sewing of the cushion. It is pretty obvious anyway: I sewed straight lines across the centre of the circles.

Then I folded the material over, right on right and sewed down the two opposite, open sides. After turning the bag-shaped cover over, I pushed the cushion inside. Then I sewed along the remaining open side to close the cushion.

That, of course, left a visible seam, so I continued to sew along the edge of the other three sides, just to give it the illusion of piping. Et voilá, that's it.

Added cost of this cushion: about € 5.00 including inlet. It has already got a new fan who likes cuddling up next to it... And I'll probably make a couple more to "dress" my couch.

Best,




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