brocade cushion cover

Part of this concept of using stash is also making space in my studio. I made a cushion cover the other day which got rid of a big puffy cushion. Another cushion has been lurking in here. It had pictures of the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle. It was a bit of a funny from my sis in law a few years ago because it had a cow on it. (I used to collect cows.)

anyway, like the other one, I never got round to doing it because I meant to use it to show how you could just make up a simple cover. But as the course never happened, I never made it. SO, I was sure I had a bit more green brocade left from a Tudor lady costume. I had used some for a cushion in prep for the course. So, it would also go with well for another cushion to go in the lounge.

I used the simple envelope back cushion construction, only I turned the envelope part to the front. I put hooks and eyes to keep it closed.

and then sewed some random buttons from my stash on the outside of where the hooks are. The buttons are for show.

and so another 1/2 yard of fabric used, but also a puffy cushion for my lounge!

Sewing again

Not sure if I mentioned, but I thought I would do a few more of the sew along contests on Pattern Review this year. The current one is about reducing your stash.

I have a lot of fabrics that have been given to me over the years, some I picked up from leavings of members of our Offcuts group. I have decided to use as much of that up as I can, so I can have a bit more room. There are other shelves which are a bit too full. This way I can even have space to rearrange things. But also, I can feel a bit more free to get some fabric to make things I have chosen from start to finish.

So, at the moment, I am busy trimming fat quarters, pairing them up, and beginning to make some little bags I can use for gifts over the year. They will go in the present drawer. I have a couple friends who need to go in hospital soon, for once I will have a nice gift for them! I better not show you too many close ups, in case some of the readers here end up to be recipients at some point!

However, I also made another cushion cover to go in the lounge.

I have had the cushion for ages, since I made the other cushion cover samples for the course that never happened. I had reserved this one for talking about ways to make openings for the cushion to go in. As I was checking out fabric for the bags, I realised the toile de jouy fabric would go with the black and green which I had used on a few other cushions.

Cushion 5

Among other things today, (like arranging some interesting plans for future events for the Thames Valley Contemporary Quilt Group), I also made another cushion.

I am not really pleased with how well the cushion fills the cover, but the zip I used in the centre back was a bit shorter than practical. So, it meant that I had to really compress the cushion to get it in. I might stick it in the dryer to see if it fluffs it up.The fabric strips meet by way of a ring in the centre. It looked a bit plain next to all the other cushions, so I tied on the ribbon. I may not leave it that way.

I took a photo of the other cushions next to the curtains and carpet mainly because I decided to use the photo for an example of monotone (not strictly monotone, but I played with the photo in Paint Shop Pro). But it is also an example of how they look together in the room. My husband gave me a bit of a backward complement about them. He said they are too posh for our lounge!

Cushion 4 - finish

After sitting on my table in a nearly complete state for weeks, I have finally completed Cushion 4.

I am really quite chuffed with this. Not the least because the cover is a pattern I developed on my own...from a not quite right try for a different idea.

The light green is actually the cushion covered tightly with light weight fabric. This one has lining fabric at the back and silk from a charity shop blouse at the front.

The cover is 2 rectangular pieces cut the same for the cover - one for the back

- one for the front which has been cut into quarters diagonally.

The the long edges have been overlocked and turned in about 1/2 in and sewed down. I also sewed an accent satin ribbon along the edge.

The raw edges have been placed, right sides together, along the raw edges of the back piece...matching the corners and overlapping in the centre of each edge as you go around.

Pin and sew, and overlock the edge.

Turn through and press to neaten.

Insert the cushion which has the lightweight fabric, making sure the silk side shows through the aperture.

Choose a motif to go with the cushion colours. Find the centre of the opening and stitch the motif to the silk covered side of the cushion. ( catch the original cover of the cushion pad so that there will not be too much stress on the silk.)

If you have bits of ribbon left from sewing along the edges of the opening, you can stitch them onto the back of the motif to make streamers. I did this to help tie all the colours of green together.

Cushion 4 - centre

Not much progress on the cushion, but I found a butterfly at the market which was just the right colour. It just had the sequins, so blended in a bit too much. So I sewed the beads on over the sequins on the top set of wings.

