Cushions cushions everywhere

You know how it is right? Every now and then you just need a freshen up - a change around. Overnight I decided it was time for a new duvet cover, a new look in the bedroom. I had to be careful not to have anything too floral, too feminine. I am married to the king of 'blokedom'. Luckily there was a huge sale at the local Briscoes and he needed a new coffee plunger so I was able to get him involved in choosing a suitable duvet cover. And.... it was 50% off. We all like bargins - especially blokes.

Home again with new duvet and coffee plunger. Everyone happy. Or nearly. I decided that it was time to have a few special bits on the bed... cushions. I had never had bed cushions before. I had a wee look through my stash of fabrics and came across 3 fat quarters that had been gifted to me recently. Two for Christmas and one for a previous birthday. I also had a piece of Amy Bulter fabric that I had fallen in love with several years ago that was crying out for a project. Low and behold, all 4 fabrics looked great together.

In the latest Your home and Garden mag there were gorgeous cushions being sold somewhere in Auckland for $89.90. They were 'on trend' and had different fronts from backs. Reversible. 'On trend', yep I could do that. And it wasn't going to cost me a thing apart from cushion inners (also half price) and a couple of invisible zips! Bargin. I am pretty sure the total price for these two cushions was under $20.

I had remembered that when sewing cushion covers to make the outer smaller than the inner. These covers are about 2 inches smaller length and width than the inner. So they are nice and puffy. 

I put the invisible zip on the bottom seam. Its completely invisible and was really easy to pop in. I attached the zip first to the two sides of the cushion and then finished the bottom seam before sewing all the way around the pillow.

This is the first pillow. 

For the gorgeous house fabric, I left it as one piece of fabric. I love the lines that the houses create and the little pops of red colour. Thank you Lisa for your clever choice of fabric.

The sunflower fabric was a Christmas gift from Bridgette. Thanks B! I cut the fabric into 4 equal squares and then sewed them all back together again. I have top stitched the seams to add a bit of detail. I like how the patterns had been broken up and created a new one.

This is the 2nd cushion.

 The top photo has been made with the left overs. Originally this cushion was not going to be reversible but I love the back as much as the front so I have changed my mind. To make each 'scrap' look like it was meant to be there I have also top stitched it around each individual red piece, leaving the sunflower fabric without top stitching.

The bottom picture is sideways. The dandilions should be on the top left, standing tall. This is the same design as the sunflower piece except I have substituted one of the red for the dandelion fabric. Thanks for this gorgeous piece of fabric Ollie - I treasure it. Again I have topstitched each seam to make a wee feature.

And here they are on the bed. They get placed on my reading chair for the night and I have to say, making the bed in the morning is a wee bit more fun.

I wish I had made cushions for the bed years ago - reading on the bed is sooo much more comfortable.

Two projects completed in a week - thinking cap on for my next project.

Happy sewing everyone, A x

Its a MYSTERY...

Quilters' Lane Mystery Quilt 2014

For Christmas I received a very special present. Participation in a mystery quilt. I had been interested in this for about a year and several of the sew club girls had also expressed and interest. My clever mum had remembered me mentioning it so when she rocked up to sign up for the Quilters Lane Mystery Quilt 2014 she booked me on too. Thanks Mum!

The quilt itself being a complete mystery, the only thing you have a choice in is the fabric range you choose. There are about 10 colour ways to choose from. Mum and I are doing different colour ways.Mum chose mine and told me about it for Christmas. I shared this exciting stuff with the sew club girls, 3 of whom also joined the mystery quilt bus. Melissa and I are doing the same colour way so have decided to take turn about sharing our progress.

So, how does it work?   Well, each month starting this month, Feb, for ten months in total, a small package arrives in the letterbox. It contains pre-cut fabric and instructions for what to do with it. At the end of ten months all the mystery quilters get together for a sew day at Quilters Lane and learn how to put it all together.

