I adored the velvet smocked cushions that my Auntie Muriel had on her bed when I was a child in the 1970s. I used to love running my fingers over the velvet to play with the pile and found the smocked stitching fascinating. The cushions were just so enticing and luxurious that I remember thinking that I would have some on my bed when I was old enough!

I have previously recreated the style of these cushions in a knit design I called Madeleine, which was published in my book ‘Homespun Vintage’, but I have always wanted to create a crochet version too. When creating this project I decided to add pretty bobbles instead of smocked style stitching to make a simple accompaniment to my Gertrude cushion, which features pretty flowers and beads. I have always struggled with the way crochet worked in the round can look like it has a ‘scar’ running through it, so my challenge for this project was to design something that would hide the way slip stitches appear without having to fasten off yarns at the end of every round.

The pattern uses one ball of Stylecraft ReCreate and a small amount of Stylecraft Life DK and the cover is sized to fit a 35cm (14 inch) circular cushion pad.