From tea towels to Christmas Cushions - 50 makes for Christmas 10/50

Make a Christmas cushion cover has been on my "to do" list for about 3 years and I am so happy that I have finally managed to do it not once but twice!

It is made from a set of tea towels that I picked up from H&M a short time before Christmas, they were reduced and you know what I am like for finding a "bargain", so I couldn't resist, in fact I brought two packs giving me four tea towels in total. I did think about using them for their intended purpose but saw the potential to become cushion covers straight away.

This is what I did......

Measured the length of one of the "Holiday"tea towel around the cushion pad and found that it was well short of what was needed.

The solution  was to cut one of the striped tea towels in half giving enough additional fabric to make two identical envelope cushion covers.

• I trimmed the top seam from the "Holiday" tea towel using my pinking shears, this is where the other piece of fabric is going to be joined and it would make the seam too bulky.  
• Rather than just join the two raw ends together it is important to work out the overlap that creates your "envelope" fastening. Insert your cushion pad work out an overlap of about 3 inches, I was helped here by the design on the tea towel, pin in place.
• Pin the side seams, again the fabric of the tea towel was very helpful as I just pinned along one of the red lines. 
• Pin along the top
• Remove the pins from the "envelope" fastening and remove the cushion pad
• Turn to wrong side and "transfer" the pins to the inside so it is ready to be sewn.
• Before sewing pull though and try the Cushion pad to check that the "fit" is still good, adjust if necessary.
• I sewed the top first and then the sides, I don't know if there is a proper order for this but it seemed to work for me.
• I tried the cushion pad and was happy with the fit so I trimmed the excess off with my pinking shears and gave it a good press

I am really happy with the result and now just need to find some time and some motivation to make another pair of cushion covers ready to put on in the new year when these get tucked away ready for next year.

This is the tenth make of my challenge so just 40 more to go to reach my goal of 50.

I have one of the stripey tea towels left in tact so I will leave that to one side and have a little think about another project, unless any your lovely readers have any good ideas??