Completed: Hand printed cushions

Technically I should win Worst Sister of the Year award with these, but I think I managed to redeem myself. My brother and his girlfriend got engaged in May this year, and moved house in September, and I only just gave them this, their engagement/new house present on Christmas Day. That's the bad sister bit. The good sister bit, was that I made the effort to hand print, and sew them their present, which they did at least get in the same calendar year.

I don't think my brother reads my blog, but he does follow me on IG, and has a tendency to ask me to make him a version of whatever I've made from time to time. One of these days I'll call his bluff and make him dinosaur PJs, but in the meantime I made him cushions inspired by a sweatshirt and a dress. If you read my original sweatshirt post, you'll see that the inspiration for that was a cushion, so it's all got a bit meta.

 The stencil is the same as that used on my sweatshirt - not the exact one, I don't keep them, so I  had to cut a new one - and the cross is that which I used to block print my Scout dress. They are both printed with black ink onto white soft furnishing fabric from Remnant Kings. It has a slight texture, which keeps it interesting, and it was really cheap at something like £7/m. I wanted some colour, and so used a turquoise cotton velvet from Edinburgh Fabrics (which was something ludicrous like £20/m) to back and pipe them. This is only the second time I've sewn piping and my first sewing velvet. It was OK, but I wouldn't rush to do it again. There are quite a few mistakes on these, the most noticeable being that I sewed the piping onto the back of the cushion, meaning the zip is now on the front. I put the zips to the bottom, and my brother will never notice, but that's one to remember. I also made the zip opening too small, so I did actually think I wasn't going to get the cushion pads in there for about 5 mins. That was fun. (It wasn't). 

Regardless though, I really like these. They look nice and contemporary, but also look unique and handmade (in a good way. I hope). I love the turquoise colour, and the velvet is gorgeously, strokeably tactile. I am seriously considering making velvet cushions for our house. Possibly not piped though. 

I don't yet have photos of the cushions in their new home. My brother and his girlfriend live in London, but were heading straight off to Turkey yesterday (she is Turkish) for New Year. So these photos are all taken in our house. 

And yes, I've already started wondering what I'll be sewing to wear to a wedding in Istanbul in July! ;)

Completed: Letter Cushions

If you blog, do you post everything you sew? I usually do. There have been very few exceptions where good intentions have fallen by the wayside, but I have pretty much blogged everything single thing I have sewn since I started Grosgrain Green, 2.5 years ago. Sometimes I wonder if you are interested in every little thing, but I still feel obliged – like somehow to not blog something is dishonest. But, as I’m sure you know, writing posts, taking and editing photos: it’s all quite time consuming and labour intensive, particularly as when I write I tend to divulge every single thought and every single stage of the process. I waffle. I do it in real life too. Believe me, the posts you are reading are the edited version.

So, I thought I’d try something new. For some posts, where really not much narration is involved, I’ll keep the chat to a minimum and let the photos do the talking. I think this will be particularly useful when I post my 104^th Scout Tee. And for projects like this one.

Although, having said that, there is a back story to this project. So, errr, I haven't done a very good job of keeping this one short, after all!

My mum sewed initial shaped cushions for my sister and I when we were kids. They were pink, with darker pink hearts. We shared a pink Laura Ashley bedroom, it was the 80’s and we were girly girls. Earlier this year, my sister decorated her daughter’s bedroom, and as my sister and my niece have the same first initial, my sis asked our mum if she still had the cushions kicking about. She didn’t, but it led to a conversation between my mum and I on how we could replicate the cushions, because of course, then I wanted to make them for the boys. A quick Google later, and we found McCall's 3274, which we are pretty confident is the same pattern. My mum bought it and lent it to me.

Baby Boy’s is the F, which is made in Small World by Made by Rae, from Cloud 9. It’s organic baby cord, and is lovely stuff. I bought it in John Lewis.

