How to Choose an Ikat Cushion Cover: Sizes, Inserts, Cloth

A cushion cover from Uzbekistan is almost always sold as a cover alone, and almost always in one of four sizes: a 50 cm square, a 36 × 58 cm lumbar, a 38 × 40 cm small rectangle, or a 40 × 100 cm bolster. Buy the insert 2–5 cm larger than the cover, not the same size. That one habit decides whether the cushion looks full or looks empty.

The rest of this guide is the detail behind that: which size suits which seat, what the cloth actually is, and what separates a $15 cover from an $80 one.

What size cushion cover should I buy?

Across the 240 ikat covers currently on this site, 180 are 50 × 50 cm and 45 are 51 × 51 cm. Both are the same cushion — 51 cm is the exact conversion of the 20-inch square the covers are cut to, 50 cm the rounded one. Treat them as interchangeable when you shop.

The practical split:

50 × 50 cm square — the default for a sofa back or a bed. Two or three along a three-seater is the usual arrangement.
36 × 58 cm lumbar — sits in the small of the back in an armchair, or breaks up a row of squares. This is the most useful shape and the one most people own too few of.
38 × 40 cm — a small rectangle, near-square. Good on a narrow chair or a window seat where a full 50 cm square would overwhelm.
40 × 100 cm bolster — a long flat cover for the back of a daybed or across the head of a bed. Flat, not cylindrical; a cylindrical roll is a different shape and is measured by diameter.

Two covers here are 38 × 102 cm — over a metre long, filed with the lumbars but really an extra-long shape of their own. Worth knowing they exist if you have a bench to cover.

What size insert do I need?

Go one size up. A 50 × 50 cm cover wants a 55 × 55 cm insert; a 36 × 58 cm lumbar wants roughly 40 × 60 cm. An insert the same size as the cover leaves the corners soft and the middle slack, which is what makes a cushion look tired within a week.

Feather and down give the fullest result and the softest corners. Polyester holds a squarer shape and costs less. Neither is wrong; feather needs plumping, polyester does not.

Every cover on this site is sold as a cover only, with no insert. That is normal for handwoven textiles — posting a stuffed cushion from Uzbekistan would cost more in air freight than the cushion.

What is the cloth, and does it matter?

It matters more than the pattern does, because it decides how the cover wears and how it must be washed.

Of the 240 ikat covers here, 92 are a 50/50 silk-cotton, 50 are pure cotton, 29 are 60/40 and 26 are 70/30 silk-cotton. The remaining 43 are silk-cotton with no ratio recorded — the workshop has not confirmed a figure for those, so we do not state one.

What the ratio changes:

More cotton — matt, sturdier, machine-washable at 30 °C. The sensible choice for a cushion that gets sat on and leaned against daily.
More silk — the pattern edges look sharper and the cloth has a low sheen that shifts with the light. Hand wash or dry-clean. Better on a bed or a chair that is looked at more than used.

All of it is warp ikat: the pattern is tied and dyed into the warp threads before a single row is woven, a process called abrbandi — cloud-binding. That is why the edges of every motif are slightly feathered rather than crisp. A printed imitation has a sharp edge and a blank reverse. A real ikat cover shows the same pattern on both faces, which is also why these covers are reversible.

If you want the full explanation of how the tying works, we wrote one: single ikat or double ikat.

Ikat, velvet or suzani — which should I choose?

Three different textiles, three different jobs.

Ikat cushion covers ($9–42) are the everyday option. Flat woven, reversible, the widest choice of colour, and the only group with covers under $15.

Velvet ikat covers ($37–80) are bakhmal — silk pile raised over rods and cut by hand, with the ikat dyed into the pile warp before weaving. The loom is about 40 cm wide, which is why a cover this size has no join across the pile. They are the most striking cushions in the shop and the least suited to a seat: silk pile crushes where it is sat on and does not fully recover. Put them behind you, not under you.

Suzani cushion covers ($62–98) are hand-embroidered in silk on a cotton ground, in basma couching and yurma chain stitch. Each one is cut from a larger embroidered panel, so no two are the same and none can be repeated — of the 49 on the site, 11 are currently available. If you see one you want, it is genuinely the only one.

The lumbar covers ($15–37) and bolster covers ($34–55) are the same ikat cloth in the two long shapes.

How can I tell a good cover from a cheap one?

Four things to check, in any shop:

Turn it over. A woven ikat shows the pattern on both faces. A print shows it on one.
Find the zip. It should be concealed in the side seam (or, on a suzani cover, across the back). A visible zip sewn onto the face is a shortcut.
Look at the back. On the velvets here the back is handwoven cotton, not a polyester lining — you can feel the difference through the seam.
Ask where the cloth was woven and where the cover was sewn. They are usually not the same place. Ours is woven in Margilan and cut and sewn in our own workshop in Bukhara.

How do I wash it?

Take the insert out first — always, whatever the cloth.

Cotton covers: gentle machine wash at 30 °C. Silk-cotton: hand wash cool, or dry-clean. Velvet: dry-clean by preference; never iron the face, steam it from the reverse and let the pile lift. Suzani: dry-clean, or hand wash alone in cool water without wringing.

Dry everything in the shade. Direct sun is what fades these dyes, not washing. There is more detail in our guide to washing ikat fabric.

Frequently asked questions

Do ikat cushion covers come with the insert?

No. Every cover on this site is sold as a cover only. Inserts are widely available locally and cost far less than shipping a stuffed cushion internationally would.

What insert size fits a 50 × 50 cm cover?

A 55 × 55 cm insert. Going one size up fills the corners and keeps the cushion looking full. A 50 cm insert in a 50 cm cover will look slack within days.

Are ikat cushion covers reversible?

Yes, on the flat woven ikat covers — the pattern is dyed into the threads, so both faces carry the same design. Velvet covers are not: the pile is on the front and the back is handwoven cotton. Suzani covers are not either, being embroidered on one face.

Can I use ikat cushion covers on an outdoor sofa?

No. These are silk and cotton with no weather treatment. Left outside they will fade in sun and rot in damp. Bring them in, or use them indoors only.

Why are two covers in the same design different prices?

Usually size, and sometimes the number of colours. Every additional colour in an ikat is another full round of tying and dyeing the warp before weaving begins, so a four-colour cloth takes materially longer to make than a two-colour one.

What is the difference between a lumbar and a bolster cover?

A lumbar is 36 × 58 cm and sits in the small of your back. A bolster here is 40 × 100 cm, flat, and runs along the back of a daybed or the head of a bed. Cylindrical bolster rolls are a third shape, measured by diameter rather than width.

Is suzani embroidery machine-made?

Not the pieces we sell. Suzani is worked by hand in silk thread on a cotton ground, in couching and chain stitch. Machine-embroidered imitations exist and are recognisable by perfectly even stitch length and a dense, printed-looking reverse.

Will the colours run?

Wash cool and separately the first time, as with any hand-dyed textile. We do not claim natural dyes unless we know a particular piece was dyed that way, and most modern production uses fast synthetic dyes.

How long does delivery take?

Covers in stock are sewn and dispatched from Bukhara within 24 hours, by Uzbekiston Pochtasi tracked airmail. See the shipping and returns page for transit times to your country.

Written by the Alesouk workshop, Bukhara. We weave and sew what we sell; where we do not know something about a piece — a dye, a date, a fibre ratio — we say so on the listing rather than guess.