Duck Cushions

These were made as a Christmas present for my mother. My parents were in the middle of building an extension to their house and the new downstairs room (now called the 'porch' although it's large enough to be another lounge) had very little in it. The walls had been painted yellow and there was talk of getting a sofa for it, so I made these to go with the existing colour scheme

Cute, aren't they? I thought so too, and so did my mother (thankfully!). I chose ducks because my mother thinks they are adorable, and I can't fault her judgement there! I didn't want to make them identical, so mirrored the ducks and swapped the yellow fabrics over in the second one. I still can't tell which way round I prefer. Possibly the one on the right? Who even knows...

Tadaa! A zip to make it easier to clean the cover! It's almost like a professional cushion cover! The zip was stitched in by hand because that seemed to be the best way to keep it looking so neat. The cushion pad inside was bought from a local homeware store I think...

Plain white material on the back to match the front middle square. Really this is a ridiculously simple yet good looking design!

Aaand one of the little duckies! I learnt blanket stitch for this project to keep the edges from going horrible and to add a touch of class. The duck was then hand stitched on in yellow which you can't see because I was a genius and hid the stitches! Ahahaha!

In Summary

I actually can't think of a single thing about these cushions I am unhappy with. And that's pretty much a first.

My mother was pleased with them, so I completed my brief

I am happy I learnt a new stitch! Always love it when a project teaches me something new.

These cushions are so easy to make. I could literally make a dozen in an afternoon I think. 

I am happy with these. And happy I decided to write a post about them and remind myself that sometimes, everything works out, and I have enough time, fabric and thread to make it as perfect as I ever could

Russian flag bag

This was actually made quite a few years ago. It was for a cosplay, and for various reasons, the Russian flag was something the character liked. Cosplay is always difficult with bags - you need money and stuff, but you don't want a bag to ruin the effect of your pretty costume. That was why I decided to make a bag that would work if caught on camera. And here it is!

It is entirely made of cotton, for the very sensible reason that cotton was the only material I had all three colours in. Also, it's light and easy to work with. As you can see, the strap, also cotton, was two toned, with white on the outside and red on the inside. I mocked up an entirely white one and it just looked weird, so I added the red layer and it looked a lot better! Same red as on the flag of course. I actually ironed the entire bag before these photos - two years stuffed at the back of a shelf is not good for anything! The strap was particularly badly off. Next time I make a bag like this, I will use a thicker material, or add a layer of interfacing in the strap to try and stop it from scrunching so much.

Zip along the top! White, to blend with the flag. Blue thread because... I ran out of white. Turned out I had less than I thought. Still annoyed about this. It's a tiny flaw my perfectionist mind won't let go... But I had no money to go get more thread at that point so eh. I had to make do.

The lining! I was so, so proud of myself for this! I figured out all by myself how to do it neatly and prettily! I may have gone round to all my friends after I'd made it, and showed them the bag, saying 'Hey look! Lining!!!'... none of them got why this was exciting... Anyways. The terrible blue thread from the previous photo is not visible on the inside... because it's not there! I figured out (all by myself) that it would be much better to use two colours of thread in the sewing machine, one from the top, one from the bottom. So the inside was sewn with red. Which makes me a lot happier than if it had been blue too.

The length of the strap had been awkward to figure out too - I didn't own many bags in those days. That was done mainly by trial and error in the end. It turned out good!

In Summary

I really, really need to make sure I have the correct threads for things

This was an excellent learning project

Thicker fabric for strap

Practise adding pockets inside the bag

For once, I actually started making this a whole week before I needed it, and had it finished within a day of starting it. That made for less errors or making do than usual. Except the financial-caused ones...

Overall, very proud of this piece. Definitely going to be making other bags in this style over the next few months

And now, I guess I'd better stop going over old projects and deal with the one currently spread out on my floor! (which I am super excited about being able to show you in the next week or so... hopefully...)