Butterfly Cushion - Free Pattern & Tutorial

Butterfly Cushion Making | Pattern, Cutting, Stitching, Finishing | Cute Cushions | Free Sewing Tutorial.

Finished size: Approx. 22” wide x 14” tall

Requirements

A selection of off cuts to make the wings
13” x 5.5“ for the body
18” x 24“ for the back
8” x 8.5” for the internal wings
Toy filler/stuffing (approx. 600 grams).

Click here to download the patterns

Method

To make your pattern start by cutting out the pattern pieces, sticking the wing and body pieces together as directed on the templates (if you are new to making pattern pieces this way, go to the end of this document for detailed instructions).

The pattern drawn on the wing pieces is just for inspiration.

Start by making up the fabric pieces for the wings. Take a pile of fabric off cuts and sew together at varying angles, we used a mixture of triangle and straight pieces.
Turn your fabric piece over and iron all the seams so that the excess fabric is folded back onto itself (see the second image).

Regularly check your piece against the wing template, if, as in the following example, you find you
are only a small piece short of having a large enough piece of fabric, look at other parts of your
piece and see if there is a part you could cut off and join to the short part.

When your fabric is large enough, iron once more and then cut out your wing piece.
Repeat to create the second wing, remembering to make sure that the wing faces the opposite way
to the first wing.

Now attach the internal wing pieces. The best way to cut these is to take your fabric, and fold in half
(right sides together) and then attach the internal wing piece and cut, you will now have two pieces,
one facing left and one facing right.

Pin the internal wings to the main wing pieces, there is no right or wrong place to put them, but we
put them centrally on the spine.

You can attach these piece in two ways…
a) ironing the pieces onto double sided fabric adhesive, such as heat n bond, and then cutting
round the shapes, peeling the adhesive protective sheet off and ironing into place on the wings.
b) or by pinning into place and using a blanket or zig zag stitch around the edge, ensuring that the
stitch covers the edge of the internal wing. If you do this, you don’t need to sew the spine edge.

Now make the body. Take your fabric and fold it in half length ways. Place the pattern piece on the
fold and cut out x1

Place the body, onto a wing piece, right sides facing, and sew the seam. Now iron the
seam flat, BUT this time so that both raw edges are flat on the wing.

Now repeat on the other side of the body with second wing

If you look at the joins between the wings and body (top and bottom) you will see that the fabric is
loose, sew a small line of zig zag stitches over the two joining fabrics, taking care to keep it close the
edge as you will want this line of stitches to be hidden/covered by the seam you sew next)

Iron your completed front piece and then pin onto your backing fabric, right sides facing.
Sew around the shape, leaving an opening for stuffing (we found the area marked on the image
below best for the gap, as it gives good access to the whole cushion for stuffing and is easy to sew
afterwards)

Trim around the butterfly

BEFORE YOU TURN OUT YOUR BUTTERFLY. Because the antenna are very small we
recommend stuffing them before you turn out the pillow. Use the end of a spoon or knitting needle,
to push the antenna into the body. Then stuff them, you will have to push small amounts of stuffing
in and push them down with a stick or pen, but you will be amazed how much you can fit in such a
small space

DON’T sew them shut, just turn the pillowcase out through the gap you left for stuffing, and iron.

Now stuff the pillow, taking care to push stuffing into the tips of the wings and bottom of the body.

Making Up Pattern Pieces

It is not always possible to print the whole of each pattern piece on one piece of A4. To get round this we split the affected pattern pieces in several smaller pieces, for you to stick together like a jigsaw.
To create your pattern pieces you need to print off all the pieces, this example uses the pieces for our owl, DO NOT CUT THEM OUT YET. First arrange the pieces in the correct order, for this pattern, the top of the body, the top row of is made up of pieces A and B, and the bottom row pieces C and D

Now cut the outside edge of each of the pattern pieces, as shown below

Next line up the pattern pieces, along the dotted, pattern match, lines, taking care to make sure that the pieces are line up on all relevant sides, and tape or glue into place.

Your pattern piece is now ready to go!