Cushions

 I saw these cushions featured in a garden at Chelsea flower show earlier this year, and thought my hubby would love something similar featuring Welsh Guards, I have searched and could not find anything like this, these are for Chelsea Pensioners. 

I had trouble finding fabrics, saw one lot in a sale, which hubby said was not right, so I left it to him to find some. He finally managed to find authentic tunic fabric for sale, he had to purchase 2 meters running length, which was their minimum sale, I'm not telling what he paid for it, that's his choice, it is lovely material.

He already had buttons, for one style and with so much material, I said I could make at least 2, he ordered a badge and stripes. Here I'm working to ensure the buttons are placed right, the white marks (tailors chalk) will be buttonholes, which I will sew but not cut open, just place the buttons over them.

In a complete unabashed theft of the design into a Welsh Guard style of cushions, here are ours, hubby is very happy, I really enjoyed making them. The effort of making the five button holes is not reflected as they can't really be seen, but I know they are there. These are bigger and will look better on our new sofa, we will chose a bigger style.

And just because I could an extra cushion made for his best army buddy, who with his wife are popping in later this month for lunch and a catch up. This one is slightly smaller, I only had the smaller cuff buttons to use, 6 would have fitted on here better, but 5 is the correct number to have.

It is always great to get out my sewing machine, I get so much joy from sewing, often designing items myself, this time shamelessly stealing the look, with just a few small changes. Cushions are a very simple thing to make, I did pop zips along the bottom, but I could have hand sewn them together. I had red cotton fabric to line the cushions, but it was not necessary, the tunic fabric is very strong. 

I still have alot of the red fabric left, the black material was in my stash, hubby got the zips, black piping and the badges. I have used older cushion inserts in the bigger two, I will get new inserts just to make them look a bit neater. 

I would love to use my machine more often, years ago I made all my own dresses, tops and trousers, I have even made a couple suits, but I rarely wear that type of clothes, mainly I live in jeans and T shirts, much softer for my lifestyle. I also made wedding dresses for my daughters and various SIL's, as well as remodelling wedding dresses for friends and family, I am hoping Molly might take an interest as she gets older, it would be nice to pass on skills. I have made Molly some bits but again she loves leggings and soft T shirt dresses, which are so cheap to buy and the fabrics are so expensive, these days with clothes so cheap, it's never cost effective to make things.