Another crochet cushion

Following on from last weekends experiment with cushion covers, this weekend I made another cushion using a square of crochet I made in June.  I used the wool that came with Let's Get Crafting Knitting & Crochet Magazine issue 60 and used the pattern for the Shell Cushion cover from issue 56 from Let's Get Crafting Knitting & Crochet Magazine.

This is the cushion.  I made some changes from last weekend's attempts.  My fabric ruler and rotary cutter had arrived from Amazon.  I cut a square 40cm x 40cm and it was very square this time (unlike last weeks)  I cut two pieces for the back 40cm x 30cm.  The crochet square was backed by the square piece of fabric and the back pieces overlapped like last week.  The slightly bigger pieces made for a much better overlap than on the last two cushions.  I don't have a walking foot for the sewing machine yet, and I had the same problem as last week with the top layer of fabric moving as I sewed all the layers together.

On finishing the cushion I then made two button holes and attached two buttons to match the colours in the cushion cover.  I like the effect of the crochet, it has a look of an argyle jumper, even though it is the crochet shell pattern. I would like to sell crochet cushions like this on the Internet for £15 per cushion. I feel this is a realistic price and it does offer some profit on the cost of making the cushion.  What do you think of the cushion?  Would you buy one?  Would you pay £15 for it?  Let me know what you think.

Crochet cushions

For a long time I've been thinking about making cushions out of my new craft skill of crochet.  I made a giant granny square with the wool I had used to make my first ever crochet blanket.  Then I wasn't sure what to do with my square.  I then made an identical square and and double crocheted them together around a cushion inner.  Whilst this created a cushion, it didn't quite make a cushion as I had wanted.  I am very good at spilling stuff on my cushions and they way I had constructed the cushions meant I couldn't remove the cover and wash it if it got dirty.

I've had a plan in my mind about how to create the cushion covers as I've wanted to sew the crochet into a fabric cover.  After many months of thinking about this I finally bought some fabric and last weekend I started to make my first sewn crochet covers.

These are my new cushions.  I bought the 35cm cushion pads from John Lewis, they cost £4 each. The fabric is a cream remnant which I bought from Ashford Fabric Warehouse for £4.  This piece of fabric made the two cushions above and there's enough to make at least two more.  The crochet granny squares were made from the left over wool from the crochet blanket I made.  The cushions are designed to go on my sofa and to co-ordinate with the blanket.  The photos above show the cushions on my sofa with the afghan on the back.

To make the cushion covers I cut out a square of cream fabric 40cm x 40cm and then two pieces 40cm x 35cm to make the back of the cushion.  I measured the square using a tape measure and cut out with my fabric scissors.  The square wasn't very even or square but when I stitched it all together on the sewing machine it came out square and the right size for the cushion pad.  The front of the cushion is made from the crochet square and the fabric square with the two back pieces on the back.  This allows the crochet to be lined and to be removed and washed if anything is spilled on it. It also prevents the cushion pad from showing through the crochet square.

The pillow case fold on the first cushion was too deep as I had always wanted to hold the cover together with buttons.  The second one I made I reduced the size of the pieces on the back of the cushion 40cm x 25cm  The overlap was a much better size for using buttons.  I then sorted through the assorted buttons I had ordered from Amazon and found 4 big red ones to match the crochet.  I then practiced making button holes and created button holes and stitched the buttons on to create an interest on the back.

The pictures above show the completed cushions. I can see my idea will work but it needs a few more tweaks.  I've ordered a fabric ruler and rotary cutter to make a more equal and square shaped pieces of fabric.  I also need to order a walking foot for the sewing machine.  The crochet square is sandwiched between the fabric and works in a similar way to wadding when making a quilt.  This means the top layer of fabric moves when it is being sewn together.  I know that a walking foot prevents this from happening in quilting and I hope it will have the same effect on my crochet covers.

All in all I am very proud of my first attempt at making crochet cushions.  What do you think of them?

WIPS (Work in Progress)

I haven't been posting on this blog as much as I should do.  I've been meaning to set up my Etsy shop but I need time to photograph all of what I want to sell and I want to finish what will be a new line of products to sell.

Over the years I have been a cross stitcher, a knitter, a sewer, a card maker, a scrapbooker and more recently a hooker (a person who crochets).  I am somebody who gets bored easily which is why I like small projects and so I don't usually make big items.  In my last post I talked about the progress of my African Flower Afghan but I am getting bored of making it as I've been making this since April.  So I've been experimenting with cushion covers made from crochet.

I've been buying magazines as I've like the free gifts of wool, crochet hooks and knitting needles.  I've been turning the free wool into cushion covers.  I've crocheted the squares but need to actually purchase the fabric to turn them into nice cushion covers which can be sold.

This cushion cover is just a simple granny square.  I need to sort out the wool ends and then turn it into a cushion.  My aim is that one side of the cushion will be crocheted and the back will be fabric and you will close them with buttons that will be funky and match the colours in the crochet.  I really liked the combination of colours in this pack.  I liked how the colours clashed and hope this will appeal to customers who will buy the cushion.

This is a shell crochet cushion cover made from a pattern in the first crochet magazine I bought.  I didn't use the wool from the magazine to make this cushion, this is made from the wool that came a few magazines later.  I like how with these colours work this pattern.  Again there are messy ends but once sewn together into the cushion cover it will look so much neater.  

This is the final cushion cover I've made.  I made this over the weekend,  The centre are 4 granny squares with 3 dimensional flowers.  I joined the squares together and then crocheted around the edges to make a square big enough to make a cushion cover from.  There wasn't enough pink wool to go completely around the edge and so the last round is two tone.  It would have looked much better if it was completely pink, but made the best with the amount of wool I had left.

If these were turned into cushions would you buy them?  Do you like to colour combinations?  Are the designs good but should the colour combinations be different?  Post your comments and let me know what you think.

African Flower Afghan

I've been working on a new afghan for my bedroom since April.  I've not managed to do as much crochet as I would hope and so progress on my afghan has been slow.  I have though managed to complete 40 hexagons which I sewed together over the weekend.  This is my progress so far.

I didn't work on Friday and I spent most of Friday and Saturday morning stitching the hexagons together.  I've got 4 rows of 10 hexagons which just about spread across the bed.  All of the hexagons are different but I think I've exhausted the different colour pattern combinations with the wool that I have. My initial thoughts were that I would need to crochet enough hexagons to create an afghan that is 10 across and 12 long, so that makes 120 hexagons, plus some half flowers to fill the spaces at the end of the rows.  This means that I am a third of the way through this afghan and its taken me 5 months to get this far.

Looking at what I've hooked and joined together it looks much smaller that the third of the afghan I thought it would be, but the thought of stitching more than 120 hexagons is too daunting.  I've found I've got bored stitching the flower pattern.  Whilst I change the colour combinations around it does change what I stitch and I get bored quite easily.  But I am determined to finish this before Christmas.

What are you working on right now?  Do you have a project that is taking longer than you think?  Have you made an African Flower Afghan?  What was your experience like?