Sew a felt flower cushion :: free sewing pattern :: cushion covers :: UK sewing patterns

I saw a similar cushion cover in a department store for £35 – this cover was made for about £5. It is such fun to make – and a good one to get the kids involved in!

I’ve used felt for this cushion as it doesn’t fray, and it would be very fiddly to hem each of the flowers. You can buy really affordable felt by the metre or yard off the internet. I’ve just used one colour but you could have some fun by creating a whole bouquet in different colours.

Tip
You don’t have to cover the whole cushion with flowers, and you could make just one large flower instead. I’ve used a square cushion in this project, but a rectangular or circular cushion would also work well.

Take a side plate or bowl measuring about 30cm (11¾in) across, and a glass or beaker. Use paper to make a pattern. Draw around the plate with a pen, then place the glass just inside the outline and draw around it.

Keep going until you have a circle of glass shapes. If they overlap it doesn’t matter but they do need to join up. I don’t think it matters if the ‘petals’ aren’t uniform in size. Cut out the flower shape.

Take your template and draw around it on your felt, this time in chalk, and cut out nine flowers. As felt doesn’t fray, you could cut out the flowers using pinking shears or deckle-edged scissors instead.

Draw a small circle, using something like a coin, in the centre of each flower. Put a running stitch around this line by hand. Gather up the centre of each flower by pulling on this thread, and your flowers will come to life!

Using felt again, cut two squares about 2cm (¾in) larger than the cushion pad. On one of the squares (the cushion front) mark a central line in chalk, then draw one halfway along in each direction to divide your cushion in four. Do the same in the other direction to create a grid.

From the back, hand stitch each flower to the crossing points of the grid until all nine are sewn on.

If you want to add buttons to the centres, now is the time to do it. You could glue on a bead but make sure the glue is dry before sewing the cushion cover together.

Tip Beads can be expensive – look around for cheap strings of beads in fashion stores or second-hand shops and use these instead.

Lay the two cushion squares together, wrong sides facing, and sew along three sides.

Turn the cushion right side out, stuff in the cushion pad and sew up the remaining side, being careful not to stitch over the flowers.

Tip You could make a double flower using different-coloured felt – simply cut a second, slightly smaller, flower and stitch the centres together. Add these flowers to an existing cushion cover to brighten it up!