You are here: Home / Archives for Tutorials

The Final Push – putting it all together

February 28, 2011 By 2 Comments

D2K9Z5ZVX2CM

 

The hard work is done, you know. The rest is plain sailing…

This is the final, very short part of my cushion cover tutorial. I’ll update the post when the pdf is ready for download.

Sewing the Panels together:

First – undo your zip half way across. Oh this is so important I’m going to say it again in italics: undo your zip half way across. Pin your panels together, right sides together. The side with the zip might be (probably will be) a little too long, but that’s because I prefer to have a little more than a little less, just in case.

sewing it all together

Now you are sewing blind with regard to the piping so you will be relying on the feel of it under your hand. Sew with the back panel on the top, so that you can make sure the piping goes under the foot. You are aiming to sew as close as possible to the piping. Go slow and steady since the foot will always be trying to shove your piping out of the way and get on with it. This won’t give you the result you want. Be persuasive.

sewing it all together

Once you’re all the way round you are done! Simple wasn’t it? You’ll notice that the zip opens almost all of the way across the cover, which will make it easy to insert the cushion pad, but you didn’t have to do any horrid sewing over zips.

sewing it all together

Trim your corners and turn the cover right way out. Insert cushion pad and admire!

 

 

 

Filed Under: Cushion Cover, Tutorials - 2 Comments

The Seam That Opens: add a zip to your cushion cover

February 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
This is the easiest way to think about zips – a seam that opens. Once you get your head round that it’s really simple to add one to any project.

Zip for cushion

Add a zip to your cushion:

Ingredients:
  • A panel of your chosen fabric, roughly 10cms/4″ longer than the length of your cushion + seam allowance (eg. my panel is 52cm x 62cm).
  • A matching zip, just slightly shorter than the width of your cushion (eg. my cushion is 50cm square, & my zip is 46cm long)
If your fabric has a noticable pattern or obvious right way up, make sure that you add length the right way up too!  

Zip for cushion

First things first, slice your fabric in two, around 10cm from one end. I prefer my zips to be offset from the centre, but if you prefer it in the middle, go right ahead and slice it your way.

Zip for cushion

Put the two pieces together, right sides together and pin. You are going to create a seam. Take your zip and place it centrally on the seam, and carefully mark each end.

 

Zip for cushion

Now use a locking stitch and normal stitch length to properly seam the very end of the fabric, right up to the first mark. Change your stitch length to its longest setting and continue sewing the seam with this longer basting stitch. Stop when you reach the second mark, and secure the ends with a normal stitch and locking stitch. (I hope you can see this in the picture!)

 

Zip for cushion

Iron the seam open. Now place the zip facing down onto your completed seam and baste in place. I use a contrasting thread and very long stitches to make it easier to remove them. You might think it’s time consuming to baste, but it is far more time consuming to try and keep a pinned zip in exactly the right place while you sew.

Zip for cushion

Attach your zipped foot and sew the sip in place, on the right side of the fabric. If you use the seam as a guide lined up with the edge of your foot you will have a very neat straight line.

Zip for cushion

Now the tricksy part. Towards the end stop and reach for your seam ripper. Carefully tease open those long stitches in the seam, from just after the locking stitch, enough to expose the zip pull and pull it backwards out of the way of the foot. When you have enough room, with your needle down, lift the presser foot and gently manipulate the zip pull past it, so that the zip opens a little. Sew to the end of the seam. Now repeat the process for the other side, beginning with the open end.

Zip for cushion

All that remains now is to remove the basting stitches, and fully open the basting seam stitching. You have a zip!

 

Filed Under: Cushion Cover, Tutorials - Leave a Comment

Make your own piping – it’s easy.

February 25, 2011 By 5 Comments

It really is.

As part of pillow month Autum from Creative Little Daisy did a great tutorial on making piping, though I’d already made mine by the time I saw it. However, the zipper foot she used was different to the zipper foot that gets bundled in with lots of machines so I wanted to show you it was still possible if you have the regular kind of foot.

(This is part one of my cushion cover techniques tutorial, which includes piping and installing a zip to the back panel.)

The first thing you’ll need is bias tape, and the easiest way to get some that matches/contrasts with your chosen cover fabric is to make your own. I cannot recommend the following method highly enough. It’s so easy you’ll just be making bias strips for days afterwards.