Last Tuesday, my first package arrived and this is what I unpacked:

My colour way is called Spring Fling and these are 3 of the fabrics that the mystery quilt will have in it.

My first task was to make sure I was sewing 1/4 inch seams. These were stipulated that they must be accurate and the instructions suggested a great way to work this out. I had to cut 3 strips of fabric at 2 1/2 inches wide, sew them together with a 1/4 inch seam. The middle strip should measure exactly 2 inches if I have been accurate.

Phew! Nailed it. I did have help though. My machine has a 37 foot. It is for sewing 1/4 inch seams and lucky for me it was spot on.

That established, I got ready to assemble my first mystery pack.

First job was to sew the wee triangles together to make a two toned square, and then sew them into strips of 5 squares.

The next job was a wee bit more challenging. Thank goodness there are detailed pictures. Lesson learned - check the picture several times before sewing to make sure you have the right bit in the right place. I had to unpick a few times after sewing strips to the wrong side. However, I am very pleased with the results - especially after sharing them with my mum - master quilter - I received great praise. "Lovely points Amber" (whatever that means.) I had better find out.

Each piece has to be labelled so at the end of ten months it can be put together into a quilt top. Here is the total result of package one, February.

I must say, I can't wait til March. Perhaps I will meet the next two fabrics?? Will I be able to piece together a few clues as to how this quilt might look?

Happy summer sewing everyone! A x

New Year... New Skirt?

Happy New Year to all our readers. We hope that you have had a relaxing and restful holiday season.

I have been busy sewing for my mother in law today. Several years ago I made her the Barcelona Skirt by Amy Butler. It is a favourite pattern of mine - I currently have 3!

Anywho, Carol (MIL) asked for another one as she liked wearing hers so much. So shortly after Christmas we took a road trip into Wellington to visit Nancy's. We like to go there every now and then and especially for their sale fabric. Its often gorgeous and only $10 per metre. We found two we liked so got the required two metres. Zips too. All up $45 for two skirts of gorgeous quality quilting cotton.

I am very fussy when I cut out skirts and I save as much material as I possibly can. I knew I could get enough left over for a skirt for Macie too. And that's exactly what I did.

I actually made Macie's first!

I used the Dana Made  - Simple Skirt. Its a fabulous tutorial and lots of fun to do. I love the hem! Its bias tape and super effective. Dana has two suggestions for making the layers less bulky around the waistband and her instructions are super easy to follow.

So Macie had her skirt for about two weeks before Nana did! I had cut Nana's out and overlocked the side and top edges ready to sew and then it sat for 2 weeks on my dinning room table. Today, I was lucky to have Macie go out for several hours in the afternoon so I knuckled down and got them both finished. Two hours later and they were done.

The fabric is two from the same range so they work really well together. The photos here don't really do them justice - I can't find my camera battery recharger so had to take these on the tablet.

Cullen is off right now on his bike with Daddy to deliver them to Nana. Hope she likes them as much as I do!!

Happy sewing in 2014 everyone! A xx

macie makes...

Macie is very keen on sewing. This past week she has been super keen to make something. A bag! While she was at kindy I did a wee etsy search for simple bag/messenger bag patterns. I narrowed the choices to 4 and showed them to her after she arrived home.

Macie was keen on this one, the school house messenger bag. Of course the beauty of many patterns available on etsy is they are available for instant download. Before she could sneeze we had it in the inbox and we were printing out the pattern piece. We were able to follow the pattern on our new tablet too. It was awesome. I love that the patterns have great photos of what to do - she looked at those and matched where we were up to and I read the fine print ;) She could monitor where we were and what was coming next. Great tool for sewing.

We set to looking through her small fabric stash. We didn't have to many big pieces to choose from so we just went with mixing and matching.

Macie is a great wee learner. She controls the machine, foot pedal, reverse, trimming and cutting. She knows what to do at corners. She can speed up and slow down on cue. I put my hand on hers or hers on top of mine to help her learn how to feed the fabric.

