Selly Bench Cushion Pattern
Beginner Friendly
Recently, I was re-doing my dining are -or maybe just “doing” my dining after 2 years in our current home. I had a corner bench seating with storage from Ikea (Smastad units) but they were white, bland, and flimsy with absolutely no visual interest. Ikea even sells bench cushions but they were white or vibrant teal…yuck.
There are custom bench cushions available but many were so basic with no stripes and didn’t quite fit my mood board vision. There were other custom cushions with the stripes and piping available but they were $670 per cushion and I needed 2 large and one corner. That’s $1500 for bench cushions!
Enter my perhaps overconfident sewist self.
And thus the Selly Bench Cushion Pattern was born.
Instructions:
Optional step: make your textile
I decided to patchwork these red and pink stripes. I had a vision and loved the large stripe on top with smaller stripes on the side panels. But I couldn’t find the colors and size of the pattern anywhere. So I made it. I thrifted a king size cotton duvet cover. Chopped it into two sheets, then dyed each sheet with Rit Dye in Passport Red and A Pretty Cool Pink.
Make sure your fabric is color fast after dyeing to avoid the pink-pocalypse that I had in my washer after the first launder.
Moodboard Key Notes:
blue cabinets
red and pink striped cushions
green with tie detail curtains
rustic table
stool cushions
color palette: olive, scarlet, light pink, powder blue, butter yellow, oak brown
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Easy, beginner-friendly bench cushion pattern that walks you through the process of making a tie-closure or button closure cover.
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Naviagate over to the “Handmade Shop” tab or click the button below to download your free pattern.
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Why not? The goal is to create a community of people who are interested in sustainable fashion, crafts, and community building. I want people to use their hands to create, and I am happy to share resources that facilitate that.
Selly comes from a character from the YA series Ilses of the Gods. Not only did I read this series while making these cushions, I also saw so much of young Selly’s sailor and whimsical influences in the stripe pattern and color choices.
A note about fit:
you can make this pattern to whatever dimensions you wish. I included at 3/8” seam allowance in all of my pattern pieces with the intention that the piece with the seam would be 1/8” smaller than the actual cushion insert. This creates a snug fit and keeps your cushion cover from sliding around when you sit.
The math to adjust your pattern pieces is as follows:
(measurement of insert) - 2/8” = new measurement of pattern piece
3/8” seam allowance
Adjust all width, and length measurements of your pattern pieces following this formula.