Make the Continuous Bias Tape:

Ingredients:
  • A square of your chosen fabric – My fabric was about 30cm square and I ended up with a strip over 4m long, perfect for my 50cm square cushions.
First take your material, and cut in half corner to corner (along the bias), so that you have two triangles of fabric.

 

Making bias tape for piping

Pin two of the straight sides (ie not the sides you just cut) , right sides together, as shown above. Sew together with a quarter inch seam and press the seam open.Laying the fabric out flat it will now be shaped like a parallelogram:Draw lines across your fabric 1 inch apart, parallel to the longest side ie, from a to b, not from a to d. This will be the finished width of your bias tape so you might want to make it larger or smaller depending on the size of your piping cord.

 

Making bias tape for piping

Fold the fabric together, right sides facing again, to form a seam with the short sides. You are aiming to make a tube of fabric. Make sure that you:

  • Offset the lines by one width – you need a start and an end to your strip
  • Match the lines perfectly
Sew the seam together as before, and press open.

Making bias tape for piping

Now cut along your lines, round and round you go, until you end up with a lovely long strip of bias material.

Making bias tape for piping

You’re done!

Make the Piping:

Piping

Now, beginning two inches in from the end of the strip, pin your piping cord inside the fabric, folded over in half, wrong sides together. Use the zipper attachment on your machine to sew the cord into the fabric.
Tip for novices: nothing will ruin a cushion faster than a visible line of stitching on your finished piping. Instead of sewing right up against the cording, sew a few millimetres away. When you attach the piping to the front panel, sew inside this line (see end of post for a picture), and when it comes to sewing the layers together only then do you butt right up against the cording. Voila – guaranteed hidden stitching!

 

Piping

 

Attach the piping to the fabric panel:

Fold over the end of the fabric strip like so:

Piping

This will provide a cosy home for the other end of your piping when you come back to meet it.

 

Piping

Pin the piping around the edge of your front fabric panel on the right side. Curve the piping around the corner, and clip up to the seam allowance to make this easier. (See Autum’s tutorial for what happens when you use fabric cut on the grain!)

Piping

When you meet the beginning again, cut the piping to fit snugly right up to the cord end and pin it down inside the folded fabric. This will give you a really neat finish with no unsightly seams or ends.

 

Piping

Using the zipper attachment again, sew the piping to the panel by stitching close to the cording. The bulk of the piping will fit under the ‘wing’ of the foot, though you will have to persuade it to stay under there.
Foot Tip: There are two kinds of zipper foot. Mine, shown above, is good for cording up to about 5mm in width. For wider cording, or to get a much closer stitch you will need an adjustable zipper foot, as see in Autum’s tutorial. (Janome Adjustable Zipper Foot.)

Piping

And once you’re all the way around your front panel is complete.

Next up – the zip!

Filed Under: Cushion Cover, Tutorials - 5 Comments

Crochet Hook Roll Revisited…download it!

July 22, 2010 By 7 Comments
Something else half remembered from the past: there was a poll of Stephen King fans asking which of his books they loved the most. The overwhelming winner was the Stand, a book I loved myself. The response from the author was a slightly grumpy acknowledgement that it was good to have written something so well loved, but it was slightly galling that it was something he’d written twenty years ago, as if nothing he’d written since quite lived up to it, and he was therefore past his best.

Pencil Roll & Crochet Roll

When it comes to posts on this blog, and search terms that bring people here, the overwhelming winner is the Crochet Hook Roll tutorial I wrote a couple of years ago. It’s not a complicated project, but it’s a darn popular one, and I’m glad that so many of you love it. Unlike SK I don’t mind that I wrote it a while back, because frankly, I’m just pleased you like it.

Pencil Roll

So, now that I’m a mum, with nary enough time to fiddle faddle about, I thought that it might be nice to have a downloadable version, rather than a blog post that means you either have to stay close to the internet, or do some boring copying and pasting. I know it’s what I’d want, and hopefully you will too. While I was at it, I acknowledged that with a couple of tiny tweaks you could put pencils in it too. Now who wouldn’t want that?

I’ve made a new page for downloads (hey, I’m optimistic there might be more) so off you go, and get it here.

Filed Under: Downloads, Tutorials - 7 Comments

Coin Purse Tutorial (for beginners mostly, but you know, anyone can do it)

December 15, 2008 By 12 Comments

finished purse!

