Friday, November 26, 2010

Christmas Stripes Cushion Tutorial

I recently purchased the November copy of Canadian House & Home and in this edition they feature a country home that belongs to designer, Sarah Richardson. The house is beautiful, it is so comfortable and warm. You can read the article and see the photos here. While looking through these images I noticed a cute pillow in the bottom corner of one of the photos.


I decided I would like to try and make a my own version of the cushion. However, I thought it would be hard to find a similar striped fabric, so the first thing I had to do was figure out how I was going to get the cute Christmas coloured stripes. After some brainstorming, I decided to buy a plain natural cotton and sew some green and red ribbons onto the fabric. So, here is my finished version and instructions on how I made my striped Christmas cushion...


First, you need to buy a plain natural fabric and some various coloured ribbons. I chose a couple of different greens, a rusty red and a golden brown. I also chose ribbons with different finishes to add texture. For example, two of my ribbons are velvet, one is ribbed and the other satin.


Once you have your materials you're ready to start sewing. The first step is measuring out your fabric to fit your cushion. My cushion insert was 16x24" so I measured my fabric to have just a couple of extra inches.


Next, measure out and cut your ribbons to be the length of your fabric. Once all your ribbons are cut arrange them on the front piece of your fabric in a layout that you like and then pin them in place.


Once you have arranged your ribbons and they are pinned, it is time to sew them to the fabric. Simply do a straight stitch along both sides of every ribbon. 


Once you have sewn all the ribbons it should look something like this...


The next step is pinning the front and back pieces together with the right sides facing in.


After you've pinned around the edges, you can sew around three sides. Make sure you leave one side open so you can insert the cushion.


Your cushion cover should look like this inside out...


The final step is to close the third side. First turn your cushion cover right side out and stick your cushion insert inside. Then, simply fold in the two bottom edges and pin them together (so the raw edges are folded inside). Unfortunately, I don't have a photo for this step. Onces the third edge is pinned, then you can either hand sew or use a machine to sew the final seam. And that is it! You are done and have a new Christmas cushion to decorate your home with!


This cushion is actually now for sale in my Etsy shop which you can visit here! Soon I will be putting up more cushions among other things!

1 comment:

  1. I love Sarah's country home & watching the transformation on HGTV. Your pillow turned out fantastic - love the colours and idea of using different textures.

    ReplyDelete

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