COVERING YOUR CUSHIONS

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 25, 28 December 1934, Page 49

COVERING YOUR CUSHIONS

Flowers and Tapestry ‘Work Are Two Ideas : Cover your cushions before. they pecome shabby. A few bright cushions increase twofold the..comfort. and beauty of your rooms. Cushions play an important part in the decoration: scheme of a room, ard the’ restful’ ef: fect ‘which should be the result » agg carefully selected furnishings is ofte either. made or marred by the, cushions chosen to go with: them. Though cushions should: always "be selected with regard to the room and style of furniture with which they are to go, too much cannot be expected of them as a meéans of decoration. Cushions of bright material brighcan up furnishings which are inclined to be sombre, but a number of miscellaneous cushions never look well,. and the effect of too many contrasting colours. dotted about the room is disturbing. When several cushions are piled on a divan it is better taste to make the foundation ones of the same material as the loose cover or upholstery of the divan, and on these place one or two cushions of a different shape and related to the others in colour by means of embroidery or applied trimming.

If the material chosen for the loose covers for: the sitting-room chairs and settee is a boldly patterned cretonne it.is often a mistake to place silk or brocade’ cushions on them. The whole: effect of the room will be more harmonious if the cushions are also made of cretonne, either in a plain colour : or in the same material’piped with linen in a colour selected to match the carpet, curtains, or other furnishing. Another idea for cushions which are to be placed on a flower-patterned: cretenne is to cover them with plain liteén, * matehing the ground colour’ of the cretonne, and to apply flowers made from scraps of the material used for making the covers. . This treatment gives. a particularly good result when the cretonne chosen has a.grey or green ground, and has also a definite pattern of mauve and pink flowers from-.which a neat design can be cut. These pieces are tacked on the cushion and sewn down with satin stitch. A little hand embroidery in stem stitch is a, neat finish. With 14 yards of 36in: material. either a round or square cushion of average size can be covered. A paper pattern should first. be cut from the cushion which is to be covered: then two circles wide enough to cover the cushion and allow for seams. and then a band about 4in, deep, which is to ba set all round the sides to: give the cushion the comfortable mattress shape. The seams may be piped’ to match or with a contrasting colon". If you are going to embroider or applique a design. one side of the cushions

should be worked before making up. Such cushions lend themselves to an endlessvariety of designs, For garden. cushions hessian is an excellent covering material. If you are clever ‘with your fingers this coarse material may be'stencilled, and the design outlined or worked all over in & more simple but none the less effective embroidery cross-stitch Simple flower or garden designs look well, and transfers ate obtainable which work up weil in’ brightly coloured’ wools. . ° »