Warning – Another Cushion Related Post!

It has been 21 days since my last post about cushions so I figure it is OK to do another one.

I made some more great cushion covers over the past few weeks. A while back I made some yellow and grey triangle ones using the great fabric – Stamped by Ellen Luckett Baker. Initially I had thought I would keep them to go on our sofa at home but then I found the blue/green version of the fabric and totally fell for that one as it goes really well with the colour of the feature wall in our living room, so I made a couple of cushion covers out of that (and a couple more to go in the shop.) The yellow and grey version ones are now listed on Etsy.

 

Now taking pride of place on the sofa – you can just about make out the wall in the background!

I also found this really great geometric print fabric. It feels a bit like silk but it is cotton. Backed with a cotton / linen mix navy fabric.

And then tried out this newsprint collage print by Windham fabrics. In my mind the purple background colour was more solid but when it arrived I saw it was more streaky – so it gives it more of a punky type feel. This one is a one fabric wraparound envelope style.

The next one was another same fabric wraparound style in a Michael Miller fabric.

Then I saw this great deer print fabric and found a plain teal kona solids fabric to match.

The final cushion I made using some fabric I had originally bought to use to make a cover for a pillow to make a bed for Sam our rescue cat we got in February. However, he came with his own blanket from his old home, and these days he prefers to sleep either on our bed, on the sofa or on a jute shopping bag, so I thought I would use it for cushion covers instead. I teamed it up with an Essex Linens solid colour fabric in Ruby – again something I had bought to go with something else – a fabric that had a sort of pinky red colour in part of the design but I found the Ruby was actually more orangey than pinky and it went perfectly with the Catnap fabric I had. So it was back to the drawing board to find another fabric for my other project! I think it is tricky when you are buying fabric online when you can’t be 100% sure on whether the colour will match something else, but as I don’t have any decent fabric shops near me I have to rely on buying online. I am tempted to get a Kona Solids colour card to use for when I want to find the right colour for some of the plain backings.

This week I am planning something a little different – some rectangular cushion covers – but using two or three different fabrics on the front and perhaps some ribbon detail. I will be taking a look at what fabric remnants I have and what ribbons that might work well together. I might even try some appliqué! (Steady now Alex!)

 

 

60s Swinger?

So my second doll attempt went something like this…

I started out with some legs, some completely different legs to the pair she ended up with. I then hunted around for some fabric. I seem to be oh so precious (and scared of) my fabrics. I have oodles of gorgeous fat quarters, like a magpie hoarding my treasures. Then it’s like I don’t want to cut them up to actually make things. Then I am scared of using the fabric and potentially messing up what idea is in my head, so nine times out of ten I seem to gravitate towards felt.

This time I thought I would pick a fabric that I was a little unsure about what I might actually use it for as it had a slightly awkward pattern repeat. I had a fat eighth of this red and white geometric print fabric from a lovely selection at Fabric HQ specifically from their fabric stacks.

It seemed like it might work well for a dress so I quickly sketched out a dress shape that would fit across the main section of the geometric print and out came the big scissors! I then realised my little blue legs I had made earlier were not really going to match with this fabric so I went with a new set. I have a mega stash of socks (all clean) to use for various bits and bobs. I did go through a phase of making lots of things out of socks, then my love of felt took over. (Sorry socks). So I found a nice cream one and had at it with said scissors and some red felt for shoes.

I have this lovely soft fine calico from my Mum. She had used it years ago with the idea to do some embroidery with it, but gave it to me a while ago in a bag of little interesting snippets of lace, ribbons and sequins. I had used it to make the arms and face of my lady pirate and it really is just perfect for it. I wanted a softer, paler lip look compared to Ms Pirate so I went with a nice pale rose coloured thread. Out came my trusted felt for her hair and I found some great striped grosgrain ribbon to do bows for her pig tails.

Altogether I think she turned out quite well! She looks like a bit of a 60s party girl with her pale skin, funky dress and long pale legs!

She is on sale in my Etsy shop here.