How to Hand-stitch a cushion cover with fabric samples / swatches

Today, we'll do two things:

Discover a fun and affordable way to select the right fabric for your home decor projects or sofa suite buys.

Sew a simple cushion cover by hand.

If you've got a DIY home decor project coming up, my candid advice is: don't spend any money on fabric until you've had a mini trial run.

Why?

It's just horrible when you create something and then end up hating it because it looks 'not at all how you envisioned it' in your space.

I've done it before - spent the best part of 4 months giving my sofa cushions dirty looks, I even sat on the floor a few times to show my disapproval. Not to mention explaining (read apologising) to visitors who displayed the 'if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all' face when they first set their eyes on it.

I just couldn't believe that we'd spent money on good quality fabric, taken out time and made such an effort (3 weeks worth of evenings), just to create furnishings that looked very much like partially digested food. The decor fabric had looked gorgeous on the decor fabric website, but looked awful in the natural light of our sitting room.

Shop-bought and custom-made sofa suites can be a big investment, especially if you prefer high-end, good quality fabric. Fabric samples will help to choose colours that blend with your home decor aesthetic. It's equally important to consider how well the fabric on your new suite will withstand wear and tear.

Decor Fabric Selection

We found that a 'swatch cushion', crafted from a shortlist of preferred decor fabrics, would help us make the right choice, in terms of fabric colour, texture and durability.

A swatch cushion allows you to spend time with the colours and textures of decor fabric, before you commit to buying and using large quantities of fabric for your project or buying expensive sofa suites that don't suite your space.

It's easy, as textile and upholstery companies provide sample / swatches of the fabric they stock. Just select your favourite decor fabric samples online or instore and order them.

Larger samples work best for our swatch cushion cushion project so check the size offered by each company. You may need to pay for more expensive fabric swatches, but the cost should be minimal and it could save you from irritation and stress in future.

Note: You'll be making a swatch cushion using single swatches of decor fabric.

As you'll only see one side of your cushion at a time, you don't need to cover both sides with your decor fabric samples. If you have any swatches left over, you could make another cushion.

This colourful sofa is the inspiration for our project.

How To Make a Simple Cushion Cover with Decor Fabric Swatches

You can follow our step-by-step swatch cushion cover tutorial. Everything will be done by hand (no sewing machine).

The Items You Will Need are:

Decor Fabric Swatches

Large Scrap Fabric

Ruler and Pen

Rotary or Scissors

Clips or Sticky Tape

Iron

Cushion Pad

Zip

Are you ready?

Let's Go

Step 1

Sort through your samples, and pick your favourites.

smaller samples over large sample with white dotted line

If the fabric samples are different sizes, put the smallest sized piece on top of the larger pieces and trace the shape of the small piece with your pen.

Step 2

Use your scissors or rotary cutter to cut of the excess fabric from the large pieces.

Repeat the same thing to all of the fabric pieces so that they are all the same size before you continue.

Step 3

Lots of patterned fabric samples cut to the same size

The samples must be large enough so that when placed side by side, they will cover one side of your cushion with over-hang (margin) all around it.

A generous margin is very important for sewing errors.

Step 4

The larger your cushion is, the more pieces you will need.

You can take a pic of your design so that you remember the order, while sewing.

Step 5

blue and grey suede velvet sample decor fabric side by side

Good Quality Decor Fabric is thicker than dress fabric, so you'll need to use clips to hold the decor fabric firmly together while you sew.

sample fabric pieces clipped together right sides facing

Place two pieces of fabric evenly together with the right sides facing each other. Clip the fabric together. Alternatively cut a piece of Sticky Tape.

Step 6

two decor fabric swatches held together with sticky tape along one side

Lay half along one edge of a sample and fold the other half over the edge of another sample. Both samples are now held together along one edge.

two swatches held together with sticky tape flipped over along one edge

two swatches held together with sticky tape flipped over along one edge with ends of excess sticky tape clipped off

The straight edge of the sticky tape acts as the stitch guide line, and helps to ensure that all of your seam allowances are the same size.

Step 7

faux suede sample fabric with light coloured backing clipped together right sides facing

The backs of decor fabric are often a different colour from the front.

clipped pattern pieces with ruler and pen 4

clipped pattern pieces with dotted stitch guideline, ruler and pen 3

You can use a straight edge and pen in a contrasting colour to make your stitch guideline, and use clips instead of sticky tape.

Step 8

Make sure to choose a needle that can penetrate your fabric layers. Thread your needle with two strands of thread. This will make the seams stronger and more secure.

Sew your pieces together with a pin-back or half-back stitch.

Step 9

After you've sewn each pair together, remember to tie a knot in your thread and keep the knot as close to the fabric as possible to preserve your stitches.

Remove your sticky tape stitch guide. Here is the back and front view of a pair of suede decor fabric samples sewn together.

Step 10

two pieces of fabric with dark backing sewn together with a back stitch

As all of your pieces are the same size, you can reuse the same piece of sticky tape as a guide for sewing all of your pairs together.

two velvet samples sewn together along one edge and opened out flat

blue and tan velvet fabric samples sewn together

Backed fabric is less flexible, so you'll notice a raised effect on the front side, once you've sewn them together.

Step 11

Clip one pair to another pair, apply sticky tape guideline and then sew them in place, just like you did when attaching the single pieces.

Once you have your design all sewn in place, they'll look a lot like the pics. Here you can see the front and inside of the cushion's front cover.

Step 12

Keep going, you're doing a great job.
Now you'll work on the cushion back cover. Iron your scrap fabric, and remove all the creases

front panel on back panel with chalk mark drawn around 2

Place the cushion front on top of the back fabric. Leave an equal margin around the cushion front and trace it.

Step 13

Cut out the shape you've drawn and fold the back fabric in half. Iron the fold and cut along it.

The zip will be attached between these two halves.

Step 14

Pin each zip arm to each of the fabric halves. Use a pin-back stitch to sew them in place.

close up of grey zip pinned to back panel

Draw a margin to create a stitch guide line along the four edges of your cushion back cover.

Step 15

back and front panel pinned together on all sides

My cotton back fabric is too thin. A perfect example of the reason why decor fabric is better for cushions.

inside of back and front cushion panels pinned together

Lay the back cover on top of the front cover. Pin the two pieces together and sew along the stitch guide lines.

Step 16

Now turn your swatch cushion cover the right way around and fill it with your cushion pad or stuffing. You're all done. How does it look?

This cushion has been really helpful since I made it. Firstly, I've learned that not all faux suedes are equal. In fact one sample made the skin on my arm feel very itchy after a few minutes of resting against it.

Surprisingly, my chenille sample was the most comfortable to the touch, so I will bear that in mind for my next project.