Making cushion covers is very laborious.
In fact it was my least favorite part of the project.
It was even more difficult because I chose not to use zippers, hoping to get more mileage out of my efforts in the future by having two sides of the cushion that could show if needed. So I chose to sew 8 cushions closed by hand, using upholstery thread and a curved needle. This is pretty much an irrational thing to do and I do not recommend it at all.
So once you take apart the old cushion fabric and lay it out you can use it as a pattern. In larger projects this is no small affair and you will need some way of marking each piece of fabric to indicate where it is supposed to be used. Here is a big stack of cushion sides all safety pinned together:
Notice I used little pink post-it notes to label them. I also had to label the direction of the fabric because velvet has a "nap" that makes it look a lighter color in one direction than it does in the opposite direction. This is what all those "with/without nap" instructions are on patterns: they're trying to prevent you from making a velvet suit, but one side of one leg looks lighter than the rest of the entire outfit.
Once you get a cushion cover made it looks like this:
The old trick to get the cushion into the cover when it is almost impossible to do it without a trick is to get some kind of plastic such as painter's plastic, wrap it around the cushion, and inside that plastic, put the vacuum cleaner nozzle. Turn on the vacuum and the air begins to leave the cushion, making it smaller! When it's small enough, just move the vacuum cleaner nozzle with the cushion on it over to the cover and slip in the cushion.
Turn off the vacuum, let the cushion expand, and when it is full size, begin to pull on the plastic to remove it and keep trying, it tends to end up all in one long string at the end.
Check out this painting by Elizabeth Hendley entitled "In the Midst": In this printmaking and acrylic work, I seem to sense several screens with circular openings, each one concealing and revealing part of the further layers. Stunning! Contact Elizabeth for more information at Elizabeth@themellowmakeryatx.com.
Cheers until next time!
--Pam