Latch-hook Fox Cushion

I loved making this latch-hook kit from Hobbycraft. It's been five years since I completed my last latch-hook project but it's a craft that I will keep coming back to. It's relaxing, simple and satisfying. I have to be honest though, I was not keen on the printed canvas for this project. It was not accurate and could be distracting when following the pattern. In addition, I ran out of wool in one colour before I'd completed the project and so had to adjust the design slightly. Still, it was well worth the money I paid for it (on offer at half price) and Jessica is thrilled with her new cushion so I'd definitely consider doing more of them in the future.

10 minute cushion

During these past few years I have occasionally (ok, often) felt a bit of a longing to be able to do more of my own crafts again. Being a full-time Mum is fantastic, I love it but it is exactly that, full-time 24-7. When I've had this itch to get on with my own things it has needed to be addressed rapidly with a quick-fix-craft. What better way to satisfy my need to make something than to spend just 10 minutes making a cushion? Honestly, 10 minutes. Here's the one from yesterday (probably should have ironed it first!)...

The fabric is upholstery weight from Dunelm Mill, chosen by Jessica. It comes with a height of 55 inches, which I don't trim down. It's better to have too much fabric than too little especially as I leave the edges raw on the inside of the cushion covers. I was making a cover for a 20 inch cushion pad so aiming for a finished cover of 18 inch square for pleasant puffiness! So, here's the details:

1. I cut a strip of fabric a width of 20 inches allowing for the 18 inches for the pad and a generous inch seam on each side.

2. I folded my fabric like a concertina ensuring that the middle section was 18 inches high, right sides of fabric were together and that there was a good overlap on top. It's easiest to show this using a piece of paper. The green side represents the front of the fabric...

3. I pin the fabric in place and run both sides through my sewing machine using a straight stitch.

4. I turn the cover the right way out and stuff with the cushion.

5. To secure the cover I use three KAM snaps, which I have raved about enough so here are a few pictures of the equipment and the process.

 

Voila, one simple cushion fit for any bed or sofa.

Here are a few others I've made over the last few years although admittedly not all of them were 10 minute wonders!...

Katryn's Cushions

During Katryn's summer visit last year she convinced me (it didn't take much) to teach her how to use a sewing machine. I will admit that I only taught her as much as she needed to know and I wasn't massively thorough in my tutorials but she left feeling confident enough to take my first sewing machine back home with her. 

She jumped straight in and made this beautiful striped bolster cushion as her first project...

... and this was her second...

She did really well, picked up the basics quickly and was determined to do it as independently as possible. I was very proud of her. She got a great deal of satisfaction from making something from scratch and Archie is now desperate to learn how to use it too! He was a lovely little helper when I was making Dad some new curtains recently.

Window Seat 3

That’s it. I have delivered the library’s third and final window seat this afternoon. As promised, this one features the iconic image of the building that adorns so many of the school banners. I decided to use two trees in the design to link each of the three seats and felt they needed a date to serve as a reminder of when the pieces joined the library. I have thoroughly enjoyed making them but, if I’m honest, I’m also not too sorry to bid farewell to this big project!

Window Seat 2

Here is WCHS’s second new window seat for the library, which I delivered and installed today. Just one to go and I’m feeling really sad about it. Given that we’re in the middle of a move to Colchester 57 miles away, I think this will probably be the last thing I do for the school that has played such a huge role in my life for the past decade. This project really does mark the end of an era [big sigh]. At least my banner and window seats will live on!

The design for this one was suggested by the new librarian. It’s quite similar to the first, which featured two trees, the WCHS logo and the Essex shield but I really like it. The third is going to be an image of the front of the school building, which is an iconic image that adorns many a banner around the school. It seems particularly appropriate to make a seat featuring the historical part of the building with the borough’s plans to expand the school in the future.

Window Seat 1

Woodford’s library is currently undergoing a facelift, which has included the installation of three new window seats. I was (happily) roped in to making seat pads for them and have finally finished the first. It replicates the design on a fireplace guard in the library. The Essex emblem and trees are blanket stitched felt and the WCHS logo is stitched directly onto the fabric with embroidery cotton. Here it is in situ…

Apologies for the poor photos, I only had my phone with me!

Woodland Ribbon Cushion

This is my second project with this stunning fabric from Dunelm Mill. It’s upholstery weight fabric and comes in at £8.99 per metre (140cm wide).  I wanted to make a cushion that was obviously for Jessica so I decided to attach ribbons to the sides of it. It’s just a bit of fun really. David was a little concerned that I had more than thirty different ribbons in my collection to choose from though! I only used 29 of them in this project. I have used three poppers on the back as usual as you can see in the final image.

  

PVC Cushion

I bought a load of cow PVC (under £3 a metre) from Dunelm Mill to make Sarah a bag, which I will post about tomorrow, and decided to make a cushion too. I whipped it up pretty quickly and was impressed how well my sewing machine dealt with the fabric. The “MOO” is made from felt that I bondawebbed to make it more rigid but then attached with fabric glue to avoid any ironing PVC incidents. The envelope style cover is secured with three brightly coloured poppers on the back and was beautifully made (if I do say so myself). However, Archie soon discovered that it makes a good noise (not quite whoopee cushion standard but not far off) if you jump on it. By the time it made it to Sarah’s house one of the seams had split open. I must think these things through more carefully in the future!

