Project Make – Sofa Bolster Cushion

I have a sofa bed that I’m currently using as my day-to-day sofa and as a sofa it’s not really that comfortable.  The sofa back drops down to create the sleeping area and when the back is up it has 3 or 4 different setting that you can angle it to on a click mechanism.  I find that the back is not at the right angle for me, it’s either too straight up, or leans too far back for my seating position to be comfy.  The actual seat part of it is too narrow to sit properly on it or even to lounge on either.  I decided that it would be more comfortable to use it in the bed position with the back fully down but this means that the seat area is a bit too wide to sit on and lean back without it feeling a bit awkward.  I decided that what I really needed was some kind of cushion or many cushions that could act as a back rest so, as usual, I looked on Amazon first.  I found some really nice cushions that would work for what I wanted but they were either too expensive or would take forever to arrive so I began to think about other things I could use or if I could make something that would work instead…

I had a few old cushion inserts that I wasn’t using along with a few old duvets and a cover that I liked but wasn’t getting used anymore so I decided to try to make one.

 

Firstly I got the duvets and laid them down on the floor, lined up the edges of them and laid the cushions out on the duvets.  I wanted to wrap the cushions with the duvet so I placed the cushions a little way up from the end of the duvets then folded the duvets over the cushions in order to create a pocket for them to be contained in.

 

I then sewed up the pocket edge using a rough overcast stitch (over and under) that runs from the bottom corner of the pocket to the top.  I did this so that the cushions wouldn’t move around so much and so that everything was a bit more secure.  I didn’t really want the cushions and duvets to unroll once inside the cover.

I then rolled the whole thing up and secured the middle of the roll with another set of stitches in order to stop the whole thing from unravelling.  I also stitched the corners of the duvets down so they didn’t curl up or move about.

Finally, I used an old duvet cover and placed the cushion I’d made into it and folded the cover over and around it.  I wanted to be able to remove the cover and wash it easily in the future or be able to change it over if I wanted to.

Heres the finished project!

I’m really happy with how it turned out.  Making this has meant that I have saved money on buying cushions or even needing to buy a suitable sofa for a while.  I now have a super comfy area to sit and read that I’m able to either sit or lay on and use!

What things have you made that have improved items you own?