By Stephie, on Tuesday 7th September, 2010 at 00:34 am
 My handy new bag I need a new bag I thought to myself. Well, actually I probably didn’t. But then again, I only have one (I’m so not your typical female am I?!) and it’s fairly small so maybe I did. I went shopping and discovered that the sort of bag I had in mind costs rather more than I had to spend. Nothing new there. But looking at them I thought, pah, I could make that myself in an hour or two. And for less than half the price. I’ve been thinking that a lot lately. I recently made myself two pairs of linen trousers for less than £50 (including all the zips and threads), which is roughly the price of one pair of trousers from somewhere like White Stuff. Result, I thought. So if I wanted a bag with the sort of money I had to spend I’d have to make one. Not a problem. And for around £10 and a couple of hours work I designed and made myself a lovely stripey number. Oh yes, lovely it is!
If I were making it again, I would of course do some things differently. I have a bad habit of ‘designing on the hoof’ – ie I pretty much make it up as I go along. Well, I start off with a plan, a pattern, but then change my mind and alter it half way through. It seems to be much the same way I do anything. I should make a toile first. Well I would if it was something important or expensive, but for something simple like this I’m happy to just go with the flow!
 I made it in one of my beloved Kaffe Fassett fabrics  and used a Suffolk puff to decorate the closure.  Big enough to hold something A4, but not too big to lose things forever. Perfect! Very simple as it may be I was pleased with the Suffolk puff detail on the closure – little things please little minds! I like the added texture and change in direction of the stripe. I also like the way I made the centre of it match the binding and inside strap fabric (a black linen). I must’ve been on a creative roll there! I enjoyed working out how to make the puff like this and thought that maybe you’d like to have a go too, so I wrote a simple tutorial which is in the next post. Let me know what you think!
I don’t know how, but it’s got to the wee small hours already, so I’ll say ta ra for now and will be back soon.
Love Stephie x
By Stephie, on Wednesday 14th July, 2010 at 00:57 am
Part 2 – the design
Making design decisions for something as simple as a cushion cover sounds a bit pretentious, like I’m giving it far more weight than it deserves. But if you put as much thought into something like this as you would a larger project it all adds to your visual library, which helps you to be more confident (I prefer the word rigorous, but I don’t want to scare you off!) in the decisions you make.
 Getting the measure of the motif - it's big! The process has to start somewhere though and in this case it started with the size of the motif in the vintage fabric. It’s pretty large (7″ square) and wouldn’t be very interesting if it was cut up any smaller. So I already knew I could either make a very large cushion to make the square appear smaller, or I could make a smaller cushion with a large square – I plumped for the latter and decided on a 16″ cushion (a size I like). The obvious thing to do would be to have the focal patch in the centre with everything else radiating round it like it was the sun at the centre of the universe. But I didn’t want to do that ‘cos that would be boring and obvious, I thought. So the first thing I decided was that the patch would be offset, sort of floating top-left-ish would be good. So I tried it out. And it was good. I used a couple of strips of masking tape on my cutting map to help me visualise the overall square, then just moved the motif around within it until it felt right. I do a lot of things by feel. I felt like using strips around the motif, bold colours and stripes. Strong was a word that kept coming to mind: is the balance of colour strong enough, is there anything that diminishes the overall strength? Punchy, bold, that’s what I wanted and the best way of getting that was to make sure all the colours are about the same value. They kind of resonate that way. It’s looking good and when it gets to that stage I just want to get on with it, knowing I’ll probably make adjustments along the way.
 Feeling the design From the cutting mat to the sewing machine. I don’t really like sewing machines. Too much fiddling about for my liking, trying to get the bloody tension right, remembering to change the needle and oil the moving parts (no-one oils my moving parts!)… I have this impatience, I like my tools to be simple and direct: a needle and thread, a paintbrush and paper; I want to be responsible for making that mark, that stitch. I want to feel the needle go through the fabric and determine exactly where it comes out. So this next stage is a means to an end: machining the strips together to get a ‘canvas’ that I can make my own, with my own hands. I have a love hate relationship with my 25 year old Jones sewing machine. I love it for what it is: robust, simple, practical (no more or less than what I need) and I hate it because it needs too much coaxing and nurturing. I’m not maternal at the best of times, let alone towards a machine.
