tea towel cushion tutorial

Remember these? 

As promised, I'm back with a tutorial. I've included heaps of pictures and can promise you that I am a novice sewer and even with a couple of hiccups (sewing the wrong side "out") these cushions still take no more than 15 minutes to make. 

WHAT YOU NEED

STEP 1: Place your 2 tea towels on top of each other, facing inwards. Fold the top tea towel up and over until the "square" is your desired tea towel size, then cut off the excess that you have folded over. See the two photos below to get what I mean.

STEP 2:  Sew a seam to "seal" the top tea towel where you just made your cut to stop it from fraying. Now, sew a seam over both tea towels at the top end to join them together. See below. 

STEP 3: You should now have two tea towels of different lengths connected by one seam at the top. Fold the longer tea towel under the shorter one so it is the same length. It is important your fold goes inwards between the two tea towels so that your cushion works. See pics below:   

STEP 4: Tack the two tea towels together and sew along both sides. Your tea towels should now be connected on three sides, with the side exposing the "flap" from the larger tea towel left free. As in the pic below, the bottom seam is just to tidy that cut you made earlier to the first tea towel.

If you are filling with an existing cushion insert, you're done! Just turn the fabric inside out and put the cushion inside. If you're filling with stuffing that is prone to walkabouts, stay with me... there's one more thing to do. 

STEP 5: Apply press studs to your connecting "flappy end" of the longer tea towel (the bit you folded over in Step 3) and the spots where it matches up when turned right way out. I'm not sure what press stud etiquette is but I used a hammer to bang them into submission. 

STEP 6: Fill with stuffing of your choice and press those studs together. VOILA! 

You're done! I'd love to see what your cushions look like. You can share them via my facebook page, twitter, or shooting an email to kate@littleadelaidekate.com.

Happy cushioning!