Small Boy’s is the letter E. He chose the Dr Seuss fabric in Remnant Kings (general link to shop -can't see it on their website, sorry), and it says on the selvedge that it’s Robert Kaufman.

I did consider pattern placement for the Dr Seuss version, only because Small Boy is only familiar with a few of characters/books so I wanted to feature those. I had the stuffing left over from Kit the Doll. I still have tons left, so if anyone wants some, let me know!

Oh My God, it was an ordeal getting these photos. I thought it would be cute to get the 2 of them together holding the cushions, but they did not like it, not one little bit (wink). What follows is the best of a bad lot. Still, it's pretty cute!

"Don't want to hold the stupid cushion".

"I'd rather hold this plastic jug. Far superior toy."

"Is she still there?"

Nice interaction. Zero product placement.

Me: "Turn them round, they are back to front". Him, looking at them from his side: "No they're not!"

On a completely unrelated note, Small Boy starts school tomorrow. 

Completed: When is a quilt not a quilt?

What is the definition of a quilt? Does it need to be pieced? It probably needs to be quilted at the very least. If it's neither pieced, nor quilted, is it simply a blanket? I ask, because I don't know what to call my latest project. 

Photo bombed by Winnie the Pooh

I have wanted a blanket for a while - our flat used to be freezing, especially post 9pm when the heating goes off. Since we had cavity wall insulation a few years ago, this has been less of a problem, but I still wanted a cosy blanket that I could keep in the living room, which looked nice in the living room. I have been giving some thought recently to making our house look a bit more, well, grown up. Previously I took great pride in my "mismatched" approach, and I do still abhor anything too matchy matchy, or symmetrical, but recently I've started to wonder if maybe, my stuff just doesn't really go. 

I spoke previously about my double gauze journey: once I realised that the C&S double gauze just wasn't going to work, I started to browse other ideas. Nani Iro is a fabric designer that properly came to my attention last summer, so I thought I'd take a look - and fell in love (again? Yes, but this time it was REAL) with this fabric:

Nani Iro Water Window wata gauze - C from Miss Matatabi

I wanted something different for the back, and so convo-ed Frances at Miss Matatabi for a suggestion. She came up with a couple of options, pretty much immediately. Neither I would have chosen myself, so it was nice to get different ideas. I went with her suggestion of Mountain Views in natural, which i was pleased to discover on arrival has lovely shiny metallic bits.

The fabrics are a bit different to each othher. The Water Window is called Wata Double Gauze and it is a much softer, looser weave to the Mountain Views, which feels quite stiff in comparison (it's not, just in comparison). They were also different widths which was slightly annoying.

After some consultation with some quilting friends on IG (thanks Nessa and Katy) I opted to use cotton batting in the middle, which I got from Mandors in Glasgow. It wasn't particularly cheap at something like £16/m, but it's super wide (about 2m), so I as able to get away with a "generous metre".

I didn't bind the quilt. This was an aesthetic choice. I didn't want to compete with the main fabric. It also meant buying less stuff, and made for a quicker project. Instead, I sewed the front and back (sandwiching the batting in there too) right sides together, leaving an opening,  turned them through, hand stitched the opening closed, and then top stitched about half an inch from the edge, all the way around. I like the clean finish this gives, and it also allowed me to keep the "watermark" with the name of the fabric, which is rather nice I think. My edges are not completely square - the shifty nature of the double gauze made this difficult - but since the print is deliberately wonky, I'm not too bothered. I got it as straight as I could, and left it at that.

I also didn't quilt the quilt. Which is why it's probably not a quilt. Instead I did occasional stitches (there must be a proper quilting name for this) every so often. I literally just sewed 2 stitches "on the spot", leaving long tails which I then tied. Again, I like this. It doesn't mess or compete with the print and it keeps the blanket nice and drapey. As much as I love the look of quilting, I do think it adds body.

Teeny tiny stitch where the 4 squares meet.

