I’m thrilled to have Kathryn from Our Shabby Cottage guest posting a tutorial on ‘Simply Christmas’ today.
Kathryn has been sewing and creating for over 25 years and sells her beautiful and unique fabric creations for children and home, through her website and Etsy store. You ‘simply’ must pop over and check out her pretty handmade wares… and while you are there, indulge in some Christmas shopping. You can also follow Kathryn’s creative journey on her blog ~ Our Shabby Cottage.
Brooch Cushion Tutorial
Make this pretty brooch cushion for yourself or someone you love with only two fat quarters of fabric and a few pretty embellishments.
Materials required:
I used a ¼” seam to sew the ruffle on, then used slightly bigger seam allowance when sewing up the front and back pieces.
Begin by cutting two 10” x 7” rectangles from your feature fabric.
Lay the lace over one corner, pin in place.
Sew the lace in place along the two lace edges. Trim the excess lace away from the sides.
For the ruffle you will need to cut 3 strips x 4” wide from the 20” width of the contrasting fabric.
With right sides together, sew all of the ends together, press seams one way, then fold length ways to create a full circle. Press in place. If you have an over locker, sew the edges together, this prevents fraying and bits of cotton being trapped in your finished product. If you don’t have an overlocker, just be mindful of stray bits of cotton, trim if necessary.
Select a long or gathering stitch on your sewing machine and stitch all the way around. Tie your ‘start’ threads together.
Very carefully, pull one of the ‘end’ threads to begin the gathering process. If you have a gathering foot on your sewing machine, you could use this instead.
Your ruffle should measure 17” when folded in half or 34” in total.
Fold ruffle in half, pin the halfway points, then fold ruffle the other way and pin the quarter points. Find the halfway point on each side of the fabric and match up your pinned quarter points on the ruffle. If your ruffle is too large, that’s fine; you can bunch it up a little when sewing it on. Pin in place and sew.
Now you can arrange your embellishments. I used a pretty rhinestone buckle with organza ribbon as a centrepiece. If you have a buckle too, cut one length of ribbon 7” long and another 5” long. Tuck under each end of the ribbon and thread through the buckle so you are left with two loops of ribbon through the buckle.
Have a play with arranging your embellishments before you sew them in place.
Sew on your embellishments. I used my beads to sew the buckle in place and create a feature in the centre.
Embellishments sewn on and in place.
Before you sew the back fabric onto the front of the cushion, it is a good idea to pin down the corners of the ruffle. This will prevent them being caught in the seam when you sew the edges.
Place back fabric face up and lay the front panel of your cushion face down. Pin in place. By pinning onto the front side you can stitch in from the ruffle stitching so that no stitching will be visible, and keep it looking neat from the outside, when it is turned right side out. Begin sewing, backstitch (reverse stitch) then continue around the cushion leaving a 2” opening, backstitch again.
Clip each corner, this will give you a nice sharp corner point when turned right side out.
Take small amounts of fibrefill at a time to fill your cushion. Start by filling the farthest corners first, then, continue on until it is sufficiently filled.
Pin the opening closed and, using a needle and thread, carefully sew opening closed.
Pin on your brooches and voila, one finished brooch cushion!
Thank you Kathryn for so generously sharing your tutorial with us. We love your Brooch Cushion!!
ANOTHER GIVEAWAY!!!
Kathryn’s generosity doesn’t stop there; she’s also gifting one lucky ‘Simply Christmas’ participant with a Brooch Cushion Kit so you can make your own cushion using this divine fabric.
(Pssttt… I also heard that if you are quick, she may have a few more kits over at the Our Shabby Cottage web-store).
Here’s how you enter this GIVEAWAY:
1. Leave a comment here on this post answering this question “have you ever handmade a gift to give and what was it?”
2. Then pop over here to check out Kathryn’s blog and leave a comment for her.
Super easy!! You have until midnight on Tuesday 19th October to enter and the winner will be announced on Wednesday.