How To: Felt Flower Cushion (Pillow) Tutorial

Today I'm sharing a tutorial for making this colourful floral cushion (pillow) - including templates for 19 different flower shapes!

This project is the perfect example of how you don't need a lot of fancy sewing skills to make something awesome, just a bit of time and patience. It's a fab project for working on in front of the TV in the evenings, gradually building up the design to cover the cushion with flowers.

I used quite a bright palette for my cushion, but you could use any colours you fancy. You could also add extra detail by embellishing the flowers with embroidery, buttons, seed beads or sequins. I've been thinking about adding some embroidery to my cushion, so maybe I'll post an update to this tutorial one day!

You could also use the flower templates included in this post for lots of different floral projects, including card-making.

You'll probably recognise this cushion as the one from my blog header - I finished it before I moved house and packed up all my things, and I've only just got round to unpacking it and borrowing someone else's living room to take photos (my living room is currently full of boxes and still doesn't have a sofa in it!).

Click here for the felt butterfly cushion tutorial, and click here for the MAKE ALL THE THINGS cushion tutorial.

To make a felt flower cushion, you will need a cushion cover, some felt in lots of different colours, matching sewing threads, scissors (embroidery scissors are great for cutting out small or detailed shapes), a sewing needle, pins, and the flower templates at the bottom of this post.

1. Use the templates provided to cut out lots of felt flowers in different colours. Make sure you cut an assortment of shapes in each colour! Lay the flowers out roughly on your cushion cover so you can see if you've got approximately the right amount. I cut out one batch of flowers to start with then cut out some extras towards the end to fill in the final spaces.

You can easily enlarge the templates to make larger flowers, which will give your cushion a different look and also mean you have fewer pieces to cut out and sew.

2. Make sure you have matching threads for all your felt colours! For a different look you could use one thread to sew all the flowers in position, but remember that your stitching will then be more visible so try to keep your stitching neat and even.

3. Begin adding the flowers. Start in the centre of the cushion and work outwards, adding a few flowers at a time. Position the flowers and pin them in place, taking care to only pin them to the front of the cushion cover and not through all the layers of fabric.

Use sewing thread (in any colour) and large stitches to tack the flowers in position, removing the pins as you sew each one. Make sure you only sew through the front of the cushion! Then use whip stitch and matching sewing threads to sew the flowers neatly. Once you've sewn all the flowers in this batch, remove the tacking threads.

4. Work outwards, repeating step 3 to fill the cushion with flowers. 

You may find it helful to cut more of the smaller flower shapes when you come to filling in the edges of the cushion.

When you've finished, your cushion cover will look something like this:

 

 

5. When all the flowers have been sewn in place and all the tacking threads have been removed, add a cushion insert and display your cushion in pride of place on your sofa!

 

For a no-sew version of this project, you could use fabric glue to attach the flowers to the cushion cover. I'd recommend sticking one flower to a piece of scrap fabric first, to test how much glue you need to use and placing something like a piece of plastic or tin foil between the layers of the cushion to prevent the glue seeping through and sticking the cushion together.

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This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many floral cushions as you want for yourself and as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

Click here to view template sheet one, make sure you're viewing it full size then print it at 100%. 

Click here to view template sheet two, make sure you're viewing it full size then print it at 100%.

How To: Felt Butterfly Cushion / Pillow Tutorial

Today I'm sharing a tutorial for decorating a cushion (pillow) cover with pretty felt butterflies!

I decorated my cushion cover with 20 felt butterflies all in the same shade of aqua blue felt, but you could make every butterfly a different colour if you wanted to or create a rainbow or ombre effect with different shades across the cushion.

I love how these butterfly shapes are pretty but still quite minimal and chic. For a busier look you could always add detail with embroidery or other embellishments, using this version of the butterfly template to add a felt body as well as the outline shape. 

 

The butterflies cushion is one of a series I've been making over the past few years to decorate my living room / studio space. I don't currently have a sofa in my new flat so I had to borrow someone else's lounge for these pictures... but hopefully these cushions will be adding a lovely pop of colour to my living space sometime soon!

Click here for the "MAKE ALL THE THINGS" cushion tutorial and templates. I'll be sharing the tutorial and templates for making the colourful floral cushion next week.

To make a butterfly cushion, you will need a cushion cover, some felt, sewing thread, scissors, a sewing needle, pins, and the butterfly template at the bottom of this post. 

1. Resize the template to suit your cushion - you'll need a bigger or smaller template depending on the size of your cushion cover and the number of butterflies you want to add. Then use the template to cut out lots of butterflies from your chosen felt colour(s). 

2. Arrange the butterflies on the front of the cushion cover and pin them in place. You may find a ruler helpful in getting them lined up straight. Take care to only pin them to the front of the cushion cover and not through all the layers of fabric.

3. Use contrasting sewing thread and large stitches to tack each butterfly in position, removing the pins as you sew each one. Make sure you only sew through the front of the cushion!

4. Then use matching sewing thread and whip stitch to sew the butterflies neatly.

5. When all the butterflies have been sewn in place, remove the tacking threads then add a cushion insert.

For a no-sew version of this project, you could use fabric glue to attach the butterflies to the cushion cover. I'd recommend sticking one butterfly to a piece of scrap fabric first, to test how much glue you need to use and placing something like a piece of plastic or tin foil between the layers of the cushion to prevent the glue seeping through and sticking the cushion together.

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many butterfly cushions as you want for yourself and as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

 

#Crafting365 Days 3-12: Lots and Lots of Stitches!

I'm now twelve days in to my #Crafting365 project: doing something crafty every day, taking a photo and sharing it online. It's not gone entirely smoothly so far, but what new daily challenge ever does, right?

