hurdles and pillows

Strange title I know but it does describe what this post is about. Firstly sorry I’ve not been around much lately but recently we’ve had quite a few hurdles to jump here at Sew Quine Stitches. I know we all benefit from a challenge now and again but really, enough already. I’m not going to go into too much detail as I don’t intend to turn this place into a moan-fest but if you could keep your fingers crossed that the house building industry in the UK could pick up a bit it would be a great help. If that works then at least it’d be one hurdle dealt with, we’ll just have to trust that the NHS has the other one covered.

Anyway moan over now for the pillows part. When I’ve not been mopping about I have actually done some sewing. I’ve a stash of pillow forms/cushions that have been waiting for covers for quite some time and I thought it would be a good platform to try some techniques I’ve not tried before.

The first is made using some Amy Butler Fresh Start in tangerine which is decor weight fabric so perfect for cushions. I used some klona cotton from Backstitch to make some bias strips to cover piping cord and following the instructions in Sew Everything Workshop the cover went together very smoothly.

    

For the back I used some lovely organic cotton from Raystitch and put in a central zip. As usual with zips I had a few false starts but it looks fine now it’s finished. Of course if I’d found my adjustable zipper foot before attempting this it might have been a tad easier. Sew Mama Sew are running a feature on pillows or cushions if you're here in the UK and they have a great tutorial about adding piping to cushion covers if you fancy a go yourself.

Talking of Sew Mama Sew my second cover was made using another great tutorial from there for making a cover with a hidden zipper and I really like it and will be making loads of covers this way.

I used some of Alexander Henry’s Spotted owls fabric, which I had stashed for this exact purpose about a year ago. The back is some Kona cotton in stone and the trim is Amy Butler of course, I love this fabric but then I seem to have a thing about dots at the moment.

I have another cover in progress, this time I’m using some of the Echino fabric I won and it’s looking good so far. Fingers crossed it’ll be finished soon-ish. The best thing is these are all being sewn from stash which is such a great feeling, the only thing I’ve had to buy are the zips. Actually I bought continuous zipper as this would keep costs down. Attaching the sliders to continuous zipper is not something to do in a hurry though. I found this video very helpful but I think he’s missed out one vital step… swearing, a lot of swearing, it helps to swear,well it doesn’t really but so far I’ve not mastered attaching the little beggars with out turning the air blue.

If you want to make some covers I’d recommend popping over to Sew Mama Sew for some inspiration and some great tutorials.

So what have you been sewing? I’ve quite a few projects to share yet before we’re up to date so expect another post soon.

Bye for now

Nikki