Velvet Ribbon Flower Cushion

I’m currently planning a make over for the living room. During the construction we lost one window and widened another, and now there is the perfect opportunity to redo the color scheme.
Yesterday, I found silk cushions on sale ($10!!)  that went perfectly with the colors in the curtain fabric.
Since the curtain fabric is quite busy, I don’t want anything too fussy or patterned, but I felt the cushion needed something a little more to make it special.
I quite like how it turned out!


And here is how to make it:
I had a roll of cream velvet ribbon from Christmas many many years ago and the shade was perfect.
I wasn’t too keen on the gold edging but it wasn’t going to be visible anyway. I folded the ribbon in half, to a) hide the gold,  and b) get some “puffiness”, but you can also use just straight ribbon without the folding. It will result in a little bit flatter look though.

1.) Measure a length of ribbon. I used almost 5 yards for my flower.
Thread your needle and make a knot at the end.  Begin by making a running stitch along the bottom of your folded ribbon.  Place your stitches relatively far apart – about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch.  This creates more of an accordion style fold rather than  the little puckers. Don’t worry about being too exact though, just eyeball it.


While stitching along, gently pull and gather your fabric every once in a while and back stitch to keep it all in place. That way you don’t have to gather 5 yards at the end of it and it’s all secure as you go. Don’t pull too tight, the pleats can be quite loose.

2.) Once you gathered the entire ribbon, cut a felt circle just slightly smaller than the size of flower you want on your cushion. You could sew this straight onto your pillow case but it’s so much harder to handle. The felt circle makes this much easier!
Start to sew your gathered ribbon onto the felt circle,  just below the  outside edge, so the gather is wider than the circle. Use a running stitch and again, just sew it on enough to fasten it to the circle.  No need to be very neat about it. You do need to flatten the ribbon a little with your thumb though as you go and try and keep the stitching to the lower end of the edge though.

3.) Go all the way around the circle. When you get to the second row, you need to adjust the ribbon down to where you want it and continue with a running stitch to make the second row.

3.)  Just keep going all the way around, holding the pleats down with your thumb and stitching them down. You could go all the way to the middle of your circle, or leave a little room for a covered button, like I did.

Once I reached the end, I went and stitched certain spots to reinforce them. I have 5-year-old kids … this has to hold up to some pretty serious “testing”.
This is what the back looks like after that. Like I said, no need to be neat and as you can see, I meant it!

4.)  Now to the center. You can cover almost any button with this method, no need for expensive fabric covered button kits.
Anyway, usually you could just go ahead and follow all the steps without the felt circles, but since this is a throw pillow on a couch and I don’t really want to have a hard button poking into people’s back, I added the “padding”.

Fold some felt so you have 4 layers. Mark a circle the size of your button. Cut out the circles. No need to be too neat. I just cut all 4 at once.


5.) Find the fabric you want to use and mark the size of the button. Cut it out larger than your marking, then place a running stitch around the outside of your fabric circle. Make sure you stay away from the edge just a bit so it won’t fray when you pull the gathers.


6.)  When you stitched all the way around, layer the felt circles and the button onto the middle of your fabric circle.

Pull the thread until it’s all nice and tight.
 
Adjust if needed to center it all.

7.) Fasten it all in the middle with a few stitches.



8.) Sew the covered button into the center of your flower.

Then sew the flower onto the pillow case. It’s the easiest to sew the felt backing to the pillow case rather with some stitches. Try to keep the tension even so the pillow case doesn’t ruffle under the flower.
And here is the finished product again:
 

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