I love craft projects, whether it’s sticking things, sewing, cutting, threading or painting. It’s something I’ve always loved and a great rainy day project with the kids.
Boosted by recent successes in making large bed cushion covers, after we discovered that a wrought iron bed is beautiful but not the most comfortable to sit up against to read, I bravely decided to tackle a bolster cushion cover for my daughter’s bed.
My lovely mum had kindly donated her sewing machine which she’d run many a dress or table runner up on and I had my box of sewing bits and bobs all ready to go.
Here are the things you will need if you want to join in and make your own.
- one bolster cushion
- one piece of cotton fabric which is slightly longer than your cushion
- a sewing machine but if you don’t have one you can do this project by hand sewing using running stitch
- two large buttons to secure either end of your cushion cover
- optional extra, some pom pom trim to give it a final finishing touch!
This is a very easy project for anyone who had just started out sewing and took approximately one hour to do.
First you need to measure and mark your fabric against your cushion and leave an allowance of approximately 5 inches at either end – this will be folded once the main seam has been sewn to close either end of the cushion. Then simply pin at 1 inch intervals along the fabric to prevent it slipping when you put it through the machine. Make sure your fabric is inside out so that you can sew a straight seam and then turn it the right way with the pattern facing outwards hiding the seam. You’ll be left with the two end pieces which you can tidy up after you fit the cover over your bolster cushion.
The final stage is once the cushion has the cover on, take a sewing needle and bring together the ends of the fabric to a central point. Don’t worry if it looks a bit messy we’re going to cheat and cover it up with a nice button. Miko had done a craft button and brooch at one of her school clubs so we decided to use that on either end as we like the slightly mis-matched style.
And voila – there is your cushion cover all ready to go. When you want to (need to!) wash the cover, simply unpick one end of the cover and slip out the cushion so you can pop the cover in the machine. It’s a two minute job to then resew when it’s been washed.
Hope you have fun making this, there are lots of gorgeous fabrics you can use or you could get really creative and make a patchwork pattern up with left over fabric pieces to make up a cover. The sky’s the limit really just use your imagination. I’ve seen covers which have been made with tie-dye kits on plain white which look amazing and covers which have been knitted.
Remember, adventure is out there!
Nat x
