Some Unplanned Stitching

When we came home from our trip Michael gave our back verandah a good clean up ready for the warmer weather........Well, that hasn't eventuated as yet.

Anyway, the cushions on our outdoor dining setting were looking decidedly second hand, given that they are now six years old.  No worries, we'll just wash the covers.  However, the cover on the inserts were falling apart, so that wouldn't be very successful.  No worries, we'll just buy some new ones.....at $25 each, that is $200 for the eight.

Mick then said, "You can just make some covers".   That's not my favourite type of sewing, but I said I'd have a look.  The cushions have separate gussets around the side and a zip at the back.  There's no way I'm doing that.  

I found some heavy weight fabric and had an attempt to make a cover, just with one seam around the sides and boxing the front like the bottom of a bag.  I would then just sew the back seam by hand after inserting the existing cushion and somehow work out a way to use the existing ties.  It didn't look too bad.

Time to go shopping at Spotlight.  I found some suitable outdoor fabric and worked out that I could get away with three and a half metres of fabric, if I had some joins in the bottoms of some of the cushions.  Fortunately, it was 40% off, but it still cost $73.  If it was full price I would have just gone out and bought the completed cushions.

It was rather novel sewing as fast as my machine will go while neatening the edges of the fabric and sewing the seams.  I completed the hand stitching while watching the Bathurst 1000 car race on TV.

Anyway, they turned out OK.   

Hopefully, they will last for a few years, after which I will go and buy some new cushions.

My second little item is a pouch to hold our little rechargeable blender we take in the caravan.  Until now, I have just wrapped it in a tea towel to stop it getting rubbed and scratched. 

My brother gave me two personalised tea towels for the van for my birthday.  I have retained one as a tea towel and made a little pouch with the other.  The embroidered section is a pocket to hold the charging cord.  it is a bit rough and ready, but will do the trick nicely. 

It's good to have a few finishes for OPAM at the end of the month.  Yay!

Now to get back to my fun sewing.