Monday 7 September 2015

The Sewing Bug!

Boy I've got it bad!! 

After sewing nothing, other than taking up a pair of Martin's trousers, for nigh on 35 years, my sewing machine doesn't know what's hit it. 

Over the last few weeks It's been in and out of its cosy hidey hole under the stairs more times than Martin's been down to his beer shed! 

If you follow my blog you will have seen that a few weeks ago, I had a delivery of some gorgeous fat quarters and those, coupled with lots of trawling of Pinterest have really got me inspired. 
At the moment I seem to be running on a theme of cushion covers, tooth fairy pillows and zippered pouches. 

So far I've used the owl and the Scottie Dog fabric to make two cushion covers. Whilst I am pleased with how both have come out there has been lots of learning along the way. 

I have learned that I need to get better on the measuring front ...
On the first cover I had to add another strip and on the second I had to chop a chunk off each side. Clearly I'd over corrected. Having now written down my measurements for next time hopefully it will be third time lucky. 

I have learned a lot about fastenings ...
As I wasn't brave enough to attempt real button holes, on the first cover I decided to use snap fastenings, with nice chunky buttons stitched on just for show. Doing this I soon found out that stitching buttons directly on top of where a snap fastening is is not easy. Hence on the second cover I have used a Velcro fastening and placed the buttons either side. 

I have learned that exact seam allowances are important ... 
The other thing that is just a little tricky on this project is to ensure that seam allowances are all identical, otherwise you find that where the cover meets to fasten, the strips don't line up. That is very frustrating. I have added a ribbon bow to the second cover to try and disguise this, but again, hopefully next time I can put this learning into practice. 
My tooth fairy pillows have been far more successful and other than the re-positioning of the pocket and lining this with interfacing, these all seem to have gone well and some are now on sale in my Etsy shop. 

So far I have used the owl, the Scottie Dog and nautical fabrics and I love the way they've all turned out.  

I've even made my first sale!!

When it comes to the zippered pouches I think I can say that it has definitely been a journey. In fact I think it's worthy of its own blog post so you can read more about those very soon.

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