Tea Towel Cushions

Now that little Elliot has moved himself to a 4 hourly feeding routine, I am getting a bit more time to work on a few projects around the house, which I am really enjoying!

This week I found these two great cotton tea towels from Bed, Bath and Table. I loved the bright colours on the plain white background and I thought they would be great to add a bit of colour to Rosie's bed.

Best of all, tea towels are MUCH cheaper than buying fabric by the metre and given our limited budget and my passion for updating our cushions more often than needed, this was a great option.

For several years now, I have seen lots of people make cushions out of tea towels in all my favourite home magazines. I always planned to do it myself, but never seemed to have the time to really look around for some that I liked.

I am increasingly finding myself drawn to bright colours lately, but am too scared to commit to anything permanent, like painting walls in bright colours! Instead I am trying to add more 'pops' of colour around the house instead.

If you are planning on making tea towel cushions (or any cushions for that matter), I strongly recommend you prewash the fabric first. This was a tip I learned from my sewing guru, Karen and she was right. The finish is far better when the fabric has been washed as often shrinkage occurs, especially in cotton.

I pulled out my sewing machines on a beautiful sunny afternoon during Elliot's sleep, and whipped these up before the afternoon school pick up. Every time I make something on my machines, I am filled with such a sense of satisfaction at creating something, that I wonder why I don't do it more often.

I made the triangle bunting tea towel into a small rectangular cushion by folding it in half and adding a zip. I wanted a standard square cushion out of the leaf fabric, so had to use some plain linen fabric I already had for the back.

Rosie was thrilled with them when she saw them and I am already on the search for more tea towels... :)

Grey Chevron Cushions

I know that the chevron zip zag pattern is everywhere at the moment, but I couldn't resist indulging in this interiors trend in a small way. I LOVE chevron and fad or not, the bold, structural pattern really appeals to me.

First cushion finished!

Finding chevron fabric in NZ is not as easy as it sounds...finding it at a reasonable price is nigh on impossible. This led me to one of my favourite websites for beautiful handmade products and craft supplies, Etsy. 

Testing them out on the bed

After narrowing down the wide range of choices, I found a great supplier called Bee Yourself Fabrics. The owner, Jan, was super friendly and shipped my yard of grey chevron so quickly that it arrived from the US in a matter of days. Her prices were great, even with postage and one yard was enough for two standard size cushions (45cm x 45cm).

In the nursery, where they were originally made for.

I was feeling particularly tired after work one day last week and really felt like an easy project to take my mind off my long 'to do' list at work...whipping up these cushions was perfect. There is a sense of satisfaction that you get in creating something with your hands that is very therapeutic, for me anyway. They only took a few minutes to make and once they had been filled with my favourite feather inners, I was in love. :)

More Sewing: This Time Thomas Paul 'Hedge' Cushions

I have a mini obsession with the colour yellow at the moment, in addition to my cushion obsession of course. lol. It is with that in mind that I visited Martha's to snare myself some yellow fabric.

Who would have thought this would be so difficult? I didn't. It turned out to be a real challenge to find exactly what I was looking for and there certainly wasn't as much choice as I was hoping for. I did stumble on this gorgeous Thomas Paul 'Hedge' print that I loved though and I snapped up a little of it to make these two cushions.

Thomas Paul is a NYC designer and I love his work. He creates amazing prints and I particularly love the colours in this one. We are currently repainting the walls of our living area from stark cold Resene Double Alabaster to warm and inviting Resene Soapstone and I am hoping these new cushions will tie in nicely.

They are on their lonesome at the moment but I am hoping to source a few more cushions in co-ordinating colours to plump up our sofa a little more. :)

My New Salsa Cushions

I have a thing for cushions and I love the way they transform a room and can give a space a whole new look. In saying that, I really dislike paying a lot for them as you always need several in a similar colour palette and this very quickly adds up to an expensive outlay.

