Repurposed: Dress to Ruffled Cushion Cover

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I had another really cute dress that just didn't fit anymore.

:(

I didn't want it to just hang in my wardrobe, so wondered about making a cushion cover from it.

However, I wasn't sure if I was quite ready to cut it up!

Then, I saw the Ruffle Your Stuff contest over at one of my favourite blogs, and knew I had to enter!

I did cut it up, and here's how it turned out:

See the purple gingham cushion behind it? The tutorial is here. The dark purple cushion was made in the same way.

Step One: I cut the bottom part of my dress so that it would be just the right size for my cushion. Thankfully, the dress was already exactly the right width. If yours is too big, just sew the side seams again until it's the correct size. If your dress is not wide enough, turn the cushion round and cut UP the dress. If you're not repurposing a dress and just using material by the metre, simply cut two pieces of fabric to the desired size.

Step Two: If you're going to do a ruffle like I did, sew it on before you do anything else. To make a ruffle, I cut a rectangle of fabric from the dress and roll hemmed the edges. See photos below.

To make the ruffle, I used elastic thread in my bobbin. (Just use normal thread for upper sewing)  A great tutorial for using elastic thread is here.

Don't worry, it's not nearly as scary as it sounds!

I sewed three lines of shirring down the middle of the fabric to ruffle it.

Above: The underside of the fabric.

Above: The right side of the fabric.

Step Three:

Then, pin it to your main piece of fabric and sew in place. If you want to add a fabric flower to your cushion, sew it on now. You could do one like this, or wait for the tutorial for the fabric flower I made, which is coming tomorrow.

Step Four:

Now, sew your cushion cover together. As I didn't have much fabric to play with, I sewed three sides and 

put the cushion pad inside it. I then pinned the bottom edge very closely and hand-sewed it closed.

Step Five:

Enjoy your beautiful new boudoir cushion!

You could always make some bigger cushions to go with it.

Tutorial here!

See you soon and don't forget to enter my giveaway, which is here!

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