We redecorated our lounge and hall around 18-24 months ago. We were keeping our old sofas, as they refuse to die, no matter what sabotage I do to them. (That will teach me to object next time we buy very cheap furniture.) The old sofas had throw cushions on them that really didn't coordinate with our swanky new decor, so I told the OH that buying swanky new material to make cushions would be a great idea, as it would pull the whole room together. It would definitely be cheaper than buying new cushions or covers in the style we would like. He agreed with my arguments and let me order the fancy fabric online (after seeing a sample). The fabric arrived and we both loved it, and then it went into a cupboard. That was 12 months ago.
After we finally got new curtains and curtain rail the other week and got them put up last weekend, I felt shamed into getting on with the cushion covers. It took all of 1 and a half whole hours to cover the three cushions, and that was allowing for me having to think about how to do it. I present to you, a pile of new cushions. TA DAH!!!!
See what I mean about the swanky material? I love it so much and I've got a couple of metres left, which I'm going to make into a back support cushion for me. If I have any left after that, I plan on making a fabric cover for a plastic crate for storing my WIPs in. Though knowing how long it took to do the cushions you may be waiting for around 52 more FO Fridays to see those!
Doesn't this fabric go well with the new curtains? We weren't even thinking about the fabric we'd bought when we chose the curtains, but I suppose they were all supposed to tie in with our feature wall, which is a darker silver green than the curtains.
The cushion covers were made in a simple envelope style, as I didn't have zippers and really couldn't be bothered to buy them. The OH actually prefers them without zippers. He listed lack of zippers as a good thing when he was commenting on them. He doesn't like the way they sometimes dig into you. Obviously this makes me psychic because I never knew this bothered him before.
The backs look like this.
I was lucky to get three widths of cushion covers out of the width of the fabric, which meant the pattern was going the same way with each of them. I hemmed both short ends of the fabric and folded them over to form the envelope. Does anyone else find it weird when making these things, that the flaps seem to be all backwards when you are looking at them from the inside?
I seamed the two long edges using an allowance of approximately 5/8ths of an inch.
I left the large seam allowance because the fabric had a tendency to fray. After thinking about the capabilities of my new machine and the fancy feet it came with I decided to try an experiment. I used the foot and stitch that allowed me to stitch "over the edge" of the fabric, almost like a serger.
It's fantastic. It takes a little while to sew this edge, but it stopped the fraying so well, I know that I will use this again. No more zig zag stitch on the edges for me, this looks so much more professional and accurate.
So once I turned it right side out, I slipped the old flat cushions inside. As you can see I made the covers slightly smaller than the cushions, so they are plumped up a bit inside. I'm quite proud of thinking of this, instead of it being an accident, I actually planned to do it!
So there you have it, a very simple and tardy project, but I'm soooo pleased with them. In a way it was better to wait so long as the new sewing machine ensured they were much easier to make, and more carefully finished. They also look really great with the new curtains!
Because it is a Friday, I am sharing this post with my friends over at; Tami's Amis for FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder and Fibers on Friday at Visions of Sugar Plums. These three blogs host great collections from fibre crafters from around the world. I highly recommend you clicking on the buttons and checking some of them out.
