How to Make a French Mattress Cushion

Mark and cut the foam to the size you want your cushion

Lay the foam on the Dacron padding, wrap the padding around the piece, and trim off any excess padding.

Use a spray adhesive to attach the padding. Spray it onto the foam and lay the padding on top. Make sure the Dacron is laying as flat as possible and isn’t folded over in any spots or you will be able to feel them through your cushion.

Measure and cut two pieces for the top and bottom. This should be the dimensions of your foam plus 1” to both sides to account for the seam allowance.

Then measure and cut the piece that will wrap around the sides of the cushion. If your fabric is wide enough, you may be able to get away with making this one piece of fabric, but I need four.

Each piece should be the length of the side they will be attached to plus 1” by the height of the foam plus 1” for seam allowance.

Start by sewing the side pieces together. Lay the first two out with right sides together and sew up the short side with a half inch seam allowance. Then, take the next two pieces and do the same.

When you have the strip of all four pieces sewn together, pin the open ends of the first and last piece and sew them with right sides together.

Now, pin or clip the side walls to your top piece with right sides together. Make sure the corners match up on all four sides.

Sew around the perimeter.

Then, pin or clip on the bottom piece to the other side of the wall. You are going to sew around the perimeter but leave an opening large enough to insert your foam.

Turn the cushion cover right side out and insert the foam.

Sew the opening shut using an invisible stitch. See our Invisible Stitch Tutorial if you don’t know how.

Mark where you are going to tuft your cushion.

String the button onto a piece of upholstery thread. Put both ends of the thread through the eye of an upholstery needle and stick them through the cushion to the other side.

Then string another button onto one end of the thread. Create a loose knot in the thread and take the other half and stick it through the loop. This will create a slip knot that you can tighten as much as you want.

To secure the button, just create a couple of normal knots around the base and trim the ends down.

Do this to all the places you wanted tufted.

Now, to create that classic French mattress look.

Start by measuring and marking out where you are going to be creating the French mattress roll.

Take a long piece of upholstery thread and string one side through a curved needle.

You can use a regular needle for this step too, but the curved needle is a little easier to create the effect you are going for.

Bring the thread up through the side of the pillow where you marked and out the top.

Then sink the needle back into the fabric at the same place and come out where you originally started.

Create a slip knot the same way as before and pull it tight.

Repeat this around all of the edges of the cushion.