Cosying up... Christmas Tutorial no 13

Before we start I have a confession to make, I don't drink tea, never have and never will but I do love afternoon tea.  In fact, one of my earliest memories is having our tea delivered every Friday in quarter pound packs by Albert the Brown's tea man who drove a little green van and delivered all round Southend,  we used to have so much delivered back in the 60s, the butcher Mr Wells, the baker, the Corona man (yes, even lemonade was delivered) and the milkman.  So this week, we are going to make a tea cosy with matching egg cosies and yes, you've guessed it I don't do eggs and soldiers either... I wonder if that is why I want to hide them?

You will need
Grease Proof Paper
Top fabric (1/3 of a yard or metre) - I used linen but any heavyweight cotton will do 
Quilting wadding (1/3 of a yard or metre) - I used a medium weight
Internal fabric (1/3 of a yard or metre) - Lightweight cotton, I used gingham
Small piece of double sided iron on lightweight interfacing
Cotton
Scissors
Sewing machine
Pins & needles
Contrasting fabric for applique
Chopstick or paint brush
And woe betide you if you don't have your iron and ironing board at the ready!


Almost in the words of the immortal Mrs Beeton, first catch your teapot, measure it in the middle from top to bottom and add two inches then measure the pot from side to side (from tip of the spout to the end of the handle) and add two inches.  Draw this out onto the greaseproof paper - now you can leave this as a rectangle but really this is rather boring, so fold the paper in half starting about a two thirds in on the the top, mark it and then mark a spot half way up the side and draw the curve between these two points, by folding the paper in half both sides will look the same.

Now cut out two in your top fabric, then cut out two in the wadding but add an inch to the bottom (it will be longer than your top fabric) and finally in your inner fabric add two inches to the bottom of your patterm.

I found my gingerbread men template on a children's toy stall at a craft fair (along with a boat, a cupcake and a teddy bear) so if you have children take a look in their toy boxes or if they will not let you share toys, take a look at your pastry cutters.  On the reverse side of your applique fabrics, trace around your template and cut them out, do the same on the paper side of the interfacing.  Place the fabric templates on the top fabric and move them around until you are happy with the placement, place the interfacing onto the top fabric and then place the template on top and iron the applique into place.  

Then select a stitch from your machine, I have used a stretched satin stitch, but you could use a simple running stitch to give it an edgier look.  At this point you can also embroider on a message or slogan.


Now pin the the bottom of the inner and the outer together and sew the two together using a 5/8", press the seam upwards so that all the fabric is sitting under the upper fabric.  Take your wadding and pin it all round the outer fabric, remember it will sit an inch lower than your outer fabric, sew it together using a 1/4" seam allowance.

Cut our a piece of fabric from the internal fabric measuring 6" x 2 1/2", using a 5/8" seam allowance sew across the top and down the side.  

Using your chopstick turn it inside out and cut the end off, put the seam in the middle of the tab and iron it down so that the seam sits in the centre of the tab.  

Fold the tab in half and find the centre top of your cosy, on the outside of the fabric and pin it so that it sits with all the raw edges together.  

Leaving about 4" open at the top of the internal fabric, pin both sides together, taking great care to align the seams between the inner and outer fabric and sew them together using a 5/8" seam allowance.

Remove all the pins and then check again, reach in through the hole, grab the tab and pull it through the hole.   

Have another feel around for any pins that still might be inside... see I told you there was another one in there! 

Fold in the raw edges and sew the seams together.  

Now push the lining into your cosy, pop your cosy over the end of your ironing board and press the contrast border down.  I have to give credit to Lisa over at Mimi and Cakes for the border idea, I think it looks fab.

Turn the cosy inside out and using a few stab stitches, catch the inner to the wadding to hold it in place.  Now turn it out, give it a final press and get the kettle on!

To make the egg cosy, cut out a square  of grease proof 6" high x 5" across, using the technique we used for the tea cosy, fold it in half and round the top - I found it easiest to use the base of a mug to create the curve.  When cutting out, use an extra half inch on the wadding and an inch on the lining at the bottom to make a narrower border, as with the tea cosy cut two of each fabric.  You will also need a shorter tab at the top of the cosy.  Now follow the instructions that we used for the tea cosy to make up the egg cosy.  

One tea cosy and two egg cosies would make a great prezzie for any couple... and to make me really happy, team it up with a pack of loose tea rather than tea bags for a proper cuppa and transport me back to Friday afternoons and the Brown's tea delivery.


Now if you want a really Christmassy tea cosy design, take a look here for one that I made as a Secret Santa gift.


And as you sit there with your pot of tea, go on over to Wendy's Handmade Monday.  By the way I am off to the Post Office on Monday to collect my clock that I won on 1st Unique... cannot wait and there will be pics, I promise!

Summer Beach Hut for Sally - Cushion Tutorial

As you may realise I live by the seaside and like to take inspiration from what is going on around me for my applique cushions, so I did not even have to walk to the beach but found inspiration while drinking coffee from one of my lovely bone china mugs which are based on local views created by Howard Robinson, a renowned local artist.

Tutorial for the cushion

Materials

Cushion pad - Merrick and Day are great stockists
Main fabric - linen, cotton, ticking, calico
Applique fabric - scraps from previous projects, I find cottons work best
Sewing Cottons
Sewing Machine
Scissors and/or rotary cutter and mat
Iron on fusible bonding
Grease proof paper
Iron and ironing board
A saucer
Air erasable marker pen

In the famous words of Mrs Beeton, first choose your cushion, whether it be square or oblong, the choice is entirely yours... I am working with an oblong cushion pad which is 23" x 15".

