Blog Swap with Hazel and Honeysuckle

Easy Embellished Cushion Covers

Hi everyone! I'm Marissa from Hazel and Honeysuckle.

I'm a PhD student so I spend most of my time researching, writing about and developing my software to teach social skills to kids with Asperger Syndrome and high functioning autism. It's exciting work! In my spare time I craft and blog to stay sane! Please visit me, leave a comment and if you have a blog, tell me about it so I can visit you too!

Today I'm sharing how I made my embellished cushion covers. 

You will need (per cushion):

Basic supplies:

* A cushion insert - mine was a little size 14

* A square of "front" fabric, I used calico, that is about an inch bigger all around than your cushion insert

* Two rectangles of "back" fabric - these should be the same width as your "front" fabric, and about 3/4 the length.

* Optional - fusible interfacing. I used this because my calico is a light colour and I wanted to make sure you couldn't see the cushion insert through it! If your fabric is dark or thick enough, you probably won't need this.

Embellishments:

Use whatever matches your decor! I used:

* 1 strip of soft vintage ribbon 

* 3 fabric yo-yos, different sizes (click here to learn how to make these)

* 3 fabric covered buttons

What to do:

Firstly, iron all of your fabric panels.

If you're using interfacing, cut it to the same size as your fabric panels and iron it on now.

Lay one of your "back" pieces of fabric on top of your "front" piece, right sides together and lining up the top edges. Fold the inside edge of your "back" piece back a bit and iron it flat. 

Now lay your other "back" piece on top of this, lining up the bottom edge with the "front" piece. Fold the inner edge of your "back" piece back a bit and iron it in place.

You want the inner edges of the "back" pieces to overlap a fair bit, because this will be the opening that we put the cushion insert through when the whole thing is finished. You want to make sure that the cushion insert will be hidden when it is in.

OK, sit this aside and we'll embellish our cushion cover!

My ribbon has raw edges, so I wet them with a spray bottle, folded the edges in and ironed them in place.

I then pinned it in place on my "front" fabric (keeping in mind the seam allowance) and tucked the ends of the ribbon under the edge of the fabric panel.

I sewed down both edges of my ribbon using a matching cotton thread. This is how the back looked when I was done (you can see my interfacing here):

Now I took my fabric yo-yos, arranged them along the ribbon strip and pinned them in place.

I used my sewing machine to sew up and down a 1cm strip through the very centre of each of my yo-yos. This will be hidden by the fabric covered buttons, but you can hardly see it anyway - see?

Now it's time to put the whole thing together.

Lay your front piece down, embellishments facing upwards, and lay your backing pieces on top of it, right side facing down. Pin around the edges to hold it in place while you sew:  

Sew around all four edges, back stitching at the start and end to secure your thread. If I had a Serger I would also serge these edges to make them more durable when I wash it. You may want to make a second row of stitches for added strength instead.

Turn it right sides out.

Pop in your cushion insert and we're done! 

Left: Cushion v1.0 - first attempt!
Right: Cushion v2.0 - this tute!

Now you have a cushion cover that is unique to you! Awesome!

Thanks so much for having me today! I hope you enjoyed the tute and will come and visit me sometime!