 Me and Mrs Jones on a mission. So I go back and forth from the machine to the cutting mat, trimming, adding another strip here, losing one there, getting frustrated because the bobbin’s tangled up, getting excited because it’s coming together well.
 A balanced pair  I take a closer look Come on, come on, I want to stitch, to feel it, to really understand it. At this point you may be thinking I’m losing the plot: it’s only a cushion cover. But it’s not, it’s love. It’s loving it for the sake of it, it’s loving it for the experience, it’s loving it because I can and because when it belongs to someone else they might have a sense of that too.
Ok, you can put me back in the straight jacket now. Back soon.
love Stephie x
By Stephie, on Monday 5th July, 2010 at 15:13 pm
1. Choosing fabrics
 My latest find  Remember that lovely vintage fabric I got the other day – want to make a cushion cover with me? I’m raring to go ahead and make something with it. As the enthusiasm grips me, it occurred to me I could share my process with you, from the ideas stage to the finished cover. I know I didn’t ask whether you’d be interested in this or not, I just made the assumption that of course you would! But since I’m foisting it upon you, feel free to leave your comments as I go along. Let me know what you think about the process I use and why not let us into a secret and tell us what your design process is like! I wonder if you’re more organised and structured than I am? I tend to go with the flow a bit, which I’m sure you’ll see for yourself, if I shut up and get on with it!
I’ve decided to make a pair of matching cushion/pillow covers, don’t really know why, I just fancy it! I think it’s probably got something to do with the fact that I won’t have to purchase lots of fabric that a quilt might need, and also that I enjoy experimenting with small things. It’s a great opportunity to try out techniques, styles and colourways – I think I’m still trying to find my own way, my own preferences.
My design approach is fairly intuitive, so I’ve begun the whole process by just looking at the fabric. It’s got some large motifs that I’d like to use, almost like individual images. I envisage these as being the central focus, but I don’t want to make something that’s simply a square of the fabric with some outline quilting. Somehow I want to add something to it; I want it to be contemporary and I’m thinking maybe I can achieve that by balancing the strong vintage floral imagery with something equally strong. So the next stage is just to add some fabrics around it and see what happens…
 Maybe black would add a strong contrast? Nope, don't like that, it 'deadens' the colours too much. Love the white though, think it frames the lillies well.
 The plain green is just the right tone... and that Kaffe Fassett sripe is the sort of bold I I'm talking about.  And how about some bright contrasting threads for the quilting? Feel like I'm getting somewhere already, - it's not always this quick you know! I think that’s the fabrics sorted (no agonsising – now that’s unusual!) – I’m really excited by the simplicity and boldness of it and don’t want to overcomplicate it. The next step is to think about the actual patchwork design, I’ve got a few ideas floating around, but I’ll save that for the next post, I’m off to play with some scissors now! Don’t forget to share your early stages of design in the comments, it would be lovely to have a chat about it!
See you soon.
love Stephie x
PS – I’m still working on the blog design and layout, as I hope you can tell! I thought I’d try out some different navigation this time, losing that tag-cloud being the main difference. Let me know if you can still find things easily enough though, or whether you want the tags back!
By Stephie, on Sunday 20th June, 2010 at 22:20 pm
I just finished a scrappy patchwork cushion for a friend’s birthday present. I like it! It’s very simple, made up of 64 tiny squares (well, 5cm squares, that’s pretty tiny isn’t it?!), but sometimes simplicity is best. I sat here finishing it off and I realised the colours were just like the sweet williams I have growing in a pot in the garden at the moment. I rushed off to photograph them together for you in the gorgeous evening light, before the sun went down completely (and before I froze to death in the gale force ‘breeze’ that seems to be belting across my garden at the moment).
 The sweetest of colours!  I quilted it very simply with a few colourful buttons  And the back is simple too, with its single strip of patchwork and tie closure Quite a lot of the fabrics were from my Kaffe Fassett scrap box (which is now empty!), but there’s also the odd vintage and Moda ones too. I hope my friend likes it. If she doesn’t I’ll have it back – it looks great on my garden chair!
