zen

My friend practices zazen - a sitting posture in zen meditation - so I made him these two cushions named zafu and zabuton.

a monk practicing zazen [ source ]

how to use a zafu and a zabuton [ source ]

This is the zafu I made - you sit on it and it gives you enough height to keep your back straight.

zafu I made

It was very simple to make. I took one long rectangular piece of cloth and two circle pieces. In order to determine the length of the rectangular piece, I calculated the perimeter of the circle using a bit of geometry (2 x 3.14 x radius) and added some length for the overlap. I left this overlap open, and I stuffed the pillow through it. There's no need to stitch this opening closed. I use a lot of filling in order to make it firm for sitting on. I chose the dimensions (radius and height) according to a zafu I saw on sale online - 30 cm diameter (15 cm radius), 14 cm height - and added 1 cm seam allowances.

At first I made a zafu using this tutorial. It was fun to learn how to make a pleated pillow with circle pieces of fabric on the front and back, but it came out h-u-g-e! I will keep it for myself and stencil on it a bit and then show it to you :-)

tutorial for making a pleated zafu that's way too big [ source ]

This is the zabuton I made. It ended up being too fluffy and too small (70 x 70 cm) so I will make another one, filled with a firmer filling (foam maybe) and larger in size (95 x 95 cm)

Luckily, his cat decided to take ownership of the first zabuton, so my work didn't go to waste :-)