Here is a detail. I will sew the butterfly on after I finish the cover so I can centre it better.

Today I have been writing up the research for the Fast Friday Fabric challenge for August, as I am the host this time. Of course it is secret til the 28th of August, but should be interesting! How I will get a dragon in there and in 6"x12" size is the question though!

Cushion 4 - start

I have an idea of doing a sort of fabric manipulation with the folded cushion cover concept, but at present, I have been trying to get my head round the maths of how big the fabric has to be to go round the cushion. I have finally worked it out, but only after a bit of trial and error. I have got a zip inserted into a cushion back, though!

However, I have also ended up with pieces that DIDn't work. So, I have stretched the brain a bit to use those pieces and come up with something I like even better. Here is the start. The square has been cut in quarters on the diagonal, and then turned to match the corners. I already had covered the inside cushion on one side with a piece of olive green silk from a charity shop shirt sleeve! When I sew the print fabric together, I can insert the cushion through the diamond aperture. I am thinking of sewing the green ribbon along the stitch lines for hemming those long edges.

I think the olive green wants some sort of black motif, but I haven't worked out just what yet. I need to go to the market tomorrow for thread, so, perhaps I will find something that will work to show in the opening.

cushion 2 and 3

Cushion 2The cushion I had started to cut out from the green brocade is finished. I was trying an idea I saw in a book for an envelope style cushion. They called for a button and button hole, but here is my version of a fastening. The cords wrap round the wooden disks like the old fashioned manilla envelopes. The fabric is decorative enough in its own right, so I thought I would make a feature of the fastening, instead of other embellishment.

For some reason, even though I measured properly and followed directions, the cushion ended up quite a bit more rectangular than I thought it would. There were a few places where it took me a while to understand the directions. So, I will be doing another one to see where the diviation occurred.

However, it looks pretty good. The light bounces off the brocade a bit too much in the photo. My husband thinks it will be uncomfortable to sit against! But I think the wooden bits just push back into the cushion when you sit against them.

Cushion 3

I also wanted to do a cushion with an inserted panel and piping. So I took a piece of dupion which was nearly big enough to go round the cushion form, and then made a ruched panel which I inserted. I also put a zip in the side seam. I am not fond of that method, but I intend to do one with the zip placed differently and thought I could show the difference. Some people need help visualising.

The ruched panel is habotai silk which I tie dyed. It is laid over a leftover piece from Cushion 1, which I showed you yesterday. I am thinking about catching the ruches down with beads, but at present the bumps are just flattened with the iron.

I am actually quite pleased with this cushion. I actually think I do better with things I make up in my head from the available scraps I can find! And maybe because of that, I find it easier to show someone else how to do it. Maybe it is the practice from doing City and Guilds and the work we did about giving construction information for the things we made.

Cushion 1 - finish

Here is the finished Cushion. I used a thick gold thread to stitch long broken lines across the main part of the design.

I won't be teaching this one. I had heard about a Japanese cover technique which involved simple folding and just a few seams. In theory, you should have to unstitch the long seam, should you wish to wash the cover. I thought I would try it out, but of course tried adapting it to see if I could make the back seam into something which could contain a fastener. Although it looks pretty good. It needs more work. I ended up stitching the seam anyway and decided to just leave it for a trial piece. It can work for an example of surface decoration though.

The folding of the corners on the ends of the long seam need some adaptation which I may try to get right sometime in the future. My adjustments also meant that the short seams didn't meet. So, that needs worked on before I feel confident about showing someone else how to do it. Maybe I will come across an article which shows the concept a bit better than what I invisioned from the description.

Cushion 1

A glimpse of what I have been working on... Cushion Samples for the Designer Cushions course. This cover has foiling and paintsticks rubbings. I may do some more linear elements to bring it together, but I will leave it a bit on a skirt hanger on one of the cupboards to see if it wants anything or not. I used a shiny piece of fabric I had that already has a sort of snakeskin effect embossed into it.

The bottom piece will become an envelope cushion cover. I am using green as it will work in my lounge and so I can replace the worn cushion covers I have while having samples.

the one above is a bit posh for my lounge, but perhaps it will be alright when I get the other green ones done.