In the last couple of weeks I finally got around to making a few cushions that I have had planned for a while. I like to change the colours in our house often as I get bored easily but the only way to make this cost effective is to make them myself!

I found this remnant at a paint supply store that was closing down about 3 years ago. It was in their clearance bin for $4 and is actually a great quality fabric from a high end UK supplier. I loved the colours and the pattern and have always had plans to make a couple of cushions out of it.

I know, I know, three years is a long time to get around to it but it felt great to finally whip out the machine and give this remnant a new life.

I have sewn a few cushions in my time but due to long stretches in between sewing, I always seem to forget how to insert the zip! I had to consult this You Tube clip to equip myself with some handy hints. :)

These didn't take long to make and I love that they are original and were cheap as chips. At $2 per cushion, it is a great way to give your room a little update. :)

Small World

I have been wanting to give Rosie and Harry's room a more eclectic look and while I was in Newmarket a few days ago I found a gorgeous fabric shop (yes, another one!) tucked away in a dark alley.

They have the most beautiful fabrics and when I saw these I thought they would be perfect for Rosie and Harry.

They are Harlequin fabrics from the UK and are part of their 'Small World' range. They feature people from different cultures all around the world I think they are super cute and great for boys or girls, ideal for littlies who are sharing a room.

I have a very simple plan for these so will share the finished products when I can snatch a few moments with my sewing machine! :)

 

Martha's

I love making furnishings for our home such as cushions and bedding and I am always on the lookout for sources of great fabrics. We don't have a huge choice here in NZ and the nicer options are often expensive as they are usually imported from the UK or USA.

A few months ago I discovered Martha's Furnishing Fabrics in Newmarket and fell in love. :)

If you are after beautiful fabric for any of your home furnishing projects then go no further than Martha's. They are really helpful and also stock the feather cushion inners I love so much.

Check them out for your next furnishing project. :)

Sewing Thread Organisation

I am always looking for creative ways to store my sewing equipment as I know from past experience that the more organised my sewing area is, the more likely it is that I will actually sew. :)

There aren't a lot of ways you can store thread in a creative way but when I saw this thread holder on Trademe, I knew it would work well for me. It was hand made from wood and each level spins and has rods to thread all your reels on.

 

 Rosie volunteered to organise all my thread one afternoon and she decided to sort them into colours for me. :) No more searching for spools in a jumbled drawer, I love this new solution!

My New Vintage Sanderson Cushions

I have been sewing again...finally. I just haven't felt the inspiration to sew in the last few months so many of my ideas have been put on hold for a while. During the school holidays I found a roll of vintage Sanderson fabric in the roof of Mum and Dad's garage and all of a sudden I felt the urge to create! Mum bought this roll of fabric 25 years ago for a project which never eventuated and I was thrilled to put some of it to use.

I grew up with a Mum who loved antiques and rarely bought new furniture. She believed that older furniture had stood the test of time and would continue to do so in the future. Our sofa was 50+ years old and had several coverings in it's time in our house. My sister and I had beautiful hand carved beds in French Provincial style with all the matching furniture. We grew up in Melbourne and on many an occasion we tagged along to antique shops. I really didn't appreciate it at the time but now that I have discovered a love of classic design, I really do!

I decided to make a couple of feature cushions for our bed. I love the retro colours in the fabric and the texture of the fabric is divine. The linen, yellow, green and soft aqua are a great combination and I was even able to use two vintage zips in my covers. The secret to a great cushion is the inner...it has to be feather. Poly inners are very quick to lose their "bounce" and go flat, where as feather inners stay plump for ages. My new "old" cushions deserved new feathers inners. :-)

I was really happy with how they turned out and Mum and Dad enjoyed seeing the fabric being put to use. Finishing these two cushions has inspired me to start making the effort to be a bit more creative in my spare time. The feeling of creating or sewing something new just can't be topped!