By Stephie, on Wednesday 19th May, 2010 at 20:35 pm
Gosh, it’s so nice to be back! I think that must have been the longest week in history; a whole week without my lovely Mac has meant a whole week without my lovely friends (well ok, the poor deranged people that visit this blog Not you of course! ) I was bereft and really rather irritable for a while. You ‘ll find it hard to believe that I can be irritable, I know, me, Miss Sunshine and Light, ha, ha! I admit much swearing took place (especially in the public library) along with quite a lot of huffing (especially when I realised there was nothing wrong with the Mac in the first place – it was a cable given to me by PC World that caused the problem). Anyhoo, it’s all left me feeling a bit restless; I’ve found it hard to settle to much – other than socialising! The theatre, clubbing (oooh yes, even at my age!), staying with friends, walking with friends, celebrating birthdays; I feel like I’ve done it all this week.
I did manage to make a few things though, so I thought that as a kind of colourful way of easing back into the old blog I’d show you the cushion I made for my friend’s birthday first off.
 I love the bold orange colours  which I used to create a simple patchwork design  with hand quilting.  I made the back in 2 Kaffe Fassett fabrics with a simple tie closure. I made it to fit a 20″ feather filled pad (it’s always best to make the cover a bit smaller than the the pad you’re using, that way it looks a lot plumper and more sumptuous!) and I experimented with a bound edging for the first time (on a cushion that is). The spotty binding and sashing fabric is from Moda. I think B liked it “You’re not telling me you made this are you?,” she said.
Hope you’ve had a good week too – what have you been up to, hope it was something creative? I’ve got some other bits and pieces to show you, but right now I need to get number one and only son into bed, he’s dragging the process out minute by minute as ever! So see you tomorrow, I’ll definitely be back.
love Stephie
By Stephie, on Saturday 24th April, 2010 at 19:08 pm
I went for a walk on Thursday with my friend Janie. She’d guessed that she’d be my trusty unbiased assistant and would be making the 4th Bloggy Birthday Draw for me. As usual we stopped for a coffee and lunch on the way. This time it was at the idyllic The Pandora Inn (yes, I know I’m always in there when I’m over Mylor way!). So after coffee I got Janie to do the honours and rummage about in my bag and she pulled out two names…
The hand quilted cushion goes to VICTORIA!! Well done Victoria, I’ll email you for your address and the cushion cover will be winging it’s way to you next week I really hope you’ll enjoy it.
 I called this one 'Curves', I thought that was original too!  It's a striking fabric this Kaffe Fassett isn't it? I love the colour, it makes me think of all things warm. And the 2nd surprise prize goes to REBECCA HARRIS – and here it is! (I’ll email you for your address too Becky.)
 A sweet heart for someone very sweet!  It's hand embroidered in Liberty voile with vintage lace - and smells of roses, mmmmm! Thank you to every one that entered and put up with my badgering to do so, you’re brilliant! Oh and thank you also for putting up with my bad time keeping and date changes… I really was very touched by all the comments you left me. It’s encouraged me to carry on in much the same way (poor you!). I know I use this space to talk about most things that are on my mind, whatever they might be: happy (ish – let’s not get too carried away!), sad, boring, depressing, ranting, mundane, manic, a bit insane… and I know my creative interests are eclectic to say the least. I’ve often wondered whether you might like me to focus a bit more on one thing, but I guess not! So thank you again for sticking around.
I really enjoyed doing this, my first giveaway, so I promise to do it again soon. And if you have any other ideas of things you’d like me to do, let me know won’t you. I’ve noticed lots of blogs have free patterns and tutorials and I wonder if they’d be of any interest to you here? Mind you, I don’t know what I could teach you, you’re all such a creative bunch I think you’ve probably got the lot covered!
Congratulations again to Victoria and Becky, thanks to Janie and a wonderful weekend to you all
love Stephie x
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I'm running a 28 mile marathon in memory of Josie this February. Come and find out why.
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