Smocked round cushion with leaf design

Materials needed

Satin cloth 70 cm x 176 cm
2 big cloth covered buttons

I could not get buttons of the size I wanted. I got plastic disks having 5 cm diameter cut from school badge maker, made two holes using hot nails, passed a thick thread through the holes and tied a knot. I then covered them with sponge sheet and fabric.

Design used -- leaf design. We can use any design we want.
Size of the square used --3cm x 3cm

Mark the graph as shown in the figure leaving 1 cm all around for seams. Squares should come in the center and the parallel lines on the sides. You can do the smocking by just drawing the squares in the middle.I prefer to draw lines at the sides also. We can use these lines as guide lines while pleating. Finish the edges by Zigzag stitches. This stops the edges from fraying and hindering our work while smocking. The squares that are marked along the length (176 cm) should always be of an even number. This decides the circumference of the cushion. The squares marked along the width depend upon the design and thickness of the cushion we want. The length of the parallel line decides the diameter of the cushion.

Join the shorter edges together matching the graph as shown in the figure to form a tube. Do the smocking by joining two points together. This forms a cover for a round cushion

Measure the circumference and width of the smocked tube. Stitch inner cushion of the same size of the smocked piece as illustrated in the figures.
Cover the inner cushion with smocked cover as shown in the figures.

I have used the smocked piece to make a cushion cover and not to make a cushion. By doing so we can smock as many covers as we want and can store them in a small place.We can change them whenever we want by untying the knot that holds the the pleats on one side. Long thread can be used while stitching the pleats and then the extra thread remains after tying cab be pushed in side the opening.By doing so we need not stitch the pleats again. Washing covers is easier than washing cushions.
There is another method in which poly fill is directly filled in the smocked cover and openings are covered with cloth covered buttons.

 

Continued............

 

conrinued............

 

Hi Ramvino
I too had watched the program in Mega TV.I don't like the idea of filling the smoked piece with poly fill.I like change the covers often.How many cushions we can store.I thought stitching covers is the best.Washing also is easy.I have done square cushion cover with leaf design.UT has come out very well ( patting my own back!)In my next post I will post about the method of calculating the material
needed.