My Orimono

Olly and I have been married for exactly 11 months today, and I'm just now getting around to making covers for two lovely John Lewis feather cushions that we received as wedding gifts. Now that I have my desk and my own crafting space firmly stamped out a corner of our bedroom, I have no excuse not to finish a few projects that were been sorely neglected during the months that we lived with my mother-in-law. 

I'm really trying to whittle down my crafty stash, and that includes the millions of fabric scraps that I am so reluctant to throw away. I've sewn a few patchwork soccer/footballs for baby friends, and I just learned this week that there is yet another one the way. Fortunately I have until march 2013 to craft up a storm for that little one! 

Another great stash-buster is a DIY version of Anthropologie's famed Orimono cushion. When I was first building my blog a few months ago, I stumbled across many tutorials for Orimono knock-offs on DIY and sewing blogs. My favourite is on the Mad Mim blog, and another great interpretation is found on Mosaic Rose. 

I'm not going to give a tutorial myself, as there are at least half a dozen already on the web. I will say that I would have preferred to embroider a satin stitch around each petal (fabric scrap). My simple machine doesn't have this feature though, so I did a blanket stitch by hand using two strands of embroidery floss. I know this will make the pillow very delicate and the pieces likely to crimp up or fall off over time. So it has been deemed a "show piece" - relegated to the head of the bed as opposed to the sofa. 

I used a sturdy floral bakit for the back of the cushion cover. It's a simple envelope so as not to require any zippers or buttons. And because I made this to be a companion piece to my knitted Trio Chevron Cushion, I trimmed my Orimono with a braid made from Rico Designs Cotton DK in mint (available to purchase here). 

The best part? This project was completely, entirely, 100% free!

The original.