Wish You Were Here.....Recycled Cushion, The Tutorial!

Sometime ago the lovely people @BrightonNat and @BrightonNick  at Brighton Visitor Magazine asked if I could come up with a crafted item that summoned up Brighton. Along with other creative Brighton peeps such as Amy, it was important to let people know of all the places visitors can access craft resources! Now I do like a challenge, so here is what I came up with.....The Wish You Were Here Cushion!

Brighton has the best shops for creative recyclers, so here is a fantastic easy project using mixed fun materials. Take a collection of vintage wool jumpers, the Sunday Car boot at the Brighton Racecourse and the vast amount of charity shops are great places to find them.

Wash them on a high temperature to felt the jumpers and cut into 10cm squares.

Arrange the the squares in the order you would like the cushion to look. Always handy to take a picture for your reference. The amount of times I have forgotten the order of patchwork!!!

Sew a row of the squares together to form a mixed pattern.....

...do the same with all the other squares so you end up with 3 strips...

...Then pin one strip, right sides facing and sew along the longer length.

You will now have a square of sewn together patchwork squares!

Take two pieces of backing fabric, each slightly longer than the half length of the patch work cushion. Fold a hem on one shorter end of each and sew a running stitch. Then place them right side facing the patchwork so that they over lap each other as in photo above and pin. This will form the envelope opening on the cushion.

Its important to pin really well so that the fabrics do not shift as you sew.

Sew a running stitch all the way around then to make sure its secure and neat I like to sew again around using the zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine. Now trim the excess and turn the cushion out to the right sides.

I sewed a fun ribbon on each end of the envelope backing so that I can tie the cushion closed.

Now for the fun bit!

Add texture and pattern using recycled finds, Snoopers Paradise in Kensington Gardens holds a myriad of doillies aand buttons.

Try using embroidery thread to illustrate text and pictures with a simple running stitch.

I added buttons to give the impression of the windows of the Royal Pavillion!

Ribbons give a 3d textural feel to the cushion!

....and doilies!

You can buy the essential craft material such as needles, cushion inserts and threads from Fabric Land and C&H Fabrics on Western Road.

Ta da!
Go on, have some fun...I did!