Sushi Cushion to Sew

Here’s a great project from a reader named Susan. She wanted to sew a sushi pillow as a gift for her grandson, and happened across my spirals page while looking for ideas.

I had no idea “sushi pillow” was a thing, but when I googled for it, it looks like many people have made one. This version is a bit different from all the others, so its worth sharing, too.

It’s a different idea from my other spirals. This one’s a simple circle with a circular stripe inside, drawn freehand on a piece of paper like this:

And then cut out all of those black lines. That produces two spiral shapes without seam allowances. So the “rice” is cut from the thicker stripe and the “salmon” from the thinner, adding seam allowance while cutting. There will need to be plenty of marking to be sure the seams line up correctly for sewing.

I haven’t tried this myself. I imagine it might be quite tricky, although Susan made it look easy! I have another idea for embedded spirals like this that I’ll probably try in the future.