7 :: The Den, part 2…

 

As promised, this one is all about the cushions.  They have been mentioned briefly before here and here but now I can reveal them in all their glory.

I bought the pattern from Oh, Fransson ages ago just because I liked it and so it sat in my documents waiting for inspiration to strike.  I had to adapt it slightly because I wanted rectangular cushions rather than square.  I just followed the basic construction of the wonky blocks until I got the pieces to fit my cushion pad.  I was on a much tighter fabric allowance, particularly with the linen than what was suggested in the pattern.  In fact, for the cushion below, Elizabeth said to use the plain fabric on both sides of the printed fabrics and then you cut them off afterwards and I certainly couldn’t afford to do that with my linen.

As I mentioned before, the grey linen is from here and is just wonderful.  The colour is perfect and it was so good to work with.  I had no fear in machine-quilting the layers together. I decided to buy a fat quarter bundle of the Birch Fabrics from Ray Stitch after seeing it at Fabricworm back in the summer.

Also, I didn’t want to put zips in, so I made envelope backs as is my usual practice.  This time I decided to move out of my comfort zone and experiment with the one-step buttonhole foot on my sewing machine.  I selected some coordinating buttons from my button jars and added three to the back on the closure.  This also saved some linen as I didn’t have to have extra forming the flap underneath because the buttons stopped it gaping.

This one uses All Star 2 that I bought from Hawthorne Threads.  Their delivery is superb – sometimes my fabrics arrives quicker than it does from the UK!

 

 

For this one I used a variety of fabrics that went with the bee fabric that I bought a while ago, (from here, I think) and the gorgeous Anna Maria Horner voile from Saints and Pinners, plus some grey geometric from my stash.

 

I love the buttons on this one.

 

For the last one, I used up the remaining fabrics from the bundles I had bought, in an effort to tie them all in together.

I think the difference in colour of the linen on three of the pieces is where it was starting to get really tight in the linen quantities and so I think the weave must be going the other way!

The cushion pads are 40 x 60cm and I bought them from John Lewis.

I have ideas for some more cushions to go with these, but it is a good start and they have got the seal of approval from No2.  So I’m happy!