Turn your children into aspiring interior designers with these fun Funky Furnishings lessons! Children will research, analyse, design, make and evaluate a ‘funky’ cushion cover, using their developing knowledge of and skills in a variety of sewing techniques for joining and decorating fabric.

This complete series of lessons covers cushions, joining techniques, decorations, fastening and making a furnishing product. This downloadable series of lessons includes lesson plans, slideshow presentations and printable teaching resources.

Investigating Cushions

In this first lesson, children learn more about the history of the product that they will be making. As a class, they begin to analyse a range of cushions based on their functional and aesthetic features. In their independent activities, children either further analyse a cushion, or match up different products to people, depending on the user’s needs.

Joining Techniques

How can we join two pieces of fabric together? In this lesson, children investigate the different sewing stitches that can be used. They learn about the right and wrong sides of fabric, and how to secure their first and last stitches with a knot. In their independent activities, children explore a range of either hidden or visible stitches, and discuss which would be the most suitable when making their cushion cover.

Decorative Sewing Skills

What does ‘aesthetically pleasing’ mean? As a class, children discuss the different ways in which cushions can be made visually appealing. In their independent activities, children explore how the use of adornments and the skills of embroidery and appliqué can be used to decorate a cushion cover.

Fastenings

How can we create a fastening for our cushion cover? In this lesson, children explore the different fastenings that they could use in their design, and discuss them in terms of secureness, durability and aesthetics. They practise creating a fastening using either an envelope fold, snap fasteners or buttons.

Time to Design!

In this lesson, children combine their knowledge of joining techniques, decorative sewing skills and fastenings to design their own cushion cover. They are encouraged to think through the different steps of the making process, and plan ahead for any of the aspects that they might find challenging. In the alternate activity, each child designs an individual patch for a class patchwork cushion.

Making and Evaluating

In this final lesson, children make their cushion cover. They are encouraged to regularly check their design, and make changes to it if necessary. Once their cushion cover is completed, children evaluate their finished product by answering a range of thought-provoking questions.