A while back, I had some second hand chairs re-upholstered with a beautiful set of fabrics from cloth. I was in the upholsterer’s shop, faced with an enormity of choices, many of which didn’t look promising. Then I saw a small swatch from cloth, and suddenly, I was faced with only decent choices, and a manageable number of them. The upholsterer was happy for me to use any of their fabrics.
Shame about the mood lighting in this photo. Like so many sewing projects, it was finished after dark. I asked the upholsterer to keep any scraps of fabric, no matter how small, and had plenty left over to make cushions. I was stuck for a while, not wanting to buy polyfill to stuff them with but not able to think of a really good alternative. Then it came to me at my local op shop. I bought these three cushions for a song, laundered them, and gave them new covers. No more polyfill comes into existence, these items don’t end up in landfill for a whole lot longer, and I get cushions.
I gave them envelope backs. At first I had made the covers a little too large, so I corrected the sizing to make them suitably plump.
I gave them nice little mitered corners…
And now I have mostly small scraps left to turn into something lovely…
Local & Bespoke 
Yeah! I am so pleased to know I am not the only one that re-pillows pillows (as they get flatter I double or triple them up….feel free to laugh!). Another thing I have been doing for stuffing is slicing up small scraps, even saving trimmed seam allowances to use for stuffing.
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Way, way back in the really old days (think medieval and renaissance periods) tailors would keep all their fabric scraps and they too would keep all the very smallest scraps for stuffing. They called it ‘cabbage’. Don’t know why but there you go, random facts for the evening.
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I didn’t know that! I too have saved my scraps for stuffing, but they make a really dense stuffing. Perfect for some applications but less good for others.
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🙂 I remember watching my mother make a cushion when I was a child. She had what I think was called crumbed foam or crumbed rubber… it was used as toy stuffing back then. She took one of Dad’s worn out shirts and made a new casing for the stuffing from it, because the previous casing had died. So we have a history, Deb! Mum made that cushion stuffer lovingly for a piece of embroidery one of her school friends had made her, a cushion cover with an oval brown border stitched around the central picture of a rosella (one of our colourful native birds). I always felt special being allowed to use it as a little person. When I moved out as an adult Mum gave it to me and that cushion cover was only relinquished when it finally fell apart completely. The stuffer got recovered in an ancient T shirt and went on to have another life. So yes, you have company for sure!
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I love the mitred corners. It makes such a nice detail.
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Thanks so much. Such a little thing to execute, that makes the whole effect so dramatically different. I love mitered corners on bags, too.
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I can see why the fabric caught your eye, it looks very similar to eco prints, doesn’t it?
Lovely sewing job.
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Thanks for your kind comment. I like the fabric very much, and friends have commented on their sense of a common aesthetic in a similar way.
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