The hardest part of this project was shopping for scatter cushions in a suitable colour.
I needed some interesting, mostly white cushions for the living room. You know how it goes in the shops: too big, too small, too boring, too expensive, too flowery. Plus I don’t own a sewing machine.
But don’t think finding a plain white cushion was easy. It took about a month! Finally I found the bargain ones pictured above. Let’s just say 3 of them cost me the same as a 5 set of fabric Sharpies, the Rand/Dollar exchange rate not being very favourable, I guess.
Anyhow, this project is self-explanatory. Take the stuffing out of a shop bought cushion. Put a hard surface such as cardboard or a plastic tray inside so the Sharpie doesn’t bleed through. You don’t even have to reverse anything.
And start drawing with a fabric pen. I find that geometrics are generally more idiot-proof to execute and the one I did doesn’t even have to be repeated exactly or require a lot of filling in. The only tip is that you must to try to stay consistent with the size and spacing of the designs. If you need inspiration look at advertisements for carpets or wallpaper in magazines.
I found the other challenge was to keep the design consistent from one cushion to the next. You could circumvent this by doing a completely different design.
Obviously you need to put the stuffing back in once you are done with the drawing. But there they lie on the living-room couch – super exclusive artisanal scatters! And according to the Sharpie wrapping, perfectly washable. Time will tell.
