Kiki’s vintage cushion cover

When my good friend Kiki asked me to make a cushion cover from her late mother’s Biba skirt, I kind of refused. Big time! I love my friend Kiki so much and would do anything for her but cut up a Biba skirt?! She was going to have to drug me first!!!

She texted to say she was on her way with said skirt. It didn’t look like I had a choice. In fact she was at mine before I got back myself! Mr O had a cuppa on the go. I went straight for the wine. This was going to be painful.

Luckily for me, Kiki gets things muddled all the time. (I really should write a dictionary of exclusive Kiki words and terms. I’m sure it would be a best-seller!) What she meant was that the skirt was a Biba-esque-style maxi skirt that her mum had hand-made in the 70s. She couldn’t see herself in it and to be honest, neither of us could get it over our thighs!

Jean's original skirt

Well. That was a relief but still didn’t make for easy cutting up. But I warmed to the idea that Kiki would get daily pleasure from it being on her sofa instead of folding it away in the attic forever.

There’s quite a lot of fabric going on in a maxi A-line skirt. Plenty enough for a 50cm cushion pad!

But there was a moth-hole. Typically right in the middle of where I needed to cut.

moth hole

I’ve not used the darning stitch on my machine before now.

darning stitch

It doesn’t mend totally invisibly but far better than a poke in the eye and a fraying hole!

darned hole

Nothing complicated about the cushion cover itself. Just two squares. Zipper sewn to top edges first. Seamed all round. And Bob’s yer uncle!

Such a great geometric design on this fabric. It’s great quality cotton furnishing fabric of some kind.

geometric fabric detail

And I have to say – I think it looks great on my sofa! Kiki can take as long as she likes coming to collect it!

finished cushion

0 Replies to “Kiki’s vintage cushion cover”

  1. The cushion is great and does look good on your sofa. What a lovely way to remember someone very special and what a special friend Kiki has in you Janene.

    1. Thank you Karen. Its like the button hole function. I still can never remember at what point it starts or finishes. Joy when you get ‘hole in one’!

    1. Thank you MET. It certainly does have something special in it. Even though I never saw Jean wear this skirt I did feel quite emotional working with it. Haven’t managed to throw the last scraps of it away either. Going to have to think of something clever for those. The zip will go into one of my own skirts!

  2. Very nice! I love it when people re-purpose curtains and larger than huge skirts/dresses to make other items. And, the darning stitch worked out well! I cannot see the hole in the fabric, at least in the pics.

    1. Thank you. It is very satisfying, I have to say. There would be a bigger green warrior inside me if I didn’t have the temptation of 14 or so fabric shops up the road!

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