Mint cushion

Last night I completed another cushion for my collection. I'm aiming to make a pile for in front of the heater for winter napping and book reading. The idea for the cushion originated from my lovely bottle green georgette saree. The fabric wasn't period but I loved it because it draped so nicely. This year at Pennsic, when I tried it on, I noticed a couple of stains on the pallu. To make matters worse, I sampled the dimsims from the Australian Grill place and dripped soy sauce all over it. Three washings later, I've had no luck getting the stains out and since they're in a rather obvious place when I use my standard drape I can't really keep using this sari.

One of the reasons I liked this sari so much is the embroidery. It's done in simple colours and while it has some sequins, it's comparatively understated. I always thought it was machine embroidered, but now I've had a really close look, I can see it's aari work and hand stitched. I couldn't throw away the embroidery, so I backed it with a light green and added it to my trim stash. The main embroidery on the pallu has a beautiful plant motif, with sequins. There's not really enough to do anything medieval with but I really liked it. So I made a cushion out of it.

 

How to cushion it up:

Step 1: Purchase a cushion insert and a zip from your local craft store. I had a 61 cm square cushion insert left over from my embroidered cushion UFO.

Step 2: Cut one 63cm square (if you are overlocking the edges, use 65cm instead), This is the back of your cushion.

Step 3: Cut one 65x63cm rectangle. This is the front of your cushion.

Step 4: Pin and sew one side of your trim to the front of your cushion, right side to wrong side.

Step 5: Use the extra 2 cm to make a 1cm fold at the base of your trim. Machine sew one side and handstitch the other down, securing the edge of the trim with the fold..

Step 6: Place front and back right sides together, sew the zip side with widely spaced stitches. Open and press.

Step 7: Pin the zip to the back of the new seam and sew.

Step 8: Unpick the seam over zip.

Step 9: Pin front and back right sides together and sew. Open and press.

Step 10: Trim corners for neatness, stuff in cushion insert, zip closed, plump and enjoy.

Things I learned: When sewing a 61cm cushion, use a 59 cm zip. If you use a 61cm zip you end up with really messy corners. Also, gourgette is hard to sew neatly as it's more slippery than the poly cotton (ex-sheet) I used for the main body of the cushion and tends to bunch.