Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 1: Cushions

Eek, it's the 25th of November already, and that means it's only one month until Christmas! So, now's the time to get cracking on making those gorgeous handmade presents that everyone loves so much.

Over the next twelve days I'm going to be putting up a new present and/or decorating idea each day in Fabrication's very own Twelve Days of Christmas. Hopefully you'll find something here to inspire you into making your own Christmas gifts. Every single idea will be quick and easy to make (honestly - no more than an hour, I promise!), and will feature some of the gorgeous fabrics available now at fabrication.co.nz.

Today, being Day 1 of the Twelve Days of Christmas, is traditionally supposed to be a partridge in a pear tree, or in the Kiwi version a pukeko in a ponga tree. I can't quite run to either of those, but how about a couple of cushions on a green chair instead?

Cushions are a fabulous idea for anyone. They are super easy to make and are such a simple way to brighten up a room. Here I've made a couple of cushions - one a standard sized couch cushion (45cm x 45cm) which took 0.5m of fabric, and a smaller one approx 41cm wide x 23cm high, which used a fat quarter for the main body of the cushion and a scrap of fabric for the stripe.

For the larger cushion I used Amy Butler's Park Fountains in Fuschia from her Midwest Modern II collection. I wanted to be able to wash my cusion cover, but couldn't be bothered with inserting a zip, so just used some velcro on the back instead. And, instead of doing a proper edging around the cushion I just topstiched right around the cushion about 1cm in from the edge. It looks just as good and is easy peasy!

For the smaller cushion I used Annette Tatum's Honey Comb in Pink as the base fabric and then just attached a strip of another Annette Tatum fabric, this time Diamond in Ribbon down one side for a bit of embellishment.

You can either stuff the cushions with pre-made cushion inners like I did (these are available lots of places, in NZ try Spotlight or the Warehouse) or stuff with loose polyfill.

So go on, make a cusion or two, tie them up with a ribbon, and you've got yourself a gorgeous present for someone you love this Christmas.