My first sewn cushions!

I’m ridiculously proud of these cushions I made today, even though they are the simplest things in the world to sew. It’s the first time I’ve used my sewing machine to put in a zip, and I’m very pleased with the finished effect. Here they are, all piled on my sofa.

The fabric came from a charity shop, and started life as a pair of curtains, also originally handmade I think. They only cost £2.99, and were very faded and sun damaged in places. Luckily, the fabric was relatively undamaged on the right side, so I was able to cut out my pattern pieces without too much trouble. I bought some cheap cushions out of Primark to use the pads, so I took the covers off and used them as a template for cutting the pattern. I sewed in the zips and did all the seaming on my sewing machine, and then hand stitched the cord edging on. I had been looking for piping cord that I could stitch into the seams, but Remnant Kings in Glasgow only had the stuff that you have to cover yourself – a bit too advanced for me just yet!

The four cushions took about 6 hours to make today, so it was lucky that my son was with his granny for the day and I could just sew until the job was done. Now I have red and brown cushions, and I feel like it needs just a bit of cream in there as well to tie the colour scheme together. The trouble is, I’m rubbish at combining colours, so I’m not sure how best to incorporate the cream. I was thinking of getting some brown and cream patterned fabric and making two more cushions with this, using up the rest of the brown piping I have.

Then I thought I could make a throw for the sofa, using the rest of the red, brown and cream fabrics, and binding it round the edges. Perhaps something patchwork in squares, but I don’t know how best to put the colours together. I’ll have to dig through my fabric stash and go charity shopping again, and see what I can do. Tomorrow I’m off to visit the Kinross Saturday car boot sale, so I might just find something I can use.