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Sunday, July 1, 2012

Animal Cushions for you Animal Cushions for you Animal Cushions for you

Animal cushions can bring the African bush, the Amazon rainforest, the Australian wilderness or the English garden into your room.
These will reflect your favourite animal or provide a matching colour for your settee. Whatever you choose they will be a focal point and have cause for discussion.
Picture Panels can be bought with lots of different kinds of animals printed on them.
These can be made into wonderful cushion covers for a basic cushion or made into a quillow with the internal quilt showing more of the theme on the front.
These panels could also be made into wall hangings instead of cushions and used like a picture on your wall.
You can create your own animal designs using techniques such as Appliqueor Cross Stitch These panels could also be made into wall hangings instead of cushions and used like a picture on your wall.
For your domesticated pets, cushions can be made to provide them with a place to sleep or to cushioned bed for them. The cushions can be made to fit the size of the basket or the box to give your pets extra warmth and comfort.
Cat Cushions
Cat cushions are fairly straightforward to make and apart from the occasional paw padding cats use to get comfortable they should last quite a long time.
I made some cushions for my cats baskets when they were just kittens and they are now 14 years old. Apart from a little colour fading they are still good.
Dog Cushions
Dog cushions are very different mainly due to the wear or mainly tear these will have to endure. Puppies have sharp teeth, bored dogs chew, and their claws and rip a cushion in half.
With all this in mind your dog still enjoys a comfortable bed to sleep in and if it has other things to bite and chew may leave the bed alone. If not then at least you know that these can be replaced fairly quickly.
If you are not confident in making a cushion for your pet, I have got a selection of ready made ones in books and more which is an Amazon shop. You may also find you could recover these yourself if you wanted a different outer cover.
Hope you enjoy making cushions to suit your type of animal. 


Saturday, June 30, 2012

Sewing by Hand




giving your cushion a very personal touch.
Sewing

Sewing by hand is an alternative way to sew cushions, this will take longer but the end result is a very special cushion, made and crafted without the use of a machine.
Personalising your cushion covers with patchwork can be done by machinesewing or sewing by hand.
Even when using a machine for sewing cushions there are a few steps that need hand sewing. An example would be sewing on sequins, braid or buttons.
Types of Stitches for Hand Sewing
  1. Tacking stitch- This stitch is also known as basting stitch. This is used when two pieces of material need to be held together for a short time while the seam is sewn. This could be used for holding any applique patterns in place to make sure that they do not move.The stitches are usually long in length, usually sewn from right to left, and can be easily removed when the finshed sewing has taken place.

  2. Running Stitch- This stitch is used when material is needed to be gathered up as with frills or ruffles. The stitch is similar to tacking stitch but the stitch length is smaller and neater. This is to get even gathers as if the length was too large or varying then the gathers would be different sizes. This stitch is also usually sewn from right to left.


  3. Back Stitch- This stitch is a strong stitch and is good for sewing seams. This is usually sewn from left to right and gives a line of stitches on the top that overlap underneath.

  4. Slip Stitch- This stitch is usually used when two edges of fabric need to be joined such a along a folded corner or when joining patchwork pieces by hand. These stitches are not sewn tightly to allow for a little movement.
  5. Blanket Stitch- This stitch is a decorative stitch and is usually seen along the edge of a blanket. It is usually sewn from left to right.

  6. Overcasting Stitch- This stitch is used to stop the fabric edges from fraying.
  7. Hemming- This stitch is sewn on the wrong side of the fabric and small stitches are used with just a thin thread taken from the fabric and then into the hem. This is to make sure that the hemming stitch is not seen on the right side of the item. 



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