How to Make a Zafu and Zabuton

Posted by Som Tue, 14 Mar 2006 01:37:00 GMT

Whether you're looking for some comfortable, casual seating or you want to make your meditation sessions more pleasant, a zafu and zabuton are wonderful things to have around the house. Zafu and zabuton are traditional Japanese cushions used for meditation; the zafu is a circular pillow with pleated sides, and the zabuton is pretty much just a large, flat pillow. You can order them online for $40+ each, but it's cheaper and more satisfying to make your own at home.

(I don't have the best meditation posture, but you get the idea of how the cushions work. The zabuton is a little small for me, because this is one I made for a friend who's shorter than I am.)

The zafu elevates and cushions the pelvis, and the zabuton cushions the knees and ankles. This position facilitates better posture, eases joint and back pain, and may help one achieve deeper, longer meditation sessions. As long as you're making one set, why not make two? Keep the extra set for guests, give it to a friend who meditates or has back problems, or donate it to your local Zen center or Buddhist temple.

About the materials: I chose to use a cotton/polyester blend for these because it's cheap and easy to clean with a wet rag; these aren't something you can just throw in the washing machine. When I'm more settled in my meditation practice, I'll probably make another set out of some heavy silk, perhaps adding some colorful embroidery or sashiko stitching.

As for filler, I used organic pillow-grade buckwheat hulls for the zafu and plain ol' polyester stuffing for the zabuton. Kapok would be a better choice for both, but it's fairly expensive. Manna Harvest sells organic buckwheat hulls for $8.95US/5 lbs. The only US source for kapok I could find is Carolina Morning Designs, and their prices are pretty high. From what I hear about kapok, though, it's probably worth the price.

Click below for full instructions on how to make the zafu and zabuton.

Zafu

Materials:

• Cotton/polyester blend fabric, 2 yards (note: 2 yards is enough for two zafu)
• Pillow-grade buckwheat hulls, 5 lbs.
• Zipper
• Sewing thread
• Sewing machine
• Hand-sewing needle, pins, scissors
• Iron, ironing board, and water spray bottle

You can download PDF instructions for making your own zafu here. That's what I started with, but I had to tweak it a little for my own use. I recommend downloading it even if you're going to use my instructions, as the illustrations in the PDF are quite helpful.

Cut a strip of fabric 65" x 7" (there are a few extra inches in the length for fudging purposes.) Cut two circles 13" in diameter - I used a 13" round serving plate for my template, but you could also make from cardboard using a compass and a pencil.

Pleat the long strip of fabric: measure 4.5" inches from one end and mark. Make two more marks 3/4" from the first. Measuring from your center mark, repeat the process every 4" until you have 14 pleats marked. Fold, iron, and pin the pleats (since the iron setting for polyester blends usually isn't high enough for steam, use a water spray bottle for best results.)

On the end you started pleating at, fold back the fabric 1/2" and iron. Begin pinning the strip of fabric around one of the fabric circles. When you get to the end, you'll have a few extra inches of fabric. Fold back and iron. Pin your zipper in place on the folded ends of the fabric, making sure to cut and secure the zipper at least 1" away from the top and bottom of the fabric to allow room for sewing. Use the sewing machine and a zipper foot to sew the zipper in place; hand-stitch the remaining seam of the side strip width. Trim the extra fabric behind the zipper.

Using the sewing machine, stitch the side fabric strip to the first circle of fabric with a 3/8" seam allowance. Then pin and sew to the second circle. Trim the extra thread, remove any remaining pins, and turn the pillow.

Stuff as much buckwheat hull as you can into the pillow. This is a little tricky, as buckwheat hulls are tiny and quite devious. Also, they really hurt under bare feet. Fill it as much as you can, shake it down, and fill some more. I used almost all of the 5 lbs. of buckwheat hulls I purchased. Once it's full, try it out. You may find that you'd be more comfortable with more or less filling - hence the zipper. (And, I'll admit, I'm terrible at blindstitching. The zipper is my way of cheating.)

