Cushion with a gathered surface

Here is another cushion I have recently made. This was experimental, but I like the finished result.

I had rather a lot of dark fabric, so decided to use some of it up. Firstly I cut the fabric in to some small sections. Then I machine sewed these together in to strips. I made 4 strips. I tried to make each strip slightly different, with the fabrics placed in a different sequence.


I joined the 4 strips together, making sure the pattern looked balanced. I tried to avoid the same fabric being placed next to each other. I made the strips much bigger than the cushion they were to be sewn on to. The reason for this is, I am going to gather up the surface to give it an interesting texture.  I added some contrasting ribbon and a few rows of machine embroidery, in the same orange colour. I did the embroidery in a wavy line, rather than straight, as this will enhance the finished result.

I then gathered up the surface, to give a crinkly, wrinkled look to the whole cushion.


I did this by doing a running stitch and pulling the cotton tight. I made sure the stitches did not show on the surface, by having the long stitch underneath, and only a short stitch showing on the top. I worked in a fairly random way all over the fabric, changing direction , and avoiding working in straight lines. I found the gathered effect particularly effective on the shiny fabrics, I had used.

I attached the fabric on to the cushion.  I did this by hand, as the thickness of the fabric makes it difficult on the machine. Obviously, it was still a lot bigger than the cushion, despite being gathered up. As I sewed it around the edges, to make it fit, I put in small creases and pleats,  which increased the gathered effect. 
One important point to remember is, to make sure it fitted, I sewed the corners in place first, then did each side.

The finished cushion has an interesting surface. Light on the wrinkled surface causes all sorts of shadows and colour variations.


I decided the back of the cushion was an unattractive brown, so decided to brighten it up a bit. I used a deep orange colour that matched the ribbons on the front. It worked well. and gave a more complete look to the whole cushion,

As a finishing touch I added some buttons to the front panel. These were partly for decoration, and partly to hold the front panel in place ,on the brown cushion underneath. As there was a lot of fabric, due to the gathering, the panel tended to move around a bit. This sorted that problem out!. I did not match up the buttons, as lots of different ones worked with the mixed up patchwork look of the cushion.

Well, I hope that has inspired you. If you are reading this in America, I believe you call cushions pillows over there. Is that right? If so, what do you call pillows?  ......its the same language , until it isn't !!!