Yellow roses

My mum has been working on a cross-stitch of some yellow roses for years. The sewing has even travelled to Madagascar for two years with her. She finally finished this year and asked if I could make it into a cushion cover for her. It just so happened that her birthday was coming up so I said I would do it as my present to her. I found some fabric that I thought went well with the cross-stitch and then made a start. I made a border of my chosen fabric around the cross-stitch to make the front part of the cushion cover. I then made the back out of two bits of the fabric with a zip going across. This was the first time I had ever sewn a zip into anything so I was a little unsure of what I was doing, but used my trusty Sewing Book by DK to check the technique. I had also bought piping for the edge of the cushion, which like the zip I had never used before. I think it all came together pretty well. My mum loves it and it has pride of place in her living room. May 2010

This isn't the best picture, it's a bit dark, but you get the idea.

Lots of ribbons

My sister and I had decided to accessorize our living room with brown and teal, but I have been going through a green phase and wanted to add some green too. When I was out one day I saw a painting of flowers, which had teal and green flower heads. I loved it and decided that we could add green to our brown and teal bits in our flat. I went out and bought an assortment of green, teal and beige ribbons to sew onto a cushion cover to infuse the colours together. I did a plain brown cotton background and then sewed different widths, textures, and colours of ribbons across the fabric at various angles. I then sewed the length of fabric into an envelope style cushion cover. Mar 2010

Cushions, cushions, who's got the cushions?

At the end of 2009 I had purchased some curtain material to use for various soft furnishings in my flat. At last I decided to make some cushion covers with it. I did 3 the same. It was a very simple technique that I used. I used one length of fabric, hemmed two opposite ends then folded it so the ends over lapped and sewed down the sides. You can then put the cushion in through the over lap. I found you do need to make the overlap quite large because otherwise when the cushion is used it pops out the back a bit. I had made the covers the same size as the cushions I had bought, but later found out it is better to make the cover an inch or two smaller than the cushion so that it fills the cover well without saggy/empty corners. Feb 2010