I absolutely fully accept that my style is less retro, more fashion backward, and to celebrate that I have designed and created these 2 pillows: "the Nanna cushion" and "the Nanna tiki knits."
Well the Internet is a big wide space and there's plenty of space for everyone and every taste. As if to prove it, yesterday I came across a blog site whose sole raison d'etre is to sew bags out of old jeans and decorate then with tatting. Don't believe me? Look here.
I lOVE other people's blogs. The creativity! It is so inspiring to see the endless variety of tastes and self expression.
I designed these cushions to use up my fabric scraps. When I cleaned out my hope chest, I bagged up my fabric scraps and quicker than you could say "landfill" I knew I had to find a way to repurpose them. The first cushion, the knitting tiki, I made a while back to use up some furnishing fabric. If you are not from New Zealand, you may not know that the tiki is a Maori emblem used to guard the entrance to sacred places. And what place more sacred than the entrance to a sewer's sewing space?
The second cushion is only half complete. It is made from bitch fabric (silk chiffon, it slides everywhere). I looked everywhere for a pattern for those round old cushions with the gathered centre and tufted buttons but to no avail. I sat down yesterday and drafted one from scratch, so you could say I'm still mid-muslin. As soon as it's finished and I've ironed out any construction/drafting issues I'll run a tutorial.
Who knows? If 10 people can sign up for a group blog to turn their jeans into bags with tatting embellishment then there will probably be other sewers out there who'd like to make a tufted cushion from their fabric scraps.
How do you use your fabric scraps? Any ideas, links etc gratefully received.
Lurve the tiki cushion weilding needles!!
ReplyDeleteAnd this isn't so much for fabric scraps (though perhaps that could be a new form??) but for yarn scraps I am part of the Outdoorknit posse - http://outdoorknit.blogspot.com
Hey! Hey! You could make robots with your leftovers!
ReplyDeleteOr you could make a completely hideous patchwork quilt where you doggedly use whatever is available, no matter how badly it all matches. Lord knows I've been down that dark craft path.
I like to make bookmarks---the librarian in me--and it's perfect for using those special scraps or bits of ribbon that you can't bear to let go of. This was inspired by Erna at http://blijalsmij.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeleteBut I also love what Ana is doing with making patchwork greeting cards!
http://sewgroovychick.blogspot.com/2008/12/patchwork-cards.html and http://sewgroovychick.blogspot.com/2008/12/obsessed-just-couple-more.html
Lovely cushions!!
The the tiki cushion..it's fab. xx
ReplyDeleteI also love your cushions. A tip for fabric scraps that worked really well for me when moving from Port chalmers into town was to get a rubbish bag and put 90% of my fabric scraps in it and then leave at the gate. Sometimes even though I am a good recycler it all gets too much!!
ReplyDeleteThe knitting tiki is very cool. I used to hold on to my fabric scraps whatever they were, now I only keep them if they are either cotton or wool. It must be the quilter in me coming out.
ReplyDeleteThose fabric scraps will come in handy for dressing sock puppets, making teddybear clothes and all sorts of dress ups and pirate outfits and knight suits. Your shiniest and brightest bits will come into their own. And whatever you do, dont let Marg throw out your wrapping paper...
ReplyDeleteI love the pillow and the tiki. So very original.
ReplyDeleteCotton scraps from dress fabrics are easy...bags, crafts, trims...I even made 50 mini bean bags for my son's school for throwing and catch practice. Synthetic scraps I just chuck and then remind myself that I don't like wearing synthetics anyway. Now that I make so many muslins, I quickly accumulate a large pile of half made clothes in really boring fabric...and I must admit I threw one of these piles out just before Christmas...I still feel the guilt, but it had been cluttering my space for so long and I did not know what to do with it.
ReplyDeleteHey are using Wordpress for your blog platform?
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