The Beginner's Guide To Sewing A Pretty Cushion

I wanted to buy cushions that matched my curtains but they cost £21 ($33) per cushion. I almost fainted when I saw that price! In the end I decided to just make my own cushion covers to match chairs I upholstered rather than the curtains.

I had some left over material but it was only enough for one side of the cushion so I bought one plain patch off eBay at £1.24 ($1.92) including shipping (seriously, who can beat that?!!!). The zip cost me £0.55 ($0.85). I'm not even going to count the cost of the thread because it's negligible.

Anyway this is how I went about it:

• First, I sewed on the zip
• To stop the zip from moving about I pinned it in
• Once one zip had been sewn on properly (and I will admit here that I had to run the sewing machine along the first side about 3 times before I was happy with it), I pinned the second half of the cushion onto the other half of the zip
• I undid the zip so that I didn't have to fumble with the other half 
• The zip was the hardest part, after that it all went rather fast
• I cut the patches to match more exactly and then I sewed the cushion inside out
• When I reached the corners I just rotated the cloth around and continued. I expect a professional would take the material out and restart stitching to ensure a perfect square but this is my first attempt so I didn't want to make it harder by doing that.
• As for cushion filler, I just used an old duck feather and down pillow that was not being used for anything

I got a pretty cushion that matches my chairs for less than £2 ($3) - now that's what I'm talking about. I had never sewn a cushion before, in fact I don't sew generally but it turned out alright. It's pretty amazing what you can do when you decide YOU WILL do it. If you like to save money like I do check out my ebook at katsonga.com and build super savings! 

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