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There is something quietly satisfying about turning a bundle of leftover fabric into something useful for a favourite armchair. A patchwork cushion is the ideal first project: small enough to finish in an afternoon or two, forgiving of slightly wobbly stitches, and handsome enough to sit proudly on the sofa when visitors call round.

A Simple Kit to Begin With

You need very little to get started, and most of it is probably already in a drawer.

• Needles: hand-sewing "sharps", size 7 to 9. A slightly finer needle makes neater stitches in cotton.
• Thread: 100% cotton or cotton-covered polyester in a neutral shade — mid-grey or oatmeal blends with almost everything.
• Fabric: sixteen squares of cotton, each 12.5cm (5in).
• Scissors: one sharp pair kept strictly for fabric, never for paper.
• Pins or sewing clips, plus a ruler and a card template if you are cutting by hand.
• An iron, a tailor's chalk pencil, and a thimble if you have one. The iron matters more than you think.

Choosing Cotton Scraps That Play Well Together

Wash and press your fabric before you cut. Cotton shrinks, and pre-washing also removes the dressing that makes new cloth feel stiff and slippery.

Aim for six to eight different fabrics rather than sixteen. Plains, small prints, ticking stripes and simple checks all sit happily together; large-scale florals disappear when chopped into small squares. Old shirts, worn pillowcases, pyjama legs and dressmaking offcuts are perfect. Draw your colours from the garden and the hedgerow — faded rose, sage green, oat, soft denim blue, a little brick red — and make sure you have a mix of light, medium and dark so the finished cushion has depth rather than a flat, muddy look.

The Three Stitches You Actually Need

You do not need an encyclopaedia of embroidery. Three stitches will carry you through the whole project.

• Backstitch is your workhorse seam. Bring the needle up through both layers, take a small stitch backwards, then bring the needle up again a little ahead of your last stitch. It is strong, it does not pull apart, and it looks remarkably like a machine stitch when you keep it even. Aim for roughly eight stitches to every 2.5cm.
• Running stitch is a simple in-and-out rhythm, used here for tacking pieces in place and for decorative lines across the finished front.
• Ladder stitch (sometimes called slip stitch) closes a gap invisibly. Work along the folded edges, picking up a thread or two from each side, then draw the thread up gently and the opening disappears.

Finish every line of stitching with two small backstitches or a firm double knot, and trim your ends close.

Cutting and Laying Out Your Squares

Cut sixteen squares, each 12.5cm (5in). With a 1cm seam allowance they will finish at roughly 10.5cm, giving a cushion front of about 42cm — a comfortable, slightly plump fit for a 45cm pad. Cut accurately: draw round a card template and use sharp scissors, or use a rotary cutter and ruler if you have them. Press every square flat before you begin.

Now lay all sixteen out in a four-by-four grid. Shuffle them about until the colours feel balanced and no two identical prints sit side by side. Step back, squint, and take a photograph on your phone — the arrangement will inevitably get disturbed, and the photo saves you from starting again.

Piecing the Squares Together

Work one row at a time. Place two squares right sides together, pin along one edge, and sew with a 1cm seam using backstitch. Do not sew over your pins; take them out as you go. Join four squares into a strip, then make three more strips in the same way.

Press as you work. Press each seam flat first, then press it open or to one side, and alternate the direction from row to row. When you join the strips, those opposing seams will nest together neatly and lock — a small trick that makes matching corners almost effortless. Pin each junction carefully, then sew the rows together.

Give the whole front a final press from the wrong side. Small inconsistencies in your seam allowance will barely show; wildly uneven ones will. Slow, steady stitching beats fast, careless stitching every time.

Making Up the Cushion

An envelope back is the simplest finish and needs no buttons or zips. Cut two rectangles, each about 43cm wide by 30cm deep. On one long edge of each, turn under 1cm, then another 1cm, press, and stitch the hem down. Overlap the two hemmed edges by roughly 10cm and pin them to the cushion front, right sides together, so all the raw edges line up around the outside.

Sew all four sides with a 1cm backstitch. Trim the corners diagonally — close to the stitching but not through it — then turn the cushion right side out, poke the corners out gently with a blunt pencil, and press. Push in a 45cm pad and plump it up.

If you prefer a neat closed cushion, place the front and a single back piece right sides together, sew all the way round leaving a 15cm gap in the bottom edge, turn, insert the pad, and ladder stitch the gap closed by hand.

For a final touch, run three lines of running stitch across the front in a contrasting thread, or a row of tiny stitches around the inside of each square. It is not strictly necessary — but it is quietly lovely, and it will make the cushion look as though it has been in the family for years.