Cable Cushion Cover

I spent an afternoon on the holiday Monday in my hot little backyard working on a a cushion cover that I began knitting earlier this year ... I think it was still winter.  I had sewn up both sides of the cushion cover, but I didn't do a very good job, and the sides ended up crooked. And that's how this thing sat until this past weekend. I ripped out all the careful (albeit crooked) seams, and sewed them up all new and straight. I'm really happy with the way this turned out. The large cable down the centre was a lot of work, and I had to keep careful track of each and every row, but it's finished now.

There is one small error, and that is that the button flap folds towards the front and not the back (!!!). But I didn't realize my mistake until I put the buttons on and did 'em up. Darn it. Something I'll have to file under "live and learn" I guess. The buttons I used are from my stash, and they're pretty vintage shell buttons.

I'm going to share a little trick for sewing buttons onto a knit project. Since knitting shifts around so easily, I carefully line up the buttonhole flap to where I want it to be when the cushion cover is closed. Then with needle and a piece of yarn I insert the needle into and out of each buttonhole leaving the yarn loose in between each buttonhole.

Next I snip the yarn in between each buttonhole so that there are two ends marking each place where a button will be sewn.

Carefully open up the cushion cover making sure you don't pull out the yarn ends. And there are now handy markers for each button. Once you line up the button over top of the marker, pull the marker out.

Cut a small square of felt to use on the inside of the cushion cover under each button. This gives the button a bit of an anchor rather than just sewing it onto plain knitting.

I leave long ends on the yarn used in sewing on each button, and then I tie the ends together on the inside using a square knot (left over right and under; right over left and under). Then trim the ends.

Buttons all in a neat straight row ...

Just make sure you made those buttonholes on the front of the cushion cover so the flap folds towards the back of the cushion ... which is where I went wrong ;)

These are the simple, but quite nice buttons.

The backside is a double basketweave pattern

Now I have two lovely cable cushions!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy