How to make a simple envelope cushion cover

Here at Cosy Home, we’re always looking for simple home projects to give the house that individual feel. This envelope-style cushion cover couldn’t be more simple to make, even if you’ve got no sewing experience, and you can customise it any way you like. Here’s how:

What you’ll need

A cushion inner pad. These are available from haberdashers and home retail stores, such as Ikea.

Fabric – you’ll need sufficient to wrap right round your cushion pad, with an overlap of around 20cm.

A sewing machine – although this isn’t essential, it will speed the job up!

Cotton, in either matching or a contrast colour

Scissors

Tape measure

Pins

Needle

Trim – this can be buttons, bows, tassels or pretty much anything else you like

Three press studs

What to do

Assemble all your materials

Make sure you’ve got everything you need to hand before you start – there’s nothing more irritating than reaching for the pins and remembering you’ve let them upstairs.

Start by cutting out your fabric. If you’re new to sewing, a good tip is to use fabric that’s either checked or striped, as this makes it much easier to get the seams straight. We used a cushion pad that was 50cm square, so we cut out a strip of fabric that was 120cm long (50cm plus 50cm plus 14cm overlap plus 6cm seam allowance) by 54cm wide (50cm plus 4cm seam allowance). We chose to have our stripes running lengthways down the fabric, as this made matching the seams easier.

Next, iron a 1.5cm seam into each end of the strip.

Pressing the first seam

Then, fold the material over once more and iron this double fold. Repeat for the other end of the strip.

Iron and pin a double seam

Pin the seam into position, then machine sew it into place using either contrasting or matching thread – we chose a navy blue contrasting colour.

Sewing the seam into place

Now, lay the fabric down with the wrong side of the seam face down. Fold it into position so that the back is the size of your cushion pad, and the front overlaps by 15cm. (You can position the ‘flap’ of the envelope wherever you like, but 1/3 from the top or 1/3 from the bottom looks best visually.)

Make sure the wrong sides of the seams are facing up when you fold the fabric into position

Now, in both side seams and sew them up around 1.5cm from the edge, using the stripes as a guide if you can. Fasten the loose ends off neatly by knotting or tying, and turn the cushion cover right way round.

Turn the cover right side round.

Iron the cover again so the edges are square and crisp.

Now, use the tape measure to mark three equal points on the underside of the top flap, and put a pin in each to mark the place. Sew a press stud in position, so when the flap is closed the stud is completely concealed. Don’t worry if your stitches show through the top a bit – those will be hidden by the trim.

Sew the press studs into position

Next, get your trim ready. We used buttons (always keep any spare buttons that come your way, there’s nothing as satisfying as an old-fashioned button box!), but you could also use little bows of ribbon, decorative knots, fabric patches, tassels or anything else that takes your fancy.

The button box!

Sew the three trims into place on top of the seam so that they hide any stitching from the press studs.

The finished cushion

And voila! the finished cushion. We’d love to hear how you get on with your own versions of this project, so do share any photos on our Facebook page or on Twitter.

By Sara Walker

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