sew sunday

I woke up today fully intending to finish knittig a dinosaur toy I began a week or so ago, but instead I had my fill of Game of Thrones (currently reading Storm of Swords part 2 for the second time - yikes red wedding! - and just finished the first series of the HBO show) and then I got down to some serious sewing, and today I completed 2 projects - quite a feat!

The first that I completed was a tie cushion cover. This was a pattern taken from The Great British Sewing Bee (by Tessa Evelegh, 2013) which accompanied the first series of the (amazing) BBC 2 program, and I have been wanting to make it for aaageess. I was looking at a tatty, understuffed cushion on my bed and thought well now is as good a time as any. And so I got to work.

Completed cover

Completed cushion alongside my other handmade covers

This is the finished piece - it took me just about 1 hour and a half (just enough time to watch Tarzan while I worked), there is a lining to hold the cushion in place, like you would with a pillow case, and the ties are made using the main fabric (a large cream flower print) and the lining fabric (plain deep purple to match the leaves on the main fabric). It was a simple yet professional looking pattern and took a lot less time than I thought considering all the pressing and machine stiching that went into it. I would recommend this for a beginner as all the shapes and techniques are simple, and would also recommend the book, currently £12 on Amazon.

The second project I completed today was one I began just about a year ago, and had simply put off until today I forced myself to finally complete it! This is a fleece blanket, with felt applique symbols of the four nations that feature in the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar The Last Air-Bender. This is an AMAZING show and I was inspired to make a blanket by M who last year handstiched a perfect Pac-Man blanket for her boyfriend. However I fell down on the hand stiching (too daunting and time consuming) and today completed the blanket with the machine. It looks pretty brilliant however if I do say so myself!

The Avatar blanket - with my feet!

I cut the templates for the symbols myself and used bonda web to (attempt to) attached them to the fleece. It didn't take very well though and I ended up using a lot of pins instead, which made for a bit of a painful session on the sewing machine. I am thoroughly pleased with this and I hope you are too! I am thinking of adding a border between the symbols or perhaps something else to just finish it off...any thoughts are welcome! But I may well just leave it as it is and be happy - thats the great thing about crafting from your own pattern; it is only complete when you say so!

I haven't got a pattern for this blanket to share with you guys, however I am willing to trace the symbols for templates on request, and may well do so in a future post.


WELL I do apologise for the EPIC post, but I just achieved so much today I had to share it all with you! I promise to be much more brief next time. Hoping to show you a cute knitted dinosuar in a day or two.

J