The Eternal Maker Crafts

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Two Lovely cushions


Lovely cushions




Hi Eternalmakers hope you're all well. We are gearing up for the international day of love here at the Eternal Maker and thought, you might like a couple of easy to follow Tutorials with a Love theme.
As with the rest of the team, this is my first online Tutorial, hope you like it! :)

Small Heart Cushion: 

You will need: 
A small cushion pad. (I used a 12" x12")
Paper, Pencil, Ruler, Rubber
Scissors or Rotary Cutter
Cutting Mat
Seam Ripper (just in case!) 
Fuse and Tear stabiliser 
Fusible Web
Main front and back fabric (2x FQ's will be fine)
Scrap fabrics for hearts. (I used Riley Blakes LoveBugs Collection)
Scrap bias tape about 13"
Trimmings, Ribbon and a Button
Contrasting Cottons for stitching
Sewing Machine, Iron and Ironing board






Cut yourself a paper pattern an inch larger than your cushion pad, so in my case 13' x13' and pin this to your front fabric. Then cut out and put to one side.











Using your cut out pattern, mark about 2 thirds down, dawn a line and fold. This is now going to be your pattern for the back. Pin to your backing fabric and cut out 2 pieces. and put to one side.


Now cut yourself 3 hearts shapes in large, medium and small out of paper. With your scrap fabrics iron on your fusible web. Pin on your heart patterns and cut out. If you don't want to pin you can just draw onto the paper side  of your fusible web and cut out.

While you've got the iron out, you can give your main fabrics a quick iron.
 
Choose yourself a layout, play around until you're happy!
 

Once you have chosen  your design, remove the paper from the fusible web and iron your hearts onto your main fabric. On the reverse of your main fabric, Iron on your Fuse and Tear. This will help stabilise your fabric when stitching the applique.
 

Using a contrasting thread, thread your sewing machine and stitch around the small and medium hearts in a normal straight stitch. Then set your machine to the applique setting. On my machine it's the Zig Zag stitch, set to about 0.5 on length and width. Please read your manual and have a play with the stitches before you go around your hearts. 
Once your have your applique heart stitched all around the outside edge, pull from the machine leaving 2 long loose threads.  




  TOP TIP: Using a normal sewing needle, place the needle into the fabric next to the loose threads. Thread the needle with the 2 loose threads and pull them through to the wrong side of the fabric. Now they are on the underside of your fabric tie off. This prevents a messy knot on top of your applique. Tear away any excess stabiliser.


Now to pretty up the back. Pin your bias to one of the long edges of your top fold fabric. Cut yourself a 3 inch piece of ribbon. Find the centre point and pin you ribbon on the inside of the bias edge. This will be your button close. Stitch the bias and ribbon to your fabric.
With the second piece of backing fabric, iron a small lip about 5mm along the long edge. Fold again over the top of the ironed edge and iron. This gives you a nice crisp edge to work with. Pin and stitch. 






Pin your trim around the outside edge of your front fabric over lap about 2 inches at the start and finish. Once pinned you are going join your start and finish ends together with a straight stitch. When you have joined your ends stitch all the way round to hold your trim in place.




 


Lay your bias/ribbon piece of backing fabric onto the trimmed front fabric. Lining up your fabrics with the outer edge and the right sides together. Then place the other backing fabric over the top of the other two fabrics, lining up with the outer edge and pin in place. Stitch all the way round with a 1/2 inch steam allowence. (Always remamber to back stitch at the begining and end) Trim the corners and any excess fabric begging careful not to cut into your seam!







Insert your cushion pad into your lovely cushion cover. With a pencil or maker make a mark where you would like your button to go. Remove cushion pad and hand sew your button into place.




Insert your cushion pad back into its cover. Stand back and admire your awesome new cushion!!
Right now your ready for the next one! :)








Zipped Cushion:

You will need:
A medium cushion pad. (I used a 15" x15")
Paper, Pencil, Ruler, Rubber
Scissors or Rotary Cutter
Cutting Mat
Seam Ripper (just in case!) 
Fusible Web
Main front and back fabric
Scrap fabric strips about 1.1/2" wide
14"  Nylon teeth Zip
Contrasting Cottons for stitching.
Aurifloss or Embroidery thread.
Sewing Machine, Iron and Ironing board



Cut your back fabric 16" x 16" or an inch bigger then your cushion pad. I used a grey Linen blend for the back.  For the front I used two contrasting fabrics, the top part is a soft Shetland Fannel cut to 16" x 10.3/8" Then for the second piece I used the same as the backing fabric cut to 6.1/2" x 16"
Sew your two front pieces together and iron your seam out flat. (Always remember to back stitch at the begining and end of your work)




Cut out five 9" x 1.1/2" strips of scrap fabric. I've stayed with the Riley Blake Lovebug Collection. Iron on your fusible web. Peel off the backing paper. Lay them on your front fabric in a staggered fashion and iron into place.




Using your contrasting thread, stitch round each strip. I went around about three times, over lapping in places to give it a kind of pencil drawn effect.

 




TOP TIP: Using a normal sewing needle, place the needle into the fabric next to the loose threads. Thread the needle with the loose threads and pull them through to the wrong side of the fabric. Now they are on the underside of your fabric, tie off. This gives a neat finish to your work.






Next, you need to do a little free hand embroidery. I used the variegated Aurifloss in Pink and Black. On the reverse side of your front fabric, using a ruler and pencil, mark with a dot every 1cm. About 1cm under your dotted line, do the same again but stagger your dots. Repeat for the third line. Now stitch all the way along in and out of your dotted lines until you have an effect your happy with.





Now for the zip! On the reverse side of your front fabric, find the centre by folding your fabric in half and scoring with your fingers. Do the same with the zip and line the two up at the centre mark. With a pencil, mark where the zip pull and the zip end are on the reverse side of the front fabric. Put the zip to one side. With a normal stitch on your machine, stitch to the first mark (remembering to back stitch at the begining and end) Now change your machine stitch to a basting stitch (longest stitch on your machine). Stitch to the next line. Change back to normal stitch, back stitch and continue to the end. Iron out the seam.



Change to a zipper foot on your machine. Lay your zip on the middle of the seam using your earlier markings. Making sure your zipper teeth are along the centre of your stitched seam. Pin and baste into place. Remove pins. Starting from the bottom of the zip, stitch towards the zip pull. When you are about 2 inches from the zip pull, push the needle into the zip, lift the foot and push the zip pull to where you have been stitching. Put the foot back down and continue stitching just past where the zip pull stops. Needle into the zip, lift foot and rotate fabric, needle down and sew across the zip. If you are using a metal teeth zip, DO NOT USE YOUR SEWING MACHINE TO STITCH ACROSS YOUR ZIP, YOUR NEEDLE WILL SNAP!! (In this case hand stitching is better.) Needle down, foot up rotate, foot down and stitch. Sew a little way. Needle in, lift foot. Now to get your zip pull back heres another TOP TIP using your seam ripper push the blade into the hole of your zip pull and pull it back into place. This is much eaiser then fiddling around with your fingers! Foot down and continue stitching to the end of the zip. Needle in, foot up, rotate and continue across the zip.




Using your steam ripper, carfully rip open the basted stitches to reveal your zip! Open you zip slightly. With the right sides together pin your front and back pieces together and stitch around the three open sides. Trim any excess fabric from the inside of your cushion. Take out pins. Turn it right side out, via your open zip. Insert your cushion pad and volia!! One fabulous cushion!!







Thanks, Janette xx









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