Seats and Signs

Today I made cushions for a set of chairs, and a welcome banner for President Barack Obama!  He was campaigning in Portland today and drove by Home Remedies upon entering the city.

Uncovered the originals, and laid out the new fabric.

Then stapled it all together, and added the back.

Here they are.

Tah-dah

And this is the banner I made to welcome the President!

Lined Curtains

This past weekend I made a few pairs of rod pocket panel curtains.  With a simple design and straight forward measurements, these curtains were a great place to start using the hemmer sewing machine.  This monster of a machine has a curved needle that moves from side to side. It's a whole different experience than a normal machine.

Pressing the hem to secure the lining.

The hemming machine.

The finished product.

Today was exhausting!  The shipment of new fabric finally arrived and our mission was to rearrange all the fabrics to show off the new ones, and make the old ones pop.  After lifting, moving, shifting, and changing the placement of over 150 different bolts of fabric your arms begin to ache!  We had to make sure colors coordinated and that we had enough room, which made it a bit of a challenge.  This process was exciting, from the unwrapping of all the fabrics, to seeing where they fit best.

Just a few!

Spring Settings

As simple as these spring themed table settings may seem, I had quite a tough time getting the thread tension and stitching to come out just right on the industrial machines.  Since they are straight stitches on a flat surface flaws are very visible.  They came out quite nice once they were all pressed.

Reversible Placemats.

ooo-lala

And napkins to boot!

Puzzling Patterns Continued...

Got it!

Puzzling Patterns

The focus of this cushion was to make the patterning match.  This took a lot of planning to get the fabric to line up and also to be sure I had enough for the whole cushion.  This pattern in particular is very large and bold, and proved to be a little confusing.  It's still in progress now, but once sewn together should look like one continuous piece of fabric.

The tools needed to figure this puzzle out.

   

The planning...

Attempting to match it up.

Zipper Zeal

Made another cushion, this time with a hidden zipper.  Assembly was not too difficult, until I got to the zipper.  It took a couple of tries, but once I got it sewn on correctly, and did a little hand tacking it was secure and nearly invisible.

Just the fabric.

Stuffed and ready to go.

Once it's all zipped it really does hide.

Cushion Cuttin'

Using the fabric that covered the original cushions my job was to make a template and then cut the foam to make replacement cushions.

The blue and white fabric was taken from the original cushions and traced. 

We used 2" foam for these.

This monster is what I use to cut the foam.  No scissors here.

I've got a cushy job.

Working with foam, fabric and cording today I made cushions.  

Beginning with the foam, I added a layer of batting to each side, then took measurements and cut fabric and the zipper.  My first cushion of the day is to the left, the second in progress to the right.

This is how it all began.

Then I cut it up.

And started piecing it together.

Added the zipper and the self welt, which is cord with fabric sewn around it.

Attached the boxing to the panel.

Stuffed the foam in,

Tah-Dah!

A CORDial day!

This past Friday I tackled yet another recliner, striping it down to it's bare bones.  After I was done with that, I got to try something new, making cording. Also known as welting, piping, trim, etc... It's that nice stuff that goes around the edges of pillows and cushions to make them look finished and fancy. And it's a ton of fun to make.  I started by cutting out strips of material on the bias, which is diagonal.

Measured, marked and ready to be cut.

The after math, strips all cut and waiting to be sewn.

Once all the pieces were cut I sewed them together. This step was a little tricky to get the hang of because they need to be sewn at a certain angle in order for them to come out as a continuous flat strip. 

Action shot!

Final product, all set to be sewn onto a swatch of fabric.

This particular welting is meant for a small couch. I sewed a few pieces of it together, then handed it off for assembly.