the australia cushion ...

It's finished and already claimed ...

Thanks to many words of wisdom from blogland over the last week, I worked out how to do two things that I hadn't done before ~ thread sketch properly (using a darning foot) and make (and insert) piping.

The piping was fun to make, and not as hard as I thought to sew in (I read this tutorial before I started). The key was the piping foot (see this post for more details) which gave me plenty of room to sew the piping onto the fabric without seeing any stitches.

I'm really happy with the result ~ it means something at our place, and adds a bit of home to the lounge. Above all, it was fun to make, and great to learn some new sewing skills.

The ocean blue swizzle fabric I used to make this cushion is currently on sale (along with some other fabric designs and cushion covers) in my shop ~ click here!

More creativity here, each Thursday.

the one where i thought i could thread sketch ...

A couple of weeks ago I was feeling very patriotic, and had an idea to thread sketch a map of Australia onto some of my swizzle fabric and make a cushion. Sounds simple enough ...

Turns out that I can't seem to make it work! I see lots of problems ~ the lines are too smooth, uniform, and not "sketchy" enough. I think it needs to be a bit messier and pointy, if that makes sense. Also, poor old Tassie looks a bit worse for wear ~ a bit too blobby (sorry Tassie!).

My ideas for fixing (so far) include adding another shade of thread. My sewing machine (yes, I'm blaming the machine now!) doesn't seem to want to let me lower the feed dogs and sew straight stitch, so if I want it too look a bit more "messy" I may have to resort to actually reading the instruction book.

Any suggestions gratefully welcomed!

More creativity here (each Thursday).

union jack cushion ... my way!

I've had a plan to sew a union jack (British flag) cushion for ages. It's not an original idea (union jack's are on just about everything these days), but I really just wanted to try out this lovely, iconic design in my own way. Using my own fabrics. As you do!

The first thing I did was buy a rectangle shaped cushion. Then I printed a union jack out on paper and worked out all of the dimensions to suit the cushion, as well as being true to the proportions of the design. Then I cut lots of strips of fabric and sewed them onto a rectangle base.

Circa (navy on natural linen/cotton) and Swizzle (deep red on natural linen/cotton) and plain natural linen/cotton were used to create the flag and correspond to the red, white and blue theme.

I really enjoyed sewing this cushion and I love the end result. I think I might sew some more and experiment a little further. In the mean time, it's nice to have prototypes to scatter on the lounge!

A final reminder ~ just a few days left to take advantage of the Yardage Design online store free shipping offer ... until 20 December there is FREE SHIPPING worldwide for orders greater than $35. Simply enter the code word CHRISTMAS at the checkout and your shopping cart will automatically update once the order is over $35.

a beautiful baby wrap ...

This baby wrap was made by another clever Yardage Design customer and blogger ~ Jackie from Fred & Cissy. Jackie is expecting a little one very soon (teddy is just a stand-in!), so has been busy with some of my Swizzle fabric (deep red on natural) and some knit fabric ...

I love it - stylish and practical. Pop over to Jackie's blog post for more on how she made it, including a tutorial link. Thanks Jackie! More things people have made using my fabric here.

cutting + folding

It was all about fabric cutting and folding here this morning, with orders for a number of lovely customers and stockists to fill. It's one of my favourite jobs! I took a few minutes to take some photo's ...

This set of fabrics will be at the lovely, crafty Onabee shop in Kensington tomorrow. I hope you are enjoying a sunny afternoon wherever you are!

pear shaped!

A few weeks ago, I had an idea for something a bit different to take to The Finders Keepers Market. I have admired Brenda's work for some time now, and wondered if she would make her gorgeous pears with my linen. She (thankfully) agreed and this was the result ...

I just love them!! Two sets of pears in each colourway (on natural linen) will be available at The Finders Keepers Market in about 10 days time. I also couldn't resist showing you how beautifully Brenda packaged up her pears to send to me. What a great idea to use old sewing patterns - looks brilliant with the red and white string - my kind of packaging!