If you want to make your circles a different diameter, here is how you calculate where to place your pleats and how long a strip of fabric you need: Multiply the diameter of your fabric circle by pi (3.14159.) This will give you the circumference; for a 13" diameter, I got a 40.84" circumference. Add 1" for the zipper seams (=41.84".) For 14 pleats, each 3/4" and using 1 1/2" of fabric, add 21" (=62.84".) Add a couple of inches for fudging purposes, so you'll be sure not to run out of fabric and have to start all over again (=65".)

To determine where to put your pleats, take the length of your fabric strip, minus the 1" of seam allowance and 2" or so for fudging allowance (in my case, 62".) Divide by 15 (=4.13".) Round off as best you can (=4".) Remember to add your 1/2" seam allowance for the measurement before the first pleat (=4 1/2".)

Zabuton

Materials:

• Cotton/polyester blend fabric, 1 1/2 yards
• Polyester, cotton, or kapok stuffing, ~2 lbs.
• Sewing thread, machine, etc.

Cut two rectangles of fabric, 32 1/2" x 27 1/2" (if you're over 6' tall, add a few inches to both dimensions. You need it to be big enough to accomodate you when sitting crosslegged with your knees comfortably cushioned on the zabuton.) Note: Cutting a straight line that long can be difficult. In order to make sure that my cuts are indeed straight, and that I end up with 90^o angles, I use the pulled thread method for cutting straight lines in fabric.

Pin the rectangles together and stitch around the edges with a 3/8" seam allowance, leaving an opening about 4" wide on one side for turning and stuffing. Make sure to backstitch at the corners and on both sides of the opening. If you like, you can stitch a small curve on the edges or add a rise, but it's not necessary.

Turn and stuff. A word about polyester stuffing: it's tempting to just grab wads of stuffing and jam it in there without a care in the world, but you'll end up with a lumpy, unusable pillow. Take the time to do it right. Grab a handful of stuffing and pinch off little pieces. You can make a big pile of pinched stuffing and then stuff the pillow by the handful. You'll use a lot less stuffing this way, and your zabuton will be nice and fluffy - not lumpy.

Once the zabuton is stuffed to your liking (I stuffed to about a 2" rise,) stitch the opening shut. To keep the stuffing from shifting about too much, tuft the zabuton. I added four tufts, each about 8" from the corners toward the center of the pillow. To tuft, take a sewing needle and a 18" length of thread. Double your thread and pierce both layers of the pillow; pull the needle through, but leave a few inches of thread on top. Bring the needle back through both layers of pillow near the first stitch. Pull both ends of the thread tight and tie it off carefully. Clip the extra thread.

...and you're done! A few hours of work yields a very comfortable place to sit and meditate, read, watch teevee, knit, whatever.

Questions? Comments? Leave a comment, or e-mail me (contact information available under the "About Me" link in the sidebar.)

Addendum 8/3/06: How to add a rise to the zabuton:

A rise is just a little way of working the corner seams so that the zabuton pillow is more three-dimensional. This allows you to stuff a thicker pillow, and it looks pretty nice, too. It's very simple. The photos below aren't an entire pillow, just a small scrap of fabric that I used to illustrate how to add the rise. Here's how to do it:

1. Begin by stitching the two pieces of fabric together as you normally would.

2. Pick up the fabric and shift it so that at one corner, the seams are lined up, one on top of the other. Pin.

3. Use a measuring tape and chalk to mark where you want the rise line to be. I wanted a 2.5" rise, as you can see in the picture. Try to make sure that the chalk line is perpendicular to the stitched seam (mine turned out a little crooked.)

4. Stitch along the marked line.

This is what the corner will look like when you've finished stitching the rise.

5. Clip the excess fabric off the corner of the seam. Repeat steps 2-5 with the other three corners of your zabuton. Remember to measure and mark each rise to the same height - 2.5" in this case.

This is what the finished rise will look like from the outside when it's stuffed. Nice, no? ...okay, this one's wonky because it's only one corner of a pillow, and it's not actually stuffed (I used a blanket,) but you get the idea. You probably have a pillow with a rise like this somewhere around the house.

As always, if this tutorial needs clarifying, just drop me a line and let me know. Happy stitching!