How much yarn for a crochet cushion cover? By pad size

The quick answer, by pad size

Find your pad size in the table. Use the higher figure for an envelope or button-band back, or a cover in several colours. The lower figure suits a cover made a little smaller than the pad. If your pattern gives its own quantity, go with the pattern.

The sizes are ones UK shops sell as standard. John Lewis lists its microfibre pads in 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60cm squares plus 40 × 60cm, and its duck feather pads from 30 × 30cm up to 68 × 68cm (£8 to £16 for the feather range and £9 to £13 for microfibre, checked 1 October 2026). Hobbii sells pads for handmade covers in 42 × 42cm, 50 × 50cm and 30 × 50cm.

Where the numbers come from

We opened each pattern page and noted the pad or cover size, whether the crochet covers one side or both, and the yarn the designer lists. Then we divided the total length by the crocheted area, counting the overlap on envelope backs where the designer gives the piece sizes. Where a designer only gives the pad size, we used the pad’s area. Most quantities are what to buy, rounded up to whole balls, so they lean high.

We haven’t crocheted these cushions. The quantities are the designers’ own, and each pattern is linked at the bottom of the page. Two figures in the table are inflated, and we left them out of the ranges: Dora Does’ Lean on Me cover includes a fold-over flap we couldn’t measure, and The Crochet Swirl lists a full 100g ball of each of four colours.

Front only or both sides

A cushion cover needs about twice the yarn of a single crocheted panel. In our table that makes more difference than switching from DK to aran. HanJan Crochet’s Diamond Bobble cushion is crocheted on the front only and sewn onto a plain 45cm fabric cover, using 400m of cotton. Catherine Crochets’ Winter Forest, also 45cm but crocheted on both sides in aran, uses 784m.

Attic24 backs her crochet cushion fronts with fabric cut from an old jumper, closed with buttons. Jewels and Jones suggests sewing a single crochet panel onto a shop-bought zipped cover. Either way, you halve the yarn and get a back that’s easy to open for washing.

Envelope backs need more than a flat back

An envelope back is made of two pieces that overlap, so the cushion can come out. The overlap costs yarn. Jera’s Jamboree’s 40cm cover has a 40 × 40cm front and two back pieces of 40 × 27cm each. That’s 17.5% more fabric than two flat 40cm squares.

Christa Co Design’s Piazza pillow is worked in one long rectangle that folds over the pad, and Eye Love Knots’ corner-to-corner cover has two back pieces, one 4in taller than the other. If your pattern has an envelope or button band, use the top of the range in the table and check the metres: Jera’s Jamboree’s 40cm cover lists 846m, above the table’s 720m, though that is still 3 balls of Special DK.

Cover size versus pad size

Designers don’t agree on this, so follow your pattern. Some make the cover smaller so it stretches over the pad. Dora Does’ Brickwork pillow is two pieces of about 37.5cm that stretch over a 40cm pad. The Crochet Swirl recommends panels 4 to 5cm smaller than the pad, and made panels of about 25 × 47cm for a 30 × 50cm pad. Cosy Rosie suggests a slightly larger pad for a fuller finish.

Others match the pad exactly. Catherine Crochets’ Winter Flora measures 46 × 46cm and asks for a pad of the same size, and her Asteria cover is 50 × 50cm for a 50cm pad. Eye Love Knots works its covers to the pad size and says they will stretch to fit a pad one inch bigger. John Lewis’s advice runs the same way from the other side: choose a pad the same size as the cover or slightly larger, for a full look. Our table uses the pad area, so a slightly smaller cover will come in under it.

Cushions use yarn at about the same rate as blankets

The four DK cushions we used came out at 1,500 to 2,250 metres per square metre. Our blanket guide found 1,780 to 2,530 for DK blankets. The ranges overlap, so in these patterns a cushion is not a thriftier or hungrier use of yarn than a blanket.

The top of the aran range is a tapestry crochet cover. Catherine Crochets’ Winter Forest carries the unused colour inside the stitches and comes out at 1,940 metres per square metre, while Eye Love Knots’ corner-to-corner covers are 1,130 to 1,190. The chunky cushions sit at 950 to 1,100. They aren’t comparable with the super chunky blankets in the blanket guide, which use a thicker yarn.

Multicolour covers: count whole balls

A cushion is small, so colour changes cost more than the fabric does. Stylecraft’s tartan pattern 9255 works its blanket with two strands of Special DK held together, and the yarn table for the matching cushion cover, for a 40cm pad, lists 1 of each of nine shades. Read as 100g balls, that’s 2,655m on paper, several times what a plain DK cover uses, because each shade has to be bought whole.

Jera’s Jamboree used 300g for three colours, and The Crochet Swirl lists 100g each of four. If you’re using up stash, add up the metres. If you’re buying, round each colour up on its own, then see whether the spare will make a second cushion.

Narrow the range with a weighed square

Crochet one square or a 10cm swatch in your yarn and stitch, then weigh it. Shelley Husband’s method turns the weight into metres: divide the metres on the ball band by the grams, so a 50g ball of 125m gives 2.5 metres per gram. Dora Does uses the same idea and divides by the swatch’s area to get metres per square centimetre.

For a cushion made of motifs, like Shelley Husband’s Bask cover with nine squares on each side, the granny-square planner takes the weight of one square and the number you need, and turns it into balls.

Common questions

Sources and scope

• www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/crochet-cushion-cover/
• www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/crochet-pillow-patterns/
• doradoes.co.uk/portfolio/the-building-blocks-cushion/
• doradoes.co.uk/portfolio/lean-supportive-crochet-cushion-pattern/
• doradoes.co.uk/2020/02/01/how-much-yarn-do-i-need-for-my-crochet-project/
• shelleyhusbandcrochet.com/bask-cushion-cover-free-pattern/
• shelleyhusbandcrochet.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Bask-Cushion-Cover-UK-Terms-by-Shelley-Husband-2015.pdf
• shelleyhusbandcrochet.com/how-much-yarn-do-i-need/
• catherinecrochets.com/asteria-cushion-pattern-release/
• catherinecrochets.com/winter-forest-cushion/
• catherinecrochets.com/winter-flora-tapestry-crochet-cushion/
• thecrochetswirl.com/index.php/cotton-cushion-covers/
• www.hanjancrochet.com/diamond-bobble-cushions-free-crochet-pattern/
• eyeloveknots.com/2019/01/basic-c2c-throw-pillow-free-crochet-pattern.html
• christacodesign.com/2020/08/30/how-to-crochet-an-envelope-pillow-pattern/
• www.cosyrosieuk.co.uk/how-to-crochet-a-square-pillow-cover
• jewelsandjones.com/crochet-chunky-pillow-with-pom-poms-free-pattern/
• www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/patterns/9255/crochet-blanket-and-cushion-cover
• attic24.co.uk/posts/crochet-wooly-jumper-cushion/
• www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-duck-feather-cushion-pad/p112456
• www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-microfibre-cushion-pad/p112183947
• hobbii.co.uk/products/hp-1008059-pillow-42-x-42-cm-16-5-x-16-5-in
• hobbii.co.uk/products/hp-1008060-pillow-50-x-50-cm-19-7-x-19-7-in
• hobbii.co.uk/products/hp-1008058-pillow-30-x-50-cm-11-8-x-19-7-in
• yarnsub.com/yarns/emu/classic_dk
• www.kingcole.com/yarns/cottonsoft-dk/
• www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/yarns/special-dk/
• www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/yarns/special-aran/
• www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/yarns/special-chunky/

Sources checked 1 October 2026. Label facts come from the linked references; worked purchase examples and arithmetic are our own illustrations.