Make a mattress

1. Cut thick foam to size using a craft knife. Trim two pieces of white cotton, 5cm bigger in both directions, and sandwich lightweight wadding between them. Draw a diagonal grid on the back of the sandwich with a pencil, pin the pieces together, and quilt over the guidelines.

2. Create several squares of patterned fabric, 5cm larger than the depth of the foam, and sew together to make a strip long enough to wrap around the sides of the foam with a small overlap. Sew both ends of the strip together and pin to the quilted mattress top, right sides together. Take up any excess fabric in the strip by adding small pleats to the corners. Stitch in place and turn out.

3. Place the mattress cover over the foam and turn over. Fold under the raw edge of the sides to sit level with the depth of the foam. Cut a third piece of white cotton sheeting, 5cm bigger than the foam. Lay over the base of it and tuck the edges in. Pin and oversew the folded edges of the patchwork to the sheeting to completely enclose the foam.

4. Add a rolled edge to the divan by sewing mattress stitch from the top seam to a line 2cm lower all around the edges of the bed. Use a double thickness of strong thread and pull the stitches taut as you work around the perimeter to produce a piping effect.

Stitch a quilt

1. Cut 10, 5cm squares from six different fabrics. Turn the squares 45? as shown and lay out in a repeating pattern to make a rectangle slightly larger than your mattress. Sew the squares together with a 5mm seam allowance and press. Trim away the excess halves of the patchwork squares to create a straight line on all edges.

2. Trim 2cm wide strips of another fabric to make a border around the patchwork. Sew these to the top and bottom edges first, turn out and press, before adding the strips to the left and right sides. Press again and pin to a rectangle of lightweight wadding.

3. Cut several 4cm wide strips of another fabric. Join end to end to make a piece twice as long as the sum of the four sides. Hem 5mm on one long edge and join the short ends to make a ring. Work running stitch to gather up the raw edge and pin around the perimeter of the quilt top. Stitch the frill to the edges of the quilt, sewing through the layer of wadding as you do so.

4. Trim a piece of white cotton 2cm larger than the dimensions of the quilt, excluding the frill. Turn under 1cm on all sides, pin, then slip stitch to the back of the quilt to cover the raw edges. Turn the quilt right side up and topstitch along the seams.

Sew a valance sheet

1. Cut a rectangle of white cotton 10cm larger than the diameter of the mattress. Double hem one short edge. Cut a 5cm wide strip of patterned fabric long enough to fit across the sheet. Fold under 5mm on each long edge, pin and top stitch to the sheet, 7cm down from the hem.

2. Trim three or four 5cm wide strips of the patterned fabric and sew together, end to end, to make one continuous piece twice as long as the total of the three un-hemmed sides of the sheet. Fold under 5mm and hem the short edges and one long side.

3. Pin the raw edge of the strip to the raw edges of the sheet, right sides together. Work from the centre bottom edge out in both directions, pleating the fabric as you go to make a ruffle. Stitch in place and press the seam to the inside. Turn over and top stitch, 2mm in from the original seam.