Map cushion covers

Following on from Deenie's post on her cushion covers, I too just made my first set of cushion covers for the home.

They took a long time having never used my sewing machine until now (a wedding present that took this long to open!) and I had a false alarm that I had made measurement errors and made the cover too small for the 2nd cushion. I unpicked the whole thing and then realised we had purchased one cushion 3cm larger than the others! Frustration! Needless to say I also felt relieved that it wasn't my miscalculation that had led to the error but a 'foreign' pillow arriving in the bins of cushions at Ikea.

I have been planning these cushions even before I received the sewing machine. The front is made from a set of Muji hankerchief with the map of New York, London, Tokyo and Paris on them. I don't know what you would use such a large hankerchief for though! So they have been happily refashioned into cushion covers.

There are lots of online tutorials for sewing cushions like this. I was staunchly opposed to attempting zips on my first sewing project so I sewed envelope pillow cases.

Firstly I lined the backs of the scarves with a coloured fabric so it wasn't as see-through.


Then I cut 2 pieces of fabric the same width as the pillow (no allowances so the case would be nice and snug!) but one 1/2 the height and the other 3/4 of the height to allow overlap of the 2 pieces as a flap on the back of the pillow case. I hemed the ends that would be seen along the flap.


I then placed the pieces with the right sides facing each other and sewed them along the edges to close.





After turning the pillow case the right way up, this is what the envelope opening at the back looks like. Insert your pillow and ta da! Enjoy.


I would really have liked a rotary blade Deenie! I can see how useful it would have been...My cutting was shocking using scissors!

Kay