Tortured Tucks – A simple way to add texture to your day.

Ahhhh throw cushion, the lazy person’s way to add personality to any room :-). Seriously it can take you as little as 30 minutes to whip up a cushion and it adds instant character to any space. Easy makeover tools EVER! So when it came to injecting some life into the guest bed/mega hidden storage/general dumping ground for whatever project I am mid-stream, cushions seemed like the only option.

For the most part I needed a purely practical cushion, you know, the kind that don’t mind having a whole ton of stuff dumped on them on a daily bases. But there is a little room for pretty as well as functional here (as there should always be in life, I say!). As I already had the fabric I wanted to use in my stash, and applique or adding elements didn’t appeal for this job, I decided that tucks were the way to go.

Now there are many ways to do tucks, but to me the easiest way is with the BERNINA ¼ foot (either #37, #57 or #97 depending on preference). I find this makes the perfect size, big enough to be noticed, small enough so they don’t look like pleats. Plus the foot makes it so simple, just run the folded edge alongside of the edge for perfectly even tucks.

So what makes the tucks tortured? Well after you stitch all rows (8 tucks, 1.5”inch apart) you then stitch them down. Start with your tucks running horizontal and as you stitch down, press the tucks up under the foot.

On the next row as you stitch down push the tuck away from the foot, so it’s going in the opposite direction.

Here’s a good tip for keeping your stitching rows even, attach the BERNINA seam guild and set it to your desired distance (I used 1”inch).

If you keep stitching one row up and then down, it gives you a great “zig zag” pattern that adds instant texture and frankly looks way more complicated than it actually is. I do always love it when people think I’m really talented for doing something that was crazy easy and only took ½ an hour tops. Makes up for all those times people don’t appreciate the time some projects can take 🙂

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