BLOG 314

BLOG 314

This week I have continued to work on the 5 cushions which I have been commissioned to do. The work has been intense but pleasurable because I am surrounded with colour. I constructed the fronts and then put them on wadding and a backing fabric for quilting. I did 5 different designs with a variegated thread.

            Spirals

             Loops

            Leaves

            Clouds

           Flowers

I also inserted a zipper opening at the back. Here’s the method I use.

1 Cut a square of fabric 2” larger than the finished cushion front and cut it in half across the middle. Draw a line 1” from the cut edge on the WS of one of the pieces and then turn under 1/8” seam along the cut edges of both pieces so that they don’t fray.

2 Place and pin the pieces RS together. Use a couple of pins to mark the length of the zip on this line so you know where it is going to start and stop. With a matching thread, start to sew along the marked line with a normal stitch to the first pin, and then increase the length of the stitch to a tacking stitch to the next pin. Finally go back to a normal stitch to finish the line.

                Variable stitch

3 Press the seam open on the WS and pin the zip in place centrally along the sewn seam.

                 Position and pin

4 Sew tacking stitches as close as possible to the zip to hold it in place and then remove the pins.

             Tacking

5 Put a zipper foot on your machine and adjust the needle position. Sew on the RS of the fabric, outside of the line of tacking stitches.

               Zipper foot

6 Carefully cut and remove the tacking stitches holding the edges together to open the seam and reveal the zip.

                 Opening the seam

One down, four to go!

              Front

                   Back

And what made me feel old this week? My granddaughter howled with laughter when she saw my teapot with a woolly hat on and wanted to know why it was wearing one! She had never seen a tea cosy before!!