As for my cushions, if I had my way I would track down a copy of Tretchikoff's Chinese Girl to go on our wall. These once common prints are so popular and always end up going for loads so at this stage I think my cushions will need to be the star of the show. :-)

Amy Butler Placemats

I have been wanting to make some washable placemats for a while now as I absolutely hate wiping down the table after the kids have eaten. I'm not sure what it is but they make a huge mess and the food always seems to harden and become a nightmare to get off. I figure that with a washable set, all the liquid spills (of which there are many!) will be absorbed and most of the time they will just need a quick shake off and then every few days, a hot wash in the washing machine. I am hoping their McDonalds and Nemo vinyl placemats will no longer be needed now. :-) I bought this Amy Butler 'In Stitches' book at Liberty's in London on our last trip and have read it many times but never done any of the projects. I simplified the pattern a lot (though being a placemat, it wasn't exactly a difficult project) and just used some fabric I already had (Camille, the white backing is made from the fabric I got from the "garage sale" at Nana's!), filled them with a layer of wadding and top-stitched around the edges. Hopefully they can withstand the rigours of messy childhood meatimes!

Accidental PJ's

These are the accidental PJ's as I only realised AFTER making them, that I used the wrong pattern! I was hunting through boxes in the sewing room last night and pulled lots of things out. I found this Treehouse bee fabric to make into PJ's and used what I thought was the 'Dummies' pattern. Turned out I had left some very similar vintage pattern pieces lying around and I accidently cut out the set using those! To be fair, it is very similar but this pair didn't seem quite as easy to make. The neck was a bit trickier this time round. :-) Rose tried them on after lunch today and has been wearing them since, hence the action shots!

Rose's Cath Kidston Inspired Room

After visiting the Cath Kidston store in Guildford, I fell in love with this look. Check out http://www.cathkidston.co.uk/ and absorb the gorgeousness of all things "Cath"! lol. I stumbled upon some Ikea Rosalie 100% cotton fabrics on Trademe, apparently designed by Cath Kidston for Ikea a few years ago. The seller had bought them in the UK for a bedroom project which never happened. They formed the basis for Rose's new bedroom look. I made a duvet cover out of the blue rose fabric and backed it in the pink check fabric. There was enough to make a pillowcase out of the check and rose fabrics. There was several metres of co-ordinating paisley fabric, a small amount of which I made into bunting to hang from the roof. For the past 3 years we have really overdone the whole pink look (Rose's favourite colour, naturally) so I was keen to tone it down just a little. I also picked up an old white candlewick textured bedspread from the Hospice shop and appliqued Rose's name on it in the matching fabrics, to create a rectangular cushion. It certainly wasn't perfect applique but was a fun project anyway. :-)

Sewing Patterns for Dummies...

Yep, this range of patterns sounded like they were made for me so I purchased this simple kids pattern which I thought had a good range of items and was versatile. I used some fabric which I have had for a while now and had always planned to use for PJ's. Based of Eden's aforementioned rose PJ's, this was my attempt to replicate the look. I used the same vintage shorts pattern I used for the upcycled PJ's and used the top from the "Dummies pattern".

All was going well until the top was near completion. I kid you not, this top was ridiculously short! I did think that it looked a bit short when I was cutting it out (I used a Size 5) but I blamed it on my inexperience. Well, if you look at the floral fabric on the top and where it finishes, that was the finished length! I had even hemmed it and was very unhappy with the finished product. I decided that I had to fix it somehow, so resorted to the old faithful "adding on a panel" trick. I toyed with the idea of using the same fabric but I had a very small remnant of pale pink polka dot waffle fabric so decided to use that. I stitched it on and top-stitched it and was so much happier with the longer length. Rose surprised me with her enthusiasm for this new pair of PJ's as I really thought she would prefer the puppy ones, but no, these were chosen to be worn for the first night. lol. I am looking forward to making at least another pair just like this, but with the longer top, of course! :-)