Cushion Covers From Tea Towels

Ikea has some amazingly cheap tea towels, which are colourful and hardwearing. I was a little short of cushions and decided to make some covers from tea towels and buy some cheap pads. This is what I did...

Most tea towels are approximately 28 inches by 20 inches and the nearest cushion insert is 20 inches square. Stuffed into a slightly smaller cover they are fuller and more attractive so I decided that the covers should be 19 inches square.

A simple envelope backing is the quickest and easiest way to make the covers and this is how I did them. There was very little sewing as I used the already made seams.

Using the already sewed seams to complete the opening I merely turned over the first tea towel 8 inches from the top. This was A. This then became the inner flap. The second tea towel (B) I cut off 8 inches from the bottom and sewed this together to the bottom of A. The sides were then joined over the flap and up the sides. (I am totally useless at describing anything!) All you clever people out there will know exactly what to do - and me a mere beginner managed it easily. This is one of the tea towels which became the back of the 'birdy' one. The flowered one had the same backing as the front and the third was made of all the pieces left over from the other two plus one tea towel.

The finished cushions were not brilliant but very cheap and cheerful as the tea towels cost just £2 each and I made three cushion covers from five tea towels.

Sadly they were not universally admired and consequently everyone bought me cushions for Christmas. These are some of them ...

From Anthropologie

From Marks and Spencers

From White Stuff

From Anthropologie

From Anthropologie

From Next

I have to admit they are all so much nicer - do you think my family was trying to tell me something?
I particularly love the Anthropologie ones - but then this is definitely my most favourite shop so I do love everything from there!