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!
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.
I’ve not used the darning stitch on my machine before now.
It doesn’t mend totally invisibly but far better than a poke in the eye and a fraying 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.
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!