Sewing machine sales are up a gazillion per cent, which means there are a lot of new sewists out there, and there will probably be many more after Christmas. Hello new sewing people! I remember exactly what it’s like being a beginner, so I’ve put this tutorial together to emphasise the practice of three key things that will make your adventures in sewing easier, and the first two alone mean much less fiddling about in general:

1. Accurate cutting. It’s a pain when all you want to do is get to the fun bit (using the actual machine!) but I learned the hard way that if you don’t cut accurately you have to do a lot more work to get your sewing right. (Indeed see below…)

2. Use your iron. Your iron is an integral tool to the sewing process. When it says press, press. It makes things so much easier. I didn’t for years but I’m dumb. You’re not dumb. There’s the difference. Press!

3. Interfacing is king. Ok so this coin purse doesn’t exactly stand or fall on its interfacing, and in fact you don’t need to interface it at all, but I promise you, it is King. And Queen. It’s the thing that can make the difference between something homemade and something handmade, and really you want to aim for the latter.

There are other ways of using these frames, and my pick of the bunch is Lisa’s tutorial which takes no shortcuts, and leaves no centimetre of seam un-sewn. This one does, but I make no apologies for that. She has better pictures of actually inserting the frame though, so I make no attempt to replicate. As always with sewing, have a look at what’s out there and choose the method you like best. Or make up your own. There aren’t any rules against that.

Materials:

Outer fabric – 14cm x 24cm*
Lining fabric – 14cm x 24cm
Coin purse flex frame 3.5″ – buy one here!
Interfacing for exterior fabric – optional

*If you want to have a longer finished pouch, increase the longest measurement. Don’t forget to do the same to the lining fabric!

Seam allowance = 1cm

Prep:

Cut both pieces of fabric across the longest side to make two pieces 14cm x 12cm.
Iron your fabric. Apply interfacing to exterior fabric if using.
Make a hot beverage and put some good songs on.

Making:

1. Sew the exterior fabrics together along the bottom edge, long (14cm) edges together. If your fabric has a noticeable pattern make sure it’s the right way up – on my fabric I made sure the candles would be upright for example. Press seams flat.

sew exterior fabric

2. Lay the exterior right side up. Take one piece of the inner fabric and lay it on top, right side down, with 14cm edges matching. Sew together. Repeat for other side. Press seams flat.

lay out fabrics

Attach lining fabric

3. Fold in half, right sides together, matching the seams.

measure and mark

Measure and mark 4cm away from the top seam on both exterior and lining on each side. You will be sewing four seams using these marks.

4. Exterior fabric: sew away from the mark towards the bottom edge of the purse, all the way to the end. Repeat for the other side.

Lining fabric: sew away from the mark towards the edges but stop sewing 1cm before the edge. (You’ll see I haven’t – inaccurate cutting! I was in a hurry! The world didn’t end but I did make my life more difficult…) Turn the fabric 90 degrees, and continue sewing for another 3 cm. Repeat for the other side.

sewing the seam

5. Pull the fabric out to form a diamond shape, and pin, matching the seams and openings.

diamond

Fold the fabric so that you have one clear top seam, with exterior and lining fabrics right sides together.

fold fabric

From the top seam measure a gap wide enough for your purse frame – use the side with the edges sticking up, since this is what will have to go through. My gap was about 2cm – mark it on each side.

measure and mark

6. Sew from this mark to the beginning of your first seam and no further. You might find that your stitching doesn’t line up on both sides, if you haven’t been super accurate, but this won’t matter. What is key is stopping and starting in the right place.

second little seam

Repeat for all four seams. Trim off all loose threads.

7. Turn the purse right way out through the gap in the lining. Press! Seriously – press, especially at the top of the purse where the frame will go. This method leaves you with – gasp! – a little unsewn seam allowance inside the purse frame channel, so your iron does the work for you.

turn and press!

8. Measure and mark the purse frame channel again, as you did in step 5, this time on the exterior fabric. Sew across the top of the purse to create the channel. Repeat for the other side.

purse frame channel

9. Sew the gap in the lining closed – pull the lining out of the purse, iron flat. Sew across the opening, as close the edge as you possibly can. (See Lisa’s tutorial if you are unsure of this step.)

10. Insert the purse frame, through both sides of the channel. You only have to watch at the other end that you don’t poke your seam allowance out of the end, but it’s easy enough to push it back in. Close the frame using the pin provided, and flatten the ends of the hinge using pliers.

insert purse frame

Oh my! You have a finished purse!

inside!

I hope this was useful, for beginners and old hands alike!

Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: , , - 12 Comments
« Older Posts