Make a Sophie Conran silk scatter cushion: free sewing pattern
Follow Sophie Conran’s clever ideas for making cushions and transform your home and garden with unique style
Recently I’ve become a little bit cushion obsessed! I love them, especially the big squishy ones that you can sink into on the sofa or lounge around on in the garden at the end of the day. They’re great for adding colour, pattern or texture to beds, chairs and sofas. Car boot sales, fleamarkets and antiques stalls are good sources of inexpensive fabrics: look out for vintage silk scarves, linen grain sacks, or old curtains or shirts.
There are all sorts of pads available (visit www.merrick-day.com for a selection or www.woolsoft.co.uk for good quality, wool-filled pads). Some will hold their shape and always look tidy, but I prefer feather pads – though they do need lots of plumping. But whatever filling, shape, size or fabric you choose, making your own cushion covers is easy and very rewarding.
Silk scatter cushion
A great way to use a square silk scarf is to turn it into a cushion cover. Look for pretty designs in charity shops or vintage patterns at antiques fairs.
How it’s done
For this cushion you need a square scarf about twice the size of your cushion pad. Start by lining the scarf to make it more hardwearing. Lay out a piece of lining fabric, put the scarf on top, right side up, then tack around all four edges.
Trim the lining to 0.5cm beyond the edge of the scarf.
Fold in the edge of the lining so it’s in line with the edge of the scarf. Handstitch them together right on the edge.
Lay the scarf right-side down, positioning it to resemble a diamond. Centre the cushion pad on the scarf and fold in the two opposite corners of the scarf to the middle, then fold up the bottom point.
Hand stitch to close the three triangles of fabric, leaving the top triangle open and unstitched.
Stitch a button into the corner of the bottom flap, and sew a loop of cord to the underside of the top flap as a button holder.
Tip: Add a colourful button to finish this cushion off perfectly.
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