The underside of the stitch

I am absolutely delighted with my resultant blanket. It's lovely and cosy and absolutely beautiful to look at. So much so, that I am considering buying more for when the inevitable child spills something/pukes over it. I did consider banning them from ever touching it, but I've been trying not to be mean mummy lately.

I also made a cushion cover, while I was on this home dec kick. A couple of our cushions are in a very sad state, and have been torn for a long while. One I want to try to mend, bit the other I decided just to re-cover.

I bought the fabric from John Lewis. It was part of the 150 years range from last year and was in the sale - not the crazy bargainous £5 sale, but half price which put it at a much more reasonable £9/m. It's a cotton poplin, so a bit lightweight for interiors, but hopefully it'll last ok. I bought half a metre of each, and I have enough leftover to make another (smaller) cushion. This was my first ever attempt at piping and I love it! I just used a zip foot, which I thought gave OK results, but I think I will buy a piping foot if I use it again, particularly for garment sewing.

I used these tutorials for attaching the zip, the piping (here and here) and joining the piping ends. I recycled the zip from the old cushion cover. I messed the zip up a bit, but it's not bad for a first attempt (I only ever use invisible zips in clothing, so a standard zip was strange, for me!), and my piping pride more than makes up for it. I love it, and I love how well the colours go together, and go with the blanket. Without being too matchy matchy!!!! :)

Now to get back to sewing some clothes!

Last Minute Christmas Crafting

Hi! A just-in-the-nick-of-time pre-Christmas post to share some last minute crafting that's been going on around here. I decided we needed some Christmas tree bunting, as generally our Christmas decorations are the tree and... well, that's it. With a Small Boy in the house, I am trying to branch out more, and bunting seemed just the ticket. This was a quick and relatively easy make across 2 evenings although it could easily have been one, if I hadn't decided to make 2 at once.

I free handed a Christmas tree shape on paper, traced it onto the back of a cereal packet, cut it out and then drew round it onto my fabric. The fabric was all from my stash - well, some of it was purpose bought about 2 or 3 years ago, but because I didn't make the bunting then, it became part of the stash. The rest was scraps and an old RTW blouse that shrank some time ago.

The only the I had to buy was the green thread! I was in town on Saturday to get my hair cut, so popped into John Lewis to get the that, and while there, the little star shaped buttons caught my eye. It was nearly £6 for the pack, but I think they really make the bunting!
I cut the fabric using pinking shears, placed them wrong sides together and sewed around them. The shape was a bit tricky to sew around, as my machine has a tendency to chew up fabric when I sew very close to the edge, and some of the lighter fabrics suffered more from this than the others. As a result the seam allowance is a bit wobbly and inconsistent to say the least! But I say just don't look too closely! I originally cut 9 trees for each string of bunting, as I like odd numbers, but I didn't have enough bias binding, so this was reduced to 8. Luckily I only had 8 different fabrics so was going to repeat one, so no fabric was made to feel left out!

The second strand was a present for my sister and her family. it's exactly the same as this one, but the trees are in a different order. They recently completed an extension to the back of their house, so it was a Christmas themed extension warming present! One which she will probably not want to put up because she won't want pin marks in her freshly plastered and painted walls!

I love ours. It honestly gives me real pleasure every time I see it! Daft, but true! That's Christmas for you!

The fireplace, "dressed" for Christmas. All artwork by Small Boy. The thing that looks like a tissue is actually the reindeer dust (see below). The random jar on the mantelpiece is a home made snow globe. 

So I think we are now all organised for Christmas. The Small Boy has done his shouting up the chimney (a family tradition from our side - you shout up the chimney, rather than write a letter, to ask Santa to bring you what you want), we've sprinkled "reindeer dust" (a nursery invension: oats mixed with glitter) on the fireplace and in the garden, where it will surely have blown away already, and the mince pie and brandy (lucky Santa Claus) and carrot have been left out! All that is left is for me to post this, finish making the truffles that are currently cooling in the fridge, wrap one more present and then chill!

