Are You Sitting Comfortably? A Tutorial!

On Saturday we have a Family Fun Day to finish off our Kids Club. I shall be telling stories in the Story Tent, and I need some floor cushions for the children to sit on. Not wanting to spend money on things which are just for throwing about on the floor, I hunted in the Great Stash. For stuffing I had two old duvets [then my friend Carol kindly gave me half a duvet. I didn’t like to enquire what had happened to the other half!] and I found some lengths of bright fabric for making cushion covers. I measured up, and decided that I could get 3 cushions, each about 55cm square, from the thickest duvet – and 3 more by combining the other 1½ duvets. This would entail cutting the duvet into 3 strips, then folding it over into thirds to get a pad. Conveniently the duvet had 9 ‘channels’

I began by stitching through the duvet at the two places I needed to cut, alongside existing seams. This is essential – you need to ensure your filling does not escape. But it is difficult – duvets are thick! the machine protested and the stitching was not very even.

Having stitched this extra seam, I took the duvet into the garden, and cut through the top layer of fabric between the lines. Then turned it over and did the same. It was then much easier to cut through the hollow-fibre filling [nb if your duvet is full of feathers, they will float away and not need to be cut]

Here’s a picture of the cut edge, and then the pads tucked into their covers waiting to be sewn up. The final picture shows why you do this outside – cut duvets shed bits everywhere! Finally tuck in the raw edges and sew the edge closed.

I realised that my yellow fabric was a little smaller, so I rearranged the padding to make all the cushions a little fuller. Here’s my stack of cushions waiting for Saturday!

Now I just have to find my notes from the last time I ran a Story Tent [and the disclaimer notice about some Bible Stories may contain scenes of violence]