Have a great day!

a fairy floss induced sewing spree

Mr Yardage went to the football last night, and Little Mister was so tired after the Show that he was asleep early, leaving me rare, quiet time to sew. Sugared up on fairy floss, I made this top from start to finish ...

I am real square neck fan, so I was keen to try the New Look 6356 pattern out. I used just under a metre of my Swizzle fabric in teal. It's a pretty simple pattern, with just a small zipper at the back. The whole thing took about 3 hours to sew (in between a bit of blogging and fairy floss). Once I'd finished it, I realised that I'd forgotten to sew one of my new labels into it ... bugger! Anyway, it was just so nice to start and finish something in the same sitting - I can't remember the last time I did that and made something just for me. Hope your Sunday is a good one!

my creative space ....

My creative space involved something new this week - a bit of jewellery making with little fabric scraps of Swizzle ...

I was flitting around blogland, visiting some people who had left comments and I stumbled across this little kit from Miss Milla's.

These types of kits are tradionally used with paper, but I really wanted to try fabric, and I think it worked really well! There are a few stages and some glue drying time involved, but it was such a nice way to spend a couple of hours on a gloomy afternoon. I could have made dozens! Lucky for me, and for you, Kirsten from Miss Milla's is offering free postage until 31 July - just enter the promo code NJFREESHIP at the checkout - thanks Kirsten, your note and offer were such a lovely surprise.

More creativity at this lovely place - noticing a lot of good stuff over there!

bias + window love

Still in love with bias binding making - especially with the 25mm gadget. I've been cutting some nice wide strips of fabric to make binding from my red Swizzle fabric ...

It sews beautifully - not too heavy, not too light, and no puckering - hurrah!

Also loving a bit of afternoon sunshine through the bathroom window (my favourite window in the house - we got it from a salvage yard and installed it ourselves when we gutted the bathroom - I love the simple design) ...

Thanks to everyone for the lovely response to my businessy post on Sunday - I wasn't really sure whether people would be interested in that sort of thing or not. I have a few more posts like that up my sleeve for the coming weeks (probably Sundays). Have a great Wednesday!

finished!

All finished! Just in time for a bloggy, girly, fun and funny dinner tonight with my friend Pam and the rest of the Sew it Together gang - really looking forward to it!
The details: red and white heavy cotton fabric from Spotlight, Circa & Swizzle fabrics by me (!) and McCalls pattern 3830 (quick & easy - for sure!).
Hope you're having a nice weekend - the sun is out in Melbourne, and it's a glorious Autumn day.

progress ...

 ... making something to wear to dinner tomorrow night ...

piano stool makeover ...

I found this timber piano stool at a Salvo's store this week, and thought it needed to be freed from it's brown vinyl ...

So, this afternoon, I took a bit of my Swizzle fabric and a staple gun, and gave it a makeover ...

The cream and teal of the fabric goes beautifully with the dark timber - I love it! This stool will be at the Show, where it will do double duty as paper bag storage ...

Check out what other people have found at markets and op shops, here.

meet my fabric : "swizzle"

I thought it was high time that I introduced you to my very own yardage designs ... beginning with the one that I teased you with on Friday.  Meet "Swizzle" ...

Swizzle (so named because it looks a bit like a swizzle stick to me) started life as a doodle in my sketchbook ...

The idea came from a daisy chain, which I then played around with until I settled on a basic stripe effect pattern. The design is realtively small scale because I wanted a fabric that I could use for smaller projects and trims.

I'm a bit obsessed with red and teal at the moment, so I had this design hand printed in both teal on an offwhite hemp/organic cotton basecloth, and deep red on a natural linen/cotton basecloth ...

Both colourways of this design will be available in fat quarters (approx 70cm x 50cm) at the Melbourne Stitches & Craft Show. You will be able to buy this fabric in my online shop after the show.

Stay tuned for another design tomorrow!