From Primark tea-towel to pretty cushion for £2!

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about a gorgeous tea-towel I had bought from Primark here, and on Tuesday I finally got around to turning it into something pretty. I really loved the fresh floral and bird print, and having just bought a sewing machine I decided to try it out and make a cushion for my chair.
 

I was aiming to be as economical as possible with my little project, and the total cost to make the cushion cover was just £2. The tea towel cost £1.20 from Primark and is a thin cotton material which worked really well on my sewing machine. I headed to my local market haberdashery stall for a 12" zip in a co-ordinating pale blue colour where I paid only 80p. (I had previously looked in a craft shop and a high-street haberdashery and the prices for a basic zip were as high as £4.00, so I'd recommend looking for independent retailers and market stalls for the best prices).


As it has been some years since I last undertook a real sewing project I wanted to make my first project as simple as possible. So I just folded my tea towel in half and cut it, putting one half aside, before measuring the other piece to find 1/4 and cutting it again. I then pinned each half of zip in place to the 1/4 and 3/4 of the fabric having double folded it to create a neat edge and also conceal the zip, and sewed across. Once the zip was in it was as simple as pinning the two halves back together (and facing each other) and sewing, (remembering to the leave the zip open so you can turn it out the right way after...not that I forgot to do this and had to struggle to unzip it...!). Finally I had a look through my sewing box for old bags of sequins that had come with jumpers and found some dark pink sequins and beads that matched the roses perfectly, and sewed a few on by hand.

So here's the finished result!

the front

the back

It took little over an hour to make from start to finish and i'm really pleased with the results. Although the stitching could be neater in places I think it just requires a little practice and it's a great project for beginners. I think the cushion would make a lovely gift so I'm tempted to go back for more tea towels and pick up the other patterns from Primark, as one was a red floral/spotty print, very cath kidston-esque, and the other was a beige cafe/coffee cup print that would look great on a bistro/patio chair, and at only £1.20 each it is far cheaper than buying a metre of material, which were as much as £9.99 at one of the craft stores I visited for some of the nicer prints.

P.S. I used an old cushion to fill the cover but I've found cushions from as little as £2 online after a quick search so even if you don't have an old one to up-cycle, a new one doesn't have to be costly!