sewing up a storm

Well not really a *storm* per se. But it was definately more sewing than I have done in the last 8-9 months.

In fact, come to think of it, it might be the first time the sewing machine has come out all year! How on earth did it get to June? Didn't this year just start???

Anyway, I bought a whole bunch of cushions for our couch about a year or two ago from a charity store. This was at the same as my huge material stash haul, where the lady gave me $1 a bag of whatever material I could put together. Needless to say I filled up BIG.

I came home and made a bunch of cushions. Unfortunately my sewing machine doesn't have a button hole maker, so I improvised by sewing on buttons and then little ribbons that could 'loop' over the buttons.

Worked great in theory, but looked *super* tacky, and on top of which, I'd measured the covers incorrectly so there was lots of empty space, which in turn made the button loops redundant.

I got up the motivation to cut some new proper sized cushion covers a few months ago, and even cut out some funky easy patchwork - strips - so I could try something different.

Then it sort've gathered dust in a corner.

We have guests coming to stay this weekend, and the house really needs to look ship shape. Last night hubby stayed out at a friend's for the evening, so I took advantage of a quiet night at home and got out the sewing machine.

Here's what resulted:

Classy brown bias binding cushions

Close up of pilllow case/cushion cover

In a bid to get around the lack of a button hole maker, I ended up using the pillowcase idea. Where you can slip the cushion inside the cover. I think I still did these two cushion covers a touch too small (you can see the stuffing bulge out of the one on the right), but in all I'm pretty happy with them.

The material is an upholstery type material, and I even put a bit of bias tape trimming on the edge to give it a bit of class. The sewing is pretty ordinary, but I'm pretty proud, nonetheless.

However my favourite by far was this one:

Striped white and blue cushions

It was supposed to be a square cushion. But I seemed to misplace one of the strips I cut. I ended up grabbing another piece of material and just attaching at the end. Somehow or other it turned rectangle instead of square, but I was very surprised by the result. I personally think it looks inspired or at least 'meant' to look the way it is.

Not that it matches with any of our decor. LOL

But the best thing about it? It has a ZIPPER at the back! I've never done zippers before. I had been told I'd need a zipper foot. When I spoke to mum about it she just scoffed at me and said all the clothes she had ever made for me (and she's made a lot) never used a zipper foot. So armed with that information I bravely soldered on and sewed the zipper in.

All in all I'm pretty happy with my sewing. I still have two cushions left - they're much bigger than these.  I have some pretty green flowery type upholstery material sitting around, so I might go and do that tonight!