On the evening of day three, I was feeling a bit half-asleep and wanted something simple to work on where I wouldn't have to make decisions. So I re-started a project that's been in my "in progress" pile for months and months (I am frankly embarrassed to look up how long ago I started this!).

Next day (just four days in!) I nearly forgot to do some crafting. Oops!

I remembered just in time, and squeezed in a bit of knitting before bed.  Some of these were knitted earlier, I'm not a magic speed knitter :)

The squares are for my happy rainbow blanket - I'm re-knitting a bunch of squares I realised that I'd knitted the wrong size (so annoying).

On day five I did some more knitting, and added some more shapes to my geometric project. Because the felt I'm working with is quite soft (and felt is quite a flexible material anyway) it's quite tricky keeping the lines straight. I'm using a ruler to check the lines frequently, but I'm still having to do a bit of unpicking and re-stitching now and then.

Day six was another sleepy evening, so I added another square (and a bit) to the pile:

On day seven, I started stitching all those felt flowers I cut out last week. I'm using them to decorate a cushion cover - I'm hoping the finished result will be a riot of colour when it's finished.

(I totally ironed the cushion cover before I started, by the way, but gripping the fabric tightly while stitching the felt shapes creates lots of creases!)

I didn't get much #Crafting365 making done on day eight. I was working on my geometric project again while watching TV and it was excellent, very distracting telly!

On day nine, I added some more flowers to the floral cushion. I don't have a plan for the layout of the cushion, I'm just adding the flowers one by one and seeing how the design develops, which is kinda fun.

Then on what was supposed to be day ten of my #Crafting365 project, I totally failed to get any non-secret-deadline crafting done. So far, when I've had busy days (working towards deadlines or going on Nice Days Out) I've managed to squeeze my #Crafting365 making into the evenings but this day was just too darn busy.

I did a bit of work for a deadline first thing in the morning, blitzed my inbox, had an awesome day out sightseeing and catching up with an old friend, then spent most of the evening stitching for my deadline. I guess I could technically have found the time to do a bit of creative making somewhere but never mind. Life happens sometimes! I'm going to do 365 days of crafting, and if that takes a bit longer than a year so be it.

So, after skipping a calendar day, for day ten of #Crafting365 I had a big session of post-deadline stitching - adding lots more flowers to the cushion. It looks like I've come on in leaps and bounds but actually loads of these are just pinned or tacked in place so I've got lots of sewing to do before I can add more flowers. Not that I'm complaining - this is such a happy, relaxing project to work on!

On day eleven I did more thinking about crafting than actual crafting. I have a big box of "in progress" projects which are less "in progress" than they are "abandoned for aaaaaages". I opened up the box and had a good look through all the half-made projects, making plans for revisiting and re-starting a bunch of them over the coming weeks.

First up: finishing cutting out this pile of triangles for something, er, triangle-y.

Then yesterday - day twelve - it was time for some embroidery! The bright pink felt I'm stitching on is super-bright neon pink, which is quite impossible to photograph. Please trust me on its real life awesomeness :)

P.S. I'm posting my daily #Crafting365 pics on Twitter and Facebook - follow along for lots of crafty goodness!

Make All The Things! Felt Cushion / Pillow Tutorial

Last weekend my To Do list read "MAKE ALL THE THINGS!!!"

I took this a bit literally, and decided to decorate a cushion with this exact phrase ... to help me remember to make more time for being creative, to not let admin take over my schedule, to do more making and less faffing about worrying about what project I should start next... and, well, just generally to encourage myself to make all the things.

Here's the finished cushion...

... I love it! Honestly this cushion makes me smile every time I see it, it's an awesome addition to my studio. 

To make your own, you will need....

- A plain cushion (pillow) cover.  I used a canvas cushion cover bought at H&M (affordable and available in lots of different colours, hurrah!) that measures 40 x 40 cm (16 x 16 inches).

If you want to you can, of course, make the cushion cover from scratch. There are plenty of cushion-making tutorials available online or in sewing books :)

- Felt in a constrasting colour to your cushion (you'll need two or three sheets/squares of felt)
- Sewing thread to match the felt, and a contrasting shade for tacking
- A needle and pins
- Sewing scissors (I used embroidery scissors, which are great for cutting out felt shapes)
- The templates provided at the bottom of this post. If your cushion is larger or smaller than mine just enlarge or shrink the templates as needed.


To decorate the cushion...

1. Use the templates provided to cut out the felt letters. 

 

2. Arrange the letters on the front of the cushion cover (or the fabric you'll be using to make your cushion) and carefully pin them in place. Note how I've left space around the edge of the letters, to allow for the 3D shape of the cushion.

Take care not to pin the front and back of the cushion cover together when pinning on your letters!

 

3. Use a contrasting shade of thread and large stitches to tack the felt letters in place, removing the pins as you sew. The tacking stitches will hold the letters in place and make the cushion much easier to handle (no getting pricked by pins when sewing!). Make sure you don't sew through both layers of the cushion.

 

4. Use matching thread and whip stitch to sew the felt letters to the cushion cover. This is nice and easy if you're sewing onto fabric-to-be-turned-into-a-cushion but sewing on the front of an already-sewn-together cushion can be a bit fiddly so take your time... and, again, make sure you're sewing through just the front layer of the cushion!

 

5. If you're making your own cushion, now's the time to take your appliqued fabric and follow the cushion-making instructions. If you've used a ready-made cover like me, all you need to do now is add the cushion insert and ta da...

 

... one slightly bossy cushion to put on your sofa to remind you to make stuff! :)

Click on each template sheet to view it in another tab or window. Make sure you're viewing the image at full size, then print it at 100%.

 

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many crafty cushions as you want for yourself and as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.