Cushions and a kitten

For nearly a year now a selection of Japanese fabrics from Spotlight has been languishing in my fabric cupboard waiting to be made into cushion covers. And at last - in the absence of any other  sewing projects - I got around to making them. They may not be the most exciting thing to make, but they certainly provide great aesthetic return for a very small amount of effort! 

The big cushions are simple 50 x 50cm squares with a zipper at one side. I used these cushion inserts from Ikea and cut the fabric the exact dimensions of the insert because I find that not adding any seam allowance makes the covers fit more snugly. I like to use this method for inserting cushion zips, setting the zips in 5cm or so at each end for neater corners.

For the one smaller cushion I had run out of the beautiful tree fabric and used some thick linen for the back. It looks so good, I really wish I'd done the same for all of them! Oh well, next time...


This is how the cushions look on our couch. But hang on - who is that sleek black creature with the white whiskers? Allow me to introduce our new kitten, Moriarty. We have all fallen completely in love with him and I could probably write a very long blog post about his beauty, his outrageously playful and daring antics, his cuddliness and his ability to locate cosy and cute places to sleep - but I'll spare you. I will say, though, that it's nice to have someone around who truly appreciates R's wardrobe!

Cushion covers

Our new couch is very long, very deep and very black. It desperately needs some cushions for colour and comfort. It's taken me a month, but I've finally finished a set of four covers in different indigo 'Three Cats' patterns. 

Three Cats is a brand of cotton fabric used in South Africa to make dresses for both ceremonial and everyday purposes. Traditionally it is indigo, but some designs are  produced in brown and red (like the one I used for this skirt). You buy the fabric heavily starched, stiff as a piece of cardboard (this apparently dates back to the need to preserve it on its sea voyage from Europe), but it becomes lovely and soft over time. I always feel sad to wash out the starch because the smell takes me back to the shop where I used to go to buy it - Dick Louis in Cape Town (sadly, no longer there). 

These are square piped covers with a zip in the centre back piece. I cut the cover pieces to the exact dimensions of the cushion insert, not adding anything for seam allowance, so they would fit snugly. Making the piping was the time-consuming bit - the rest was relatively quick and straightforward. For the zip I like the method of sewing a seam, sewing on the zip behind it, then unpicking the seam (if that makes sense) - it's detailed in this tutorial, which uses a completely different assembly technique from my covers but does explain the zip/seam method. I used this other tutorial to work out how to add the piping. 

Now our giant couch is a whole lot more comfortable.