Firstly, iron your main fabric, remember your iron is your very best friend when you are sewing.  Normal seam allowances are 5/8" but I am going to be really generous and give myself an inch, so I will need to cut out a piece of fabric which is 25"x17" and set it aside.  If you are using cotton ticking, it loves nothing better than to unravel, so cut it out with pinking shears or a pinking blade.

Now is your chance to literally go back to the drawing board, I am the least artistic person you will meet so a beach hut design is ideal as it is made up of squares, triangles and rectangles/oblongs.  You are now going to map these out on your greaseproof paper!  I used my cutting mat and ruler to draw out my pattern - this pic is drawn out on normal paper so you can read the dimensions.
Hut = Square 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" with a triangle rising 1 3/8" at the apex drawn on top
Door = Oblong 2.5" x 1.5" with a triangle rising to 3/4" at the apex drawn on top
Eaves = Oblong 3" x 3/4"

Cut out your design, pin it on your fabric scraps and cut it out carefully... all of the designs that we have chosen are symetrical so we do not have to worry about cutting out an item back to front. Trace around you pattern piece on the paper side of your iron-on fusible webbing.

Now place out your applique pieces on you fabric to see what works best for you, I have found that odd numbers of items work best, a bit like when you are gardening!

When you are happy that everything is in its place, peel off the paper from the fusible bonding, place it on the back of the fabric and then put it onto your cushion front and iron firmly into place, the bonding will give weight and strength to your fabric pieces. Do all the huts first and then the doors.

Your next step is to decide which stitch you will use to hold you pieces to the cushion front, you can use running stitch, satin stitch, blanket stitch, in fact let your imagination run riot and use any of the embroidery stitches your machine has - if this is the first time you have done this, have a little practice on some spare fabric, far better to make your mistakes where you will not see them!  I have used satin stitch for the beach hut with two complementary cottons and a running stitch for the bunting flags.

You only need to sew up the walls and base of the beach hut and all around the door.  Leave the roof unsewn as you will cover that with the eaves.

Next we will attach the eaves, overlay the oblongs to make a right angle which you overlay on the roof, start on the inside left hand side and work around the L hand side and then down the R hand side so that you will be able to complete it in one continuous piece of sewing.

Frankly, five beach huts look a little bit boring, so I thought that bunting would lift the cushion a little more.  Grab your saucer and place the edge under the edges of your eaves and draw from one to the other using the edge of the saucer as your guide.  This will be the "string" for your bunting, sew along your guideline with  a suitable stitch, I used satin stitch in lilac as I wanted to use a purple polka dot cotton for my bunting.

Cut out an oblong of 6" x 3/4", now fold the left hand corner over to the right side and cut out across the oblong, you have a square, fold this in half and you have a triangle, which becomes your bunting flag.  Repeat this until you have enough pennants to hang between your huts.  Now repeat this with your fusible bonding and iron the bonding and triangles in place.  I used a running stitch to hold the flags in place as I felt that the satin stitch looked too heavy.

Now we are going to make the back of our cushion, you need to decide how you want to close your cushion,  you could use, a simple envelope close, zip, tapes or buttons and whether you want it to close centrally or off-centre.  As this is quite a substantially sized cushion, I am going to use some large wooden buttons to ensure it closes firmly and to make it a little more interesting, it is going to close off-centre.

For my cushion, I will need to cut piece of fabric 31" x 17", this is 6" wider than the cushion front, as we will need to fold fabric over to take the buttonhole and to sew on the button, so cut the fabric so one piece is 11" wide and the other is 20" wide... don't forget to use your pinking shears to prevent fraying. Turn over a 1/4" seam down the 17" length of one side of each piece of fabric.

Now, you need to take the wider piece of fabric, fold over each seamed piece so that 2 3/4" is underneath and iron it into place.   Next, decide how many buttons and where you will place them, I am using two, so I place mine a third of the way down from the top and a third of the way from the bottom.

As you can see these buttons are large and my automatic buttonholer would not take them, so I need to mark the length of the buttonhole, you can use chalk, your pen or pins to do this.  

Change your machine foot to the buttonhole foot and if this is the first time you are doing a buttonhole take the time to do a little practice on a spare piece of fabric.  It will create the lower bar first, then run up the left hand side of the buttonhole, then the bar across the top and then back down the right hand side. Then using a sharp pair of scissors cut between the two sides of the buttonhole.

With the right sides of your fabric together, place the wider piece down first, as you will need the buttonholes to lie on top when you turn the cushion out.  As we have used a striped fabric, match the stripes together, we have a generous amount of fabric to ensure that this happens and that you get a really professional result when you finish.  Pin the fabric together and do the same with shorter width, matching the stripes again and laying it over the fabric which contains the buttonholes (four layers of fabric).

Sew around the cushion cover.  Before you turn the cushion cover out, go to each corner and cut off the corners above your seam, so that you will not have a bulk of fabric lying there and then you will get a lovely sharp corner. Turn the cushion out, sew your button in place and then insert your cushion pad.

You have now finished your cushion, ready for that Summer seaside look.

This cushion now lives with my friend Sally to remind her of her week spent on hols down in Cornwall.

And here are a selection of other Summer and seaside ideas, each of them are based on simple shapes of squares, triangles and oblongs/rectangles which are available in my Etsy Shop.

Please don't forget that it is also Handmade Monday, so go and take a look at what everyone has been up to over the past week... I see that Wendy, who hosts this is so darned organised that she is already making Christmas items!  Trust me to be behind...