Shouting up the chimney

Snacks for Santa and Rudolf 

This will probably be my last post for a couple of weeks, so I'll take the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, when it comes! Have a good one! X

Completed: Bunting!

I have been doing some sewing for Small Boy.

I have been meaning to make bunting for his bedroom since before he was born! I know bunting can verge on the twee, but I thought in some nice bright colours it could look quite cool. And that was as far as I got, because, you know. Then, when we were on holiday, my sister bought some handmade bunting for my niece's bedroom. I wish I'd taken some photos of that in the shop* because it was really well designed. Each of the little pendants had letters appliquéd on, plus some ribbony decorative bits too. So far, so typical bunting. The interesting bit was when you came to attach the pendants to the bias binding/twill tape. Rather than thread the tape through a tube at the top of each pendant, the pendants had a button at each of the top 2 corners, and the tape had button holes right along it's length. You simply buttoned the pendants in place, meaning it was really easy to change things around. The woman in the shop suggested buying numbers to use for birthday parties and changing the number each year. My sister stopped short at that, but it was nice idea. I would ask my sis if I could take photos of the stuff she bought, but I suspect she may not want my niece's name out there on t'internet.

* This is when I realise I am such a rubbish blogger. It honestly didn't occur to me that I could have asked the woman in the shop if I could have photographed it there and then, and then done a wee "feature", but I actually got back from my holiday. I need to get more with it!

Anyway, my sister's purchase spurred me into action, realising that I had better get making bunting before Small Boy is old enough to have an opinion about interior decor!

Ta dah!

 I am really pleased with this! You don't really need a tutorial to make bunting, but I did refer to this one just to get an idea of what size to make the pendants. I thought it might be a bit of a boring project, sewing all those triangles, but it was actually quite relaxing and strangely addictive! I did all the cutting out and sewing the triangles together in one night, accompanied by a glass of red, and Dates. I didn't measure how many I needed, I just cut triangles until it looked like quite a large pile, with a good mix of colours/patterns. The fabric is a true amalgamation of stuff I bought for the purpose (way back when) and scrap stash busting. Using scraps was a really nice way of doing it, because when I showed Small Boy, he immediately said "that's your bird dress, Mummy", "that's my car bag" and "this one has lighthouses". His favourite is the bird fabric - that's my boy!

 I used any fabric that I had, the only restriction being that it had to be bright colours. Anything too pastely was vetoed.

 I bought the bias binding on ebay. It's the horrible scratchy poly cotton stuff, but perfect for this, and was only £3.40 incl postage for 10m. God knows what I'll do with the rest of it!

I made around 5m in the end, which wasn't quite long enough, but it looks OK. I might do a bit more another time. My sister is also planning to borrow it to help decorate the hall for my nephew's 4th birthday party on Saturday! I really should have made more!

 While we are on the subject of selfless sewing, I thought I'd share some other bits and bobs I have made for Small Boy over the past few years.

The cushions were made with leftover fabric from his curtains (which I also made, but just couldn't photograph well), which I made when pregnant. I made the patchwork dog following instructions from Cath Kidston's Patch book. But I didn't make it in expensive CK prints! You will spot some of the dog's fabrics in the bunting!

Strawberry print oven glove made to go with his little kitchen. I just made this up as I went along. Again, you'll spot this fabric in the bunting!

Finally, a Noodlehead widemouth bag, made in a car print, with gingham lining (both in the bunting). I made this to hold all some of his small toys - peg puzzle pieces, cars etc. It actually doesn't get used that much, but I really like it!

My next selfless sewing plans are to make another oven glove for my niece (it was meant to be for my nephew but since he's nearly 4, I'm not so sure he'll be interested) and a dress for my niece's 2nd birthday in September. That's the plan anyway. We'll see!