Rainbow Chenille Cushion Tutorial

This is one of those projects that I’ve had in my head for months now and it just feels so good to finally get it done! This was originally destined for the glider that lives in my sewing room, but the boys have fallen in love with the texture on the chenille and I keep on finding that it’s made its way into their room.

The chenille is quick to sew up, but takes a while to fluff – it’s the kind of project you need to set yourself up in front of the telly with, so allow yourself 1-2 hours to complete the entire project.

You Will Need

Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet cottons, I’ve used a combination of homespun and kona solids – the kona solids fluffed up a lot quicker than the homespun did. You will need about a fat eighth of each, but when you get down to the lower colours (blue/indigo/violet) you can get by with even less OR pre-bought chenille strips, such as Blooming Bias, in the same colours.
Background fabric – enough to cover your cushion, I used seeded homespun from Lincraft. My cushion cover was 15x15inches, so the envelope cushion cover was made using a 15×15 square, and two 11×15 rectangles.
A wire brush
Cutting the fabric will be made a LOT easier by using a rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mat, but they’re not essential.

Full instructions behind the jump…

Creating The Chenille Strips

If you have pre-bought chenille then skip ahead to Creating The Rainbow

1. Cut 3/4inch strips along the bias. You will need enough to make about 3-4 layers, but this doesn’t have to be exact so you can just guesstimate, the strips don’t need to be the full length of your rainbow curve – I’ll cover that later.

2. Keep going until you’ve cut all of your colours, remember that you’ll need less strips as you progress further down the spectrum. I’d advise ironing your fabric better than I did

3. Place your longest strip of each colour on the fabric for the front of your cushion, work out the length of the curve for each colour and trim, keep these separate from your other strips.

4. Using those strips as a guide layer your other strips on top. If there are any that are too short, just overlap them, as circled above. Once they’re fluffed up it won’t be noticeable at all.

5. Stitch down the middle of the strip, the edges don’t need to be perfectly lined up so don’t be too precious with it. I used white thread but if I made it again I would use thread that corresponded to the colour of fabric, as sometimes you still see the white stitches peeking through occasionally.

6. And continue for your remaining colours.

Creating The Rainbow

1. Pin your red strip to your cushion front. Once you’re happy with its placement, attach it to your cushion front by sewing a line straight down the middle, as close as possible to your previous stitches.

2. Repeat for the following colours. The placement now with affect how your finished rainbow looks. I wanted a clear gap in between my arches, but if you want it closer then butt the strips up as close as possible to each other, even overlapping.

3. Once all your strips are attached, you will end up with something like this. Trim the excess chenille strips from the sides.

4. Sew your cushion as you would normally. I’ve used an envelope style, if you’re unsure how to do this please follow my envelope cushion tutorial.

5. Start distressing! To create the chenille you need to dampen the strips and then distress them. I rubbed a wet flannel over them and then started scrubbing with a metal hairbrush from the dollar store. I did that for about fifteen minutes, then put the cushion cover in the washing machine on a hot wash and fast spin, once that had finished I rubbed it for another ten minutes or so and then put it in the dryer to fluff up. This photo is the end result of all of that, and I’m planning on doing it all again to fluff it up even more. It feels like you’re rubbing at it for ages, but I promise the effect and texture is well worth it.