New Sewing Machine.

I've not posted on here for a little while, my goals for this year was to blog more and just when I had ideas of things to make and blog posts to write, work (as always) got busy and I decided to decorate my bedroom.  All of which overflowed my stress bucket (for anyone whose completed their Mental Health First Aid Training will know what that is about) and my response for being too stressed is to go quiet and stop communicating.

So what has been going in the crafty world of Sarahdipity?  Well for started I made a rash decision to buy a new sewing machine.  I am now the proud owner of Pfaff Smarter 260c.  It arrived on the 14th January and looked lovely.

Here is a photo of my lovely new sewing machine sat on our dining room table.  It arrived on a Wednesday and I knew I had no time to try it out until the weekend.  So I looked at it, stroked and pushed buttons.

The weekend came, but I needed to move into action with the thoughts of decorating my bedroom.  I had no furniture was living in the spare room and a new bed had arrived.  I didn't want to put the new bed up until I had decorated the room.  So instead of playing on my new toy, my wonderful Pfaff computerized sewing machine with a top loading bobbing, one step button hole and many other features I was looking for, I was painting woodwork, wall and putting up wallpaper for the first time ever in my life.

I got round to trying out my sewing machine for the first time on Tuesday 20th January (almost a whole week later!!!!)  So in my hour of play I used some scrap fabrics and tried out the different stitches.  It didn't look good as I couldn't get the tension right, but after many, many attempts I finally got the tension right and the stitches started to look neat.  I tried out the one step button hole, tried out the button sewing foot I had purchased plus used the quarter inch foot to use some scraps of fabric to start making a simply crazy patchwork.

The sewing machine was silent, easy to use and so much nicer than our old, basic Singer sewing machine,  I'm sure this machine will work lovely after a service as we've owned it for 8 years and we've not had it serviced.  All in all everything with the machine was really lovely, apart from being able to set the tension correctly.

I didn't get a chance to do anymore sewing for another week as I was again busy with work and continuing with my bedroom makeover.  A week later I got back onto the sewing machine.  This time around I finished the simply crazy patchwork and turned it into a square and edged it ready to turn it into a cushion cover.  I also played around with the blind hem foot.  I've got two sets of curtains which need shortening, including lining.  I need to master blind hemming (I've never managed to do it before) so I can turn these curtains up and prevent all the heat from the radiators going up the curtains and not into the rooms.  Quick rant here - I moved into a new build house 8 years ago, now being new build you'd think it would have standard sized windows?!  Oh no, not one window in the house fits standard sized curtains.  Standard curtains are either not long enough or way too long.  Plus all the radiators were fixed under the non-standard sized windows meaning you have to shorten all the curtains to ensure you get all the heat coming from the radiator.  Why not fit standard size windows?!!!!!.

Anyhow the bedroom makeover involves having to shorten the new black out curtains for my bedroom and the curtains.  I also need to shorten the curtains I bought for the dinning room last Christmas too.  I have now mastered the art of blind hemming and so now feel ready to tackle the curtains.  I now need to spend a considerable chunk of time measuring, cutting, pinning and sewing to get them to the right height for the windows and radiators.

I did though by the end of last week finish my cushion cover I had started and here it is.

I made a similar cushion before Christmas which I had for sale in the pop up shop.  This one though has a white centre and white edges unlike the other one I made.  It also has a more distinct swirl pattern to the colours going around the edge.  Another bonus is that it matches the colour scheme in my newly painted bedroom (you can see a sneak peak of the wall paper in the background, my new bed frame and my bedding). This cushion won't be staying in my bedroom, it will go up for sale on Etsy.   I've bought a load of fat quarters to make cushions and other stuff for my bedroom.

What do you think of the cushion?  It took much longer to finish that I expected, but making over a bedroom at the same time doesn't help. Sewing this on my new Pfaff Smarter 260c Sewing Machine was lovely, the fabric moved well, the quarter inch guide foot was a dream to use and help me keep to 1/4 inch seams.  Have you got a new sewing machine?  What do you make?  Let me know.

Patchwork Cushion

I've been watching patchwork programmes on Create and Craft TV and have been inspired by Sarah Payne who is one of the quilting experts on the TV channel.  I have purchased the simply crazy and twinkling star template in order to learn to patchwork.  On Saturday I had my first attempt at making a cushion from the simply crazy template.  It took a lot of time as I was measuring and making up as I went along.  Anyhow, this is my first attempt.

This cushion is made from a pack of fat quarters I purchased from Hobbycraft a few weeks ago.  They were half price and cost me £7.50 for 6 fat quarters.  The blues and greens compliment the colours in my bedroom, but I shall sell this cushion for £20 at the pop up shop being run by Emporia Fabric and Crafts.  You can learn about them by clicking here.

I've cut everything out to make two more of these cushions, I just need to find time to sew them together.  I've not had time to do this yet, but I am sure I will eventually.  Again these will be made from fat quarters that were half price at Hobbycraft.

Crochet Cushions

I've blogged previously showing crochet cushions in the process of being made, but I've not blogged or shown the finished pictures of the cushions.  This post will be quite photo heavy, but it will show you my cushions and what I am doing with them now that I have finished them.

Most of the cushions were made from the free wool that comes with Lets Craft Knitting and Crochet Magazine.  You get just enough wool to make a cushion front.  I have then used good quality cotton fabric to make the cushions with and added coordinating buttons on the back to hold the cushions together.

So I've made 9 cushions which are going to be available to be bought at the pop up shop being run by Emporia Fabric and Crafts in Ashford.  You can find out more about this shop which has just celebrated it first birthday by clicking here.

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.