Sewing for Boys: part 2

This weeks task was to make a cushion cover. First off we had to practice two seams. The first one was a straight forward seam with the rights sides together then sewn with a straight stitch, but using the marking on the sewing machine plate to get a guide width of 5/8 of an inch. Fine and dandy and not too many problems. The French Seam which was to be for more delicate fabrics where the seam is hidden, was more of a problem, but I got there in the end.

Jamie gets to road test Daddies cushion.

Then it was on to the cushion. I had chosen quite a bold fabric as I was going to make a cushion for the sofa in my son's room. He is still in his cot so we have enough room for a sofa in his room. I chose the turtle fabric as it is a nice strong theme and the blue would liven up the sofa.

The cushion was made up of three panels, one 16 inch square and two 16 x 12 inch panels for the backing. I tried marking out the fabric as correctly as I could and then cut it with scissors. Now I had not appreciated how hard this was going to be to follow a straight line with scissors. I can see the advantage of a rotary cutter to get nice straight lines. After putting a tidy seam on each of the back panels, the three pieces were pinned together. I can't say that I found this supposedly simple task too easy either and I think there must be some tips that I can glean from the shop.

Anyway we were away and stitching round all sides of the square to make my cushion. I was pretty pleased as I came to the end and then turned it inside out to reveal... Yep I hadn't put all the front sides together and now the front of my cushion was the wrong side. I wasn't the only one to make this basic but really annoying mistake. We had run out of time at the class so I would have to unpick at home and do it again.

At home I was using an old Bernina sewing machine of my mums. It had lots more buttons to press, an LCD screen but after a bit of work I had the bobbin loaded, straight stitch selected and was ready to go. Things did not go well, I could not follow a straight line and the stitching was going off all the time. I had to unpick three or four times, until I marked the straight lines on the fabric and then I could follow that. I think I might not have been going fast enough and wasn't letting the machine do the work. Eventually though it was done, I turned it inside out, pushed out the corners and loaded a cushion inside. Despite all the errors I am pleased with the result.

The finished cushion in place.

Lessons learnt:

Pinning is harder than it looks to make sure the fabrics don't pucker up.

Sewing in a straight line and following a guide isn't that easy and needs practice.

Double and then triple check that you are sewing your fabric pieces the right way round!!

Cutting a straight line with scissors takes practice and a rotary cutter goes faster.

Next week is a door-stop!!