Charles Rennie Mackintosh tea-towel cushion

I'm lucky enough to live near to two items designed by my favourite architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, but I hadn't visited either of them until last year. One of them is a gravestone he designed, that I wrote about last year, and the other is a mural that has been uncovered in recent years in Dysart Kirk.

Last year there was an open day held at the church, and I headed along for a look. It helps that it's just a few minutes away from one of my regular charity shop haunts! The mural was really beautiful, but unfortunately photography was not allowed. They did have a little stall with some souvenir items for sale, so I bought a lovely tea-towel with the mural design on it, as I was brightening up my kitchen at the time. However it was just too nice to use!

While lying in bed considering cushion ideas (as you do), I had sudden inspiration that I could use the tea-towel that had been hanging unused in my kitchen for a year!

Here's how to create a tea-towel cushion:

1. Make sure that your cushion is small enough to wrap the tea-towel around, with a bit of overlap.

2. Fold to size, and pin up the sides. The ends of the towel should be in the centre, with ideally an inch or two of overlap, but I had less than that.

3. Sew the sides, and trim them with pinking shears.

4. Turn out the right way, iron, and put it on your cushion!

This is such an easy way of making a cushion that I've already ordered another lovely tea-towel that I've fancied for ages, it's from Oscar Francis. It's one that they don't have for sale as a cushion cover themselves at the moment, so I don't feel so bad about doing the cheap cheat's method!