Feeling deflated

Feeling deflated?

It's been a rather flat beginning to the summer holidays I have found myself confined to the house with a poorly girl. Yesterday this was combined with a not-poorly-climbing-the-walls-boy who I happily sent off to nursery today. This left me with a quiet house and a child lying forlornly on the sofa all day watching tv. Suddenly from no where I am presented with some time to sew.

I've been meaning to make something from this gorgeous Jessica Jones fabric since it arrived and this gum drop pillow by Amy Butler seemed perfect. I've had the pattern for years and the one I previously made is looking rather sad and overused. Actually it's probably the most used pieces of sewing I have done.

So for the first time in a very long while, I managed to complete a whole sewing project in one day. Quite an achievement given I usually manage to string them out for weeks if not months. The pillow is pretty straight forward to make, I had a few joining issues where all the panels came together, but I think this was down to me not really paying attention. Slip-stitching a bulging cushion closed was a bit challenging too. But very satisfying when it was all done.

Doing something creative has taken the edge of my cabin fever a little, and set me thinking about some new Amy Butler fabric which I will share with you tomorrow.

The boy in my life...

It's hard to get much past the (3 year old) boy in my life, I made this cushion for his sister a few weeks back, and ever since, he has been reminding me that I must make him one.

So at the weekend, lined up the fabrics above (a notable omission was this rainbow fabric which he loves now, but I think he might find a bit to girly later on this year). And he made the popular choice of the Eau de Mer Zoo fabric.

So today with the first hour of child free time in what feels like a long, long time, I finally got round to making his cushion.

The boy himself is at nursery today, so in his absense, here is Buzz to model it.

The animals are so cute and 70's on this print, the kids always make a bee-line for these lions though and ask me why they are sad.

Usually, the best I can come up with is that maybe they've had a falling out, or are having a bad day (something we can all relate to after a long holiday with too many days spent inside enjoying each others' company). In my head I am thinking 'it's because they are in a zoo'.

Only my daughter has experience of a zoo at Chessington. We were there for a birthday party and we walked through the zoo to get to the rides, it was her first experience of seeing actual wild cats. We walked past the tiger enclosure, and although it was pretty grim, there was a beautiful, massive, tiger sat in the middle, amazing. She cries 'Oh look mummy - a squirrel!'

Having read this back, I should point out that there was also a (clearly more impressive) squirrel in the enclosure, she hadn't confused the tiger for one.

Fairground cushion

I quite often find myself choosing fabric for the shop because I want to make something with it, and this fairground fabric is a prime example. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for a giant cushion, I loved the retro feel of the design and the colour of the purple which isn't too sugary.

So last weekend, I finally got round to making the cushion which was fairly straight-forward. Due to the size of the cushion (it's 76cm x 76cm) I had to buy some continuous zip as normal ones don't come long enough and the longer ones are really expensive. I used about 2m of continuous zip before for the cushion for my daybed, and struggled for ages trying to get the slider onto the zip. I managed it in the end after much cursing. Again, with this cushion, I wasted a good 10 minutes trying to do it before consulting the oracle that is; You Tube.

So if you have ever tried to do this, then have a look at this video first which shows you how to put a slider on a zip in seconds. Love.the.internet.

The cushion is of course for my daughter, although it does make this chair way more comfy, I will leave it there as long as I can get away with it.

Don't let this scene of domestic bliss fool you, her little brother was screaming in the corner while I tried to take this photo (having been told off for standing on her hair) her teeth are probably gritted if you look closely, I know mine were.

Marimekko cushion

For some time now I have had some lovely Marimekko fabric waiting to be turned into a cushion cover for my Ercol chair. I bought 2 of these chairs off ebay and they were a bargain at £25 each, they match my beloved daybed. There are pics of the daybed here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10199042@N06/sets/72157606421506430/

Confusingly I have 2 Flickr accounts, but unfortunately you are not able to merge them.



Anyway, back to the cushion, its taken me a fair while to complete, so much pinning, sewing, pinning, more sewing. In the end its not as perfect as I would like, but it will do. I think it may have been better with a small print, but it is lovely fabric.



My daughter said it looked good while I was despairing of its wonkiness so that is good enough for me!