The cushion cover unveiling...

So here it is, the great unveiling of the first project I've completed on my lovely new purple sewing machine. Drumroll please….

(Please excuse the dreadful picture, it's the only one I took before giving it as a present and I had no idea it was that insipid of fuzzy. Talk about a blogger picture fail).

This is the initial cushion that I made for lovely baby Bella a couple of weeks ago and thankfully she loved it – I mean she sort of smiled so she has to have loved it, yes? I mean babies of only a few months old smile if they like things, right? As you can see I went a bit crazy on the patterns but I like it and babies like bright colours so I figure it works.

Amazingly this cushion was super easy to make, not what I imagined when I decided to use different fabrics, but hooray that it was super simple. I didn’t really take pictures as I went along and my process wasn’t the most logical or perhaps sensible so I won’t share a step-by-step tutorial. I thought instead that I’d share my learnings with you, so here goes…

• I should have measured out my fabric precisely and ensured the fit was perfect. Instead I lay the cushion filler on the floor, wrapped the fabric around it and hoped for the best. There was most certainly a LOT of finger crossing!

• I should have added the ‘B’ detail before stitching up the cushion case to ensure that I didn’t have to struggle with manhandling the sewn up cover on to the machine. Oops.

• I should have sewn the material together when it was inside out. Cue lots of unsightly bits of thread.

• I should have measured my ribbon ties a bit better. They don’t sit in exactly the same place and the ties are a tiny tad too short.

• I should not have left it to a Friday night to finish, especially when I was getting on the train at 10.30am. What if it had gone wrong?

• I should have ironed the material before I started and the cover after I started.

 Here’s hoping you don’t make the same mistakes that I did in your future cushion cover projects and fingers crossed I learn from the above mistakes! One good thing to come out of this project (other than the cushion itself) is that I’ve decided to invest in a cutting board, a metal ruler and a rotary cutter. This should rectify a couple of my mistakes and at least give me the tools I need to be a more precise sewer. Presumably that will make me more inclined to not just hope it works…and to actually think about measuring properly and each step! Who knows if this will work?, but I’ll keep you updated!

But to be honest I still love the cushion, it looks fab and I’m never going to be a ‘perfect’ crafter so why sweat the above small things. It worked out in the end after all!