And here is the finished product and a very proud wee creator.

Cullen is super keen to have a go too. He wondered if the bag was too girlie... perhaps in those fabrics it is. We have decided to use Star Wars (no surprise there) and denim to create a bag for him. We are going to have a go at making the flap longer - more boyish. I'm sure he will do a cracking job!

Happy summer sewing everyone!
Axx

New patterns to review!

I had a bit of a sewing buzz and have knocked out four dresses over the last couple of days (one night I stayed up till midnight! Gah!).

I whipped up another knit dress for Thea using the Go To Signature Dress pattern - this time I did cap sleeves with ribbing, and an elastic waist.  Again, it sewed up in no time at all.





Amber made Macie a cute wee dress the other week, so I was keen to give it a go too - the Memory Lane Sun Dress.

I made it out of an old vintage sheet that my friend found.  It's very generous sizing - I made Thea the five but extended the straps and the middle part to give her some growing room.

Even though it has a back opening, it slips over her head easily.

Amber also had her eye on the Sally Dress pattern, so I bought it and gave it a go on the weekend.  The first time I made it, it took almost two hours! (That didn't include cutting up).

It used alot of material, and of course I had to overlock all the seams.  I probably wouldn't use quilting cotton again as it's pretty heavy.

I made a size 6 and it slips over her head fine, though I probably should have made it longer.

I also made the Sally Dress in the same sheet - much quicker this time and also the dress is much lighter.

This time for interest I added ric-rac under the bodice and on the pockets.

Whew, a big sewing effort from me!  I think Thea has more dresses than she can wear now! I should probably start sewing for me ;)

Sick day sewing

I am on day four of having the kids at home sick, which means I have missed out on both my Sewing Club, but also my weekly Tuesday morning sewing.

So today I decided to sew, and leave them to their own devices!

Thea hung out with me, cutting up bits of scrap, passing me pins and generally chattering away.  Oscar read in his room (love it when they get to that age!) so I didn't have to resort to a DVD babysitter :)

Today I made one thing for each of them - Thea some shorts and Oscar a new school book bag.

My husband gave me his star wars pillow cases from when he was a child, and as Oscar is still Star Wars mad (as are most of his friends), I thought he would be the envy of his classmates with a book bag.






For Thea, I gave KID Shorts pattern from Made a go - Dana's patterns are so easy to sew and to follow, and this one has heaps of different variations.  I chose the flat front with front pockets version.



I made it in knit so didn't bother finishing the seams - nice and quick for kindy!

Until next time,
Melissa

Who doesn't love yellow?

I found two t-shirts at Save Mart, one was grey/yellow stripe and the other was plain yellow - perfect for a three tier girls dress I had seen from Prudent Baby

So I made a few modifications to the tutorial.  I had to make the pattern bigger (and I made it quite big so will fit for a while), I didn't have enough material to make a lining for the bodice so I needed to finish the edges another way.

Using an existing garment can make sewing quicker as you can use the hems that are already there.  I always hate hemming :)

Around the edges I used fabric from the tshirts to create a binding.  The best thing about knit is you don't have to overlock it!  This is just for kindy so I didn't want to spend too much time on it.  Stretch might be my new favourite fabric ;)

Next up was a jumper for each child as they were running low.  Again I just used what I had - an old merino jersey of mine for Thea, and some merino I picked up at a fair a few years ago.

I used the Flashback Tee pattern again.  I swear, this is my new favourite pattern - so versatile, especially as it goes up to size 10!

For Thea's I wanted to add some colour, so a pink striped pocket on the front 'girlies' it up.

And my cutey seven year old even likes his jumper, and let me take some photos of him!  Pretty unheard of these days...

Both kids are going to wear their new clothes when we pick up nana from the airport tomorrow.

Until next time, Melissa