Number Cushion

The inspiration behind this cushion came from an A-Z quilt in one of my mother-in-law’s crafting books. I’ve still never made a quilt and have not used blanket stitch before either so I thought I’d practise on a number cushion first. If I was going to do it again I think I would make the panels slightly smaller and border the lot before backing it but in general I’m really happy with the result.

Here are the steps I took to create the piece:

1. My cushion was 18 inch square so I cut each individual square for the patchwork to 7 inches allowing for a half an inch seam on all four sides.

2. I traced the letters back to front onto bondaweb and fused it to my fabrics with an iron.

3. Each number was cut out, placed in the centre of the individual squares and fused in place with an iron.

4. I blanket stitched each letter in place for decoration and security using two strands of embroidery silk in various colours.

5. I machined the patchwork doing a row at a time then stitching the rows together making sure that I ironed the seams open each time.

6. I cut a piece of yellow fabric 19 by 22 inches and split it somewhere along the longest side to create two rectangles each with a 19 inch side for the back panel.

7. I pinned the two rectangles to the front of the numbers, one to the top and the other to the bottom. Then folded the inside edges back to make the edges tidy but leaving an overlap for fastening.

8. I machined all four edges then turned the cushion cover the right way out.

9. I attached three poppers to the overlapped edges on the back to create a secure fastening to the cushion case after putting the cushion inside to ensure that they sit right when the cover is all plumped up.

Here’s a closer look at some of the parts:

     

Cushion to match curtains

I needed 10 minutes of stress relief at some point last week and had ordered four cushion pads from Amazon so I decided to knock up a cushion for Jessica’s room to match her curtains. I give her at least one feed a day in her bedroom at the moment so we have an armchair in the room that was crying out for something like this. It genuinely only took me 10 minutes because of the wonder of the KAM snap pliers. They really are brilliant!

That’s the set…

I managed to make two of the cushions perfect mirror images of each other and the third one (the one on top) is unique. I like the last one that I made the most but altogether I think they make a lovely set for Mum and Dad’s chocolate coloured sofa.

First of Three Cushions for Mum and Dad

With all this time on my hands (yeah right!), Mum and Dad asked me to make them a set of three 43cm square cushions for their sofa. So, last time I was in Wales, Mum, Sarah and I popped into Dunelm Mill and picked up some fabric. This was not a cheap option with the set of covers alone costing Mum £22 but it’s beautiful fabric perfect for the purpose. Having said that, it’s a double layered fabric with all sorts of textures and materials so it wasn’t trivial to sew. At times I was machining 8 layers of fabric in this design.

I’ve made an envelope style cover binding the top and bottom of the rectangle of fabric before stitching the sides. I then attached three poppers using my new KAM snap pliers that I had for my birthday. You can see them on the bottom photo that shows the back of the cushion. Fingers crossed that the other two come out as well because I’m really pleased with this one!

Summer’s here

So, British Summer Time has arrived and my kite is still about 25 hours from completion but I keep moving forward.

I bought Mum a new bench for the garden at the end of the summer last year and finally got around to making her a cushion for it yesterday. I stitched a zip into it and really wish I’d done the same for my beanbag the other week. Ah well, I live and learn. Anyway, here’s the cushion, which is made of the toughest fabric I own…

Today I managed a four and a quarter session on the kite but it doesn’t look too different from the last time I posted it :¬(

Hummingbird cushion

My second attempt at making a beaded cushion was much more successful than the first. This was entirely due to transferring the pattern onto tissue paper (rather than using standard plain paper) and stitching through this onto my fabric. The tissue paper was very easy to remove and didn’t put the stiches under any pressure.

Once the tissue paper was removed I attached four widths of some complementary fabric around the design. I had a few issues with this fabric as it frayed incredibly easily and I had fears that it would tangle my sewing machine but I got there in the end.

Finally, I backed the cushion with a yellow fabric that matches the flowers in the border and stuffed it nice and plump. I’m thrilled with the result and can’t wait to hand it over as a thirtieth birthday present.

To accompany the present I made a very quick card…

Christmas cushion

After the weekend’s failures I felt I needed to get back on the horse and get back into my comfort zone making a cushion. However, I am an ambitious person so I thought I’d have a go at beading onto my fabric before making it into a dinky little cushion…

I used a beaded snowflake design from Stitching Cards which I pinned to my fabric before beginning the beading by hand. This took a couple of hours or so but the worst job was yet to come…

Unfortunately I had not thought this through thoroughly enough. My paper was fairly thick and tearing it off the fabric proved very tricky. In the end I had to wet the paper to make any progress and did split one thread in the process of removing the paper. After patching it up and pulling the damp fabric tight the piece looked like this:

The following day I chose another fabric with which to border and back my little cushion. I’m really pleased with the end result although it is probably quite fragile. It’s roughly 16cm square and makes the perfect present for someone special.