Peacock cushion

I dug this pretty peacock out of a bin of $5 fabric scraps at the Laura Ashley warehouse sale last week.

It came home with me, plus a bunch of velvet fabric samples they were selling at 5 for $1 (and a few other things). I’d previously discovered that their cotton/viscose furnishing velvet feels lovely and lasts well.

The unembroidered sections of the peacock piece were floppy loosely woven cotton, whereas the embroidery was stiff. There was also some wrinkling between embroidered bits that I couldn’t press out. So I backed the whole thing with some mid weight cotton/linen and coursely machine quilted the two together, avoiding stitching over the peacock. This gave the floppy bits more body and camouflaged the wrinkly bits by giving all the unembroidered cloth more texture.

The back is pieced from four of the velvet samples and has shiny shell buttons for a closure. The cushion inner is a cut down feather pillow that once belonged to my grandparents. The dimensions match another pillow that I once made to fit on a folding chair, but has since been recovered a couple of times.

Here is the finished thing from the front. Not bad for $5.80 plus some stash and time.

cot sheets

I was invited to a baby shower and encouraged to bring second hand baby stuff for the expectant parents. I don’t have children, so instead I made new cot sheets out of an old rejected sheet of mine that had been laying about waiting for a decision on it’s future. So the fabric is second hand, but that means it is nicely pre-softened.

I worked out the size needed and cut out the pieces. Then I pressed folds in at the point that the sheet will curve over the edges of the mattress. That gave me lines to guide my freehand fun with fabric markers. I decided to only put the designs around the edge to limit skin contact with the baby. There should be no problem, but I have friends with some strange sensitivities.

After the designs were drawn and pressed to set*, I made up the structure of the fitted sheet.

Then for the first time ever, managed to fold fitted sheets neatly. I don’t bother for my own sheets but these were little and a gift.

*the instructions on the markers said to iron on cotton setting for 4 minutes! That’s a very long time. I did 10-12 seconds with some steam and just that was enough to begin scorching the cloth. The ink will fade with washing. Evolving character I say. I know from experience actually that the gold/brown of the suns will wash to a pleasant soft grey.