I’ve been making things, particularly recently, and just not getting round to blogging them. So I’m going to just do a quick round-up post so I get them on record!
First up, the cushions that I bought when I bought my first house back in 2002 (I think?) finally gave up the ghost. They were shredded. I fully intended to throw them out, but even those we replaced them the old ones keep getting used. So, I took the jeans that I finally had to give up on, combined it with the rest of the skirt that I was using to patch the jeans, and made new covers.
I also remade the inners. So the bits I reused were the zips and the stuffing. Does this mean they’re really new cushions? Either way, washable covers and reusing the denim that was still good. I made the first one in July, then it took me until early December to make the second – and there may still be some loose threads that need dealing with. But it’s a big improvement and should last another good view years!
Next make was a new tree skirt for our Christmas tree. We’ve been wrapping it in my cashmere lap quilt for the last few years, but I also use that for work and I miss it! Last year my mother-in-law bought me some Disney Christmas fat quarters, so I bought some iron-on wadding and did a surprising amount of maths and made a tree skirt.
It’s just tied closed with ribbons at the back, and it’s backed with some denim-blue fabric of unknown provenance (a sheet? I don’t remember it, so assuming it’s from Mum’s stash!). The fusible fleece is interesting. And as it happens I bought way too much, so it may well start appearing in a few things! Like the last two makes of the year, for example.
I’ve bought myself a pretty small bumbag (might as well be honest) for lightweight trips out, and I got a small sketchbook to go with it. I tried carrying a pen just in loose, but I’d rather have a small pencil case for the job. I was struggling to find anything small enough, and I had a bit of everything left over, so I tried making one.
It’s not perfect. I might have done the zip a little differently, or maybe stopped the wadding a little earlier. But it’s small enough to fit in the bag and big enough for a couple of pens and a pencil maybe. So, great!
And then, flushed with that success and still with a lot of wadding, I decided to tackle something that’s been really irritating me: my glasses’ case. I have small glasses. The case they came with is big. It makes all my bags feel a lot smaller.
Again, I spent a while playing with layouts. Taking measurements, and thinking about construction options. In the end, I went with making a kind of box out of fabric.
I made the quilt sandwich by cutting the wadding to size, ironing it on to the back of the top (spotty) fabric, then laying the lining fabric against the spotty side and stitching around it. I turned the whole thing inside out and that gave me the box outline. I just butted the ends up, no tabs of fabric, and stitched between them. Since taking the photos, I’ve borrowed a leather-working stitch to complete those sides. Should make it a little stronger. The tabs on the front are stitched into the main seams (and made from the ribbon of a Lindt bunny), and I put some lines of stitching along the folds to help the creasing. The velcro was a pain, but will work. It’s padded and petite. Winning!
So four end of year makes. Not a bad late flurry of productivity on the year. Let’s see what next year brings!
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