Felt strip cushion

I completed my felt cushion today and here are a few photos!

I bought the felt strips as a mini roll made by The Button Company, which I found in John Lewis. They come in several colour ways and I chose the aqua/blue one to pick out the colours in the first cushion I made. 

Opposite is a pic of the mini roll from the website,
which seems to have been updated since I bought it,
as it has a dark green felt instead of the dark
blue.






For the piping and back of the cushion I used a turquoise/aqua plain cotton. I positioned the zip close to the edge as I was a little worried that the felt might get stretched when inserting the very plumpious cushion if I had the zip midway down the back. This (I found) was a lot trickier than the previous cushion I made as there are more edges and flaps to contend with! I looked at quite a few tutorials on youtube but in the end I just decided to have a bash and unpick if necessary! Below is a view of the zip end.

Here's a quick guide for sewing the cushion:
1) Sew the felt strips together and iron the seams open
2) Make the piping (this is job in itself!)
3) Attach the piping to the felt or front piece of the cushion using a piping foot
4) Get the back piece of the cushion now and place the two pieces of fabric together, right sides facing and pin in place at the ends on one side.
5) Still with the piping foot, sew 5cm in at each end, attaching the two pieces together and leaving a space for the zipper. Sounds complicated but it isn't, see the diagram below.



6) Using the zipper foot sew the zip on to the felt side by laying the zipper teeth over the piping
7) Sew the other side of the zip on to the cotton back still using the zipper foot
8) Change back to your regular foot and sew the zip down onto the right side of the cotton back of the fabric and across ends the ends of the zip, then snip off the excess zip. This should be a nice straight line as it will be visible.
9) Make sure the zip is open, and pin the front and back together (still inside out!)
10) Using the zipper foot sew the front and back together, along the edge of the piping, starting on the 5cm edge that you sewed earlier. Make sure the fabric with the piping attached is on top so you can sew inside the stitching and then it won't be visible when turned inside out.
11) Turn the cushion inside out, put in a cushion pad and it's finished!