More sewing....

Having not done any sewing for a while, I think I've got the bug again.  The sewing machine was still set up from making the doorstop and I decided to tackle the rather old, in need of some TLC, bean bag cube in our living room.

We've had this cube for ever and it sits in the corner of our room.  I'm not sure we even notice it any more. It's funny how sometimes you just live with stuff and one day look at it and think'why?'  Why have I never got rid of this, why haven't I done something with it, why have I never tarted it up, does it even have a purpose?  Truth be told it's quite convenient if we suddenly need an extra 'seat' in the room and the nieces and nephew seem to love it!  They drape themselves over it whilst watching the TV inches away from their face!

Anyway, poor unloved cube.  I thought it was time I tried to make it look a bit more attractive.  I found this lovely red, cream and 'mushroomy' striped fabric in the sale and bought enough to re-cover the cube and make some new cushions too (I'll tackle those another day).

I unpicked the old faux leather cube and used the pieces to make a pattern template.  I decided to re-use the zip from the bottom as well, even though it's a bit darker than it should be and in hindsight, I wouldn't bother next time.  I would have created a Velcro flap on the underneath of something similar, but it's OK and overall it looks alright.

Putting the four sides together was a doddle and so was the top square. The main thing was getting the stripes matching.  I then sewed one half of the zip on and then I had to fit the bottom square onto the other half of the zip.  A little trickier this time and not amazing close up!

Then it was just a case of fitting the old sack inside containing all the little polystyrene beans.  I was fortunate to have some spare in the house and so I cut a hole and re-filled the bag with some extra, just to plump the whole thing up and sewed the hole back up after.

And here it is in it's new incarnation.......

Definitely an improvement, I think.  Cushions next......

How to make a fabric doorstop

It's been a while since I tackled any sewing projects, but  a few days ago I went into our local fabric store and saw some lovely heavy linen in a dark mushroom colour and thought it would be perfect for a doorstop for the bathroom.  The fabric had quite a French feel about it, a bit like an old sack, so I thought it would work really well with a French graphic transferred on.

I had in my stash some Lazertran transfer paper for fabric, so I used an old french perfume label from The Graphics Fairy, printed it on, made up the doorstop (not without a bit of unpicking and resewing along the way) and 'Hey Presto', a fabulous vintage looking doorstop.  I think the biggest compliment was when my husband came home and thought I'd bought it!

So this is how I made it...

I cut out 3 pieces.  The main body was 22cm x 52cm.  The top and bottom pieces were 15cm x 11cm and then I just cut out a strip for the handle.  This measured 32cm x 7cm but I cut it long as I wasn't sure how much I'd need, once sewn.

I then printed the image onto the fabric transfer paper (remember to reverse the image, otherwise it will come out back to front).  The image was then ironed on for about 2 minutes and allowed to cool before peeling off the backing paper.  I used Lazertran paper as I happened to have some lying around, but there are many products out there that would be suitable and The Graphics Fairy has some great tutorials on transferring images.

I then sewed together the ends of my long piece for the main body of the doorstop and ironed open the seam.

I then turned in the fabric edges of the handles and ironed them then sewed close to the edge on both sides, partly because it looked nice and also because it gave some body to the handle.  I then took the top piece of the doorstop and zig zagged around the edge to stop it fraying.  I sewed one end of the handle onto the top and then did another line of stitching about an inch in to strengthen it.  Allow enough room for you to pick the handle up and then sew the other side, once by the edge and then again an inch in.  Cut off the excess fabric, as in the photo.

This is the tricky bit, as you need to fit your main fabric body around the top rectangle.  It's worth pinning to fit into place before sewing as stretching can create a bad fit.  I have to confess that I had to unpick and sew this 3 times before I got it right!  I'm sure there's a better way out there......  Make sure you sew right sides together so that when you turn it out, everything is the right way round.

I then did eaxctly the same thing for the bottom rectangle but on this one, you need to leave a gap to turn the fabric right way out.

With the piece turned the right way, fill the gap with rice until you are about  two quarters full, maybe a little more.  I used a 2kg bag of rice plus a tiny bit more.  You can use sand instead.  Once full, stitch up the hole.  I hand stitched mine but you can do it on the machine.

And here's the finished doorstop!

Friends...

I've not been on the blog for a few weeks, mainly, because the weather has been so lovely, I've been spending all my time out in the garden, sorting out all the jobs I've been putting off!  But I did manage to spend some time making a special birthday card for a close friend of mine and here it is:

I purchased the beautiful rose photograph from Creative Market iseeyouphoto and the rest of the images came from either French Kiss Collections or The Graphics Fairy

I also met up with some of my former work colleagues and created this for a friend of mine whose really into collecting scrap-booking components and papers and she not only loves animals but is really into music.

Again images and backgrounds came from French Kiss or The Graphics Fairy.