What You Will Need

Hand-stitching a patchwork cushion cover is one of the most forgiving projects a beginner can take on. There is no fitting, no pattern matching to a body, and if a seam wanders slightly off course, the patchwork hides it beautifully. A finished cushion takes an evening or two in front of the fire, and the only real skill required is a tidy running stitch.

For a 40cm cushion pad, gather the following:

• Sixteen cotton squares, each 12cm — this gives you a 4 x 4 grid. With 1cm seam allowances, the finished front panel is 40cm square.
• Two backing rectangles, roughly 42cm x 23cm each, cut from a plain cotton in a colour you like.
• A 40cm zip, plus a sewing needle (sharps size 7 or 9 work well), cotton thread, fine pins, sharp scissors and an iron.
• A 40cm cushion pad, feather or hollowfibre, whichever you prefer on your chairs.

Wash and press any fabric before you cut it. Cotton shrinks, and you do not want a freshly sewn cover to pucker the first time it meets a warm wash.

Choosing and Cutting Your Scraps

Medium-weight quilting cotton is the ideal choice: it is stable, presses crisply and frays slowly. Avoid jersey, stretch velour and heavy upholstery fabric, which are fiddly to hand-stitch and pull out of shape. Old shirts, worn pillowcases and offcuts from other projects are all fair game.

Aim for six to eight different prints rather than sixteen, repeated across the grid. That repetition is what makes a scrap quilt look considered rather than chaotic. Pick a palette you actually love — soft blues and creams for a calm sitting room, mustard and rust for a hallway chair, faded florals for a bedroom.

Cut carefully so every square is a true 12cm. A rotary cutter and mat make light work of it, but sharp dressmaking scissors and a pencil line are perfectly adequate. Accuracy here saves you a great deal of wrestling later.

The Only Stitches You Really Need

The running stitch is the backbone of hand piecing. Thread your needle with about 40cm of cotton thread, knot the end, and work small, even stitches roughly 2 to 3mm long with a similar gap between them. Instead of pulling the thread through after every stitch, load four or five stitches onto the needle at once and then draw it through. Your seams will be quicker and far more even.

Keep the tension gentle. Pulling the thread tight creates puckers that no amount of pressing will cure.

For seams that will take strain, such as the zip and the outer edges of the cushion, use backstitch. Bring the needle up, take a stitch backwards, then bring it up again a stitch length ahead. It is slower but roughly twice as strong, and it is the stitch to rely on when strength matters more than speed.

Piecing the Patchwork Front

Lay your sixteen squares out on the floor or a table and shuffle them until you are happy. This is the fun part, so take your time. When the arrangement pleases you, take a photograph on your phone so you can replicate it after the pieces are moved.

• Place the first two squares right sides together and pin along one edge.
• Sew a running stitch 1cm from the raw edge, starting and finishing with a couple of backstitches.
• Join all four squares in the top row this way, then repeat for the remaining three rows.
• Press each row with the seams pressed to one side, alternating the direction row by row. This lets the seams "nest" when you join the rows together.
• Now sew the four rows to one another, matching seams carefully and pinning at every junction before you stitch.

Give the whole panel a good press from the back. A crisp, flat panel is the difference between homemade and handmade.

Inserting the Hidden Zip

This is the step that frightens beginners, and it should not. Place your two backing rectangles right sides together. Lay the zip between them along one long edge, with the teeth facing inwards, and pin through all the layers.

Backstitch along the edge, 1cm in, sewing through both fabric layers and the zip tape. When you reach the zip pull, stop with the needle down, slide the pull past it, and continue. Open out the two panels and press the seam allowances flat. The zip vanishes neatly into the join, and you have a back panel with an invisible opening down the middle.

Trim the assembled back to 42cm square, then finish the zip ends with a few firm backstitches so they cannot unravel.

Joining, Turning and Finishing

Open the zip at least halfway — this is essential, because it is how you will turn the cover right side out. Place the patchwork front and the backing right sides together, pin generously all round, and backstitch a 1cm seam along all four sides.

Clip the corners diagonally, close to the stitching but not through it, then turn the cover the right way out through the open zip. Poke the corners out gently with a closed pair of scissors or a knitting needle, and press the whole cushion, easing the seams flat as you go.

Slip in your pad, close the zip, and stand back. Pop it on a favourite armchair, and notice how a handful of leftover scraps have turned into the most cheerful thing in the room.