Finishing Along......

I managed some good, quality sewing time this week. First up was one of my finish along projects, my EPP Ferris Wheel.

I made most of this on holiday last Summer and had a notion to make it into a cushion cover for my large floor cushion. Trouble was, the finished piece was larger than my cushion in one direction and I couldn't bear the thought of cutting away what I had painstakingly stitched. Then I thought if I oriented it landscape and made a wrap around cover, it would all work out. So I catalogued most of the process as I thought both the cushion making and the dealing with finished EPP might be of interest to one or two of you out there.

I had bought 1m of solid cotton in pretty much the same shade of green that is in the patchwork.

To find out how wide my fabric should be for the wrap around, I wrapped my tape measure around the cushion.The cushion is an Ikea one, and quite squidgy, I allowed about 4" of an overlap. (But now wish I had allowed more)

I didn't want to just plonk the EPP panel onto my metre of fabric and applique all around - I am stingy like that - so I cut some strips for two of the edges to be attached to. These were about 3" wide.

I ironed the strips in half, lengthways, to give me a mark for guidance.

And then I laid the panel down along the fold line & pinned.

I then carefully stitched them together, using my trusty machine applique stitch.

So that's the top & bottom done.

I cut side pieces that would result in a finished size that would wrap around - this is a one- piece cushion cover.

Time to layer it up - I pretty much always use Hobbs 80/20 wadding and for a backing (which of course, will be hidden inside the cushion), I used an old cotton sheet. Using my beloved wiggly stitch, I decided to quilt right through the EPP following the squares and hexies, I reckoned that would be nice and simple.

But, I had a bit of a hiccup when I was quilting happily through squares and hexies and suddenly arrived at a triangle - hmm? What was happening?

Can you spot the mistake?

Yep, the purple block top centre has been stitched in at "6 o'clock" instead of "ten to two"- duh, if only I had noticed in the six months or so it lay about waiting to be progressed.........ah well! I just continued, it won't really bother me too much.

When I finished the quilting, I trimmed and bound the short ends, using single fold binding. I seem to have forgotten to photograph this step.

I then centred the "quilt" onto the cushion so I knew where the fold lines should be - folded it right sides together and then all that was left was to stitch top & bottom seams. I used a wider seam allowance than usual and reinforced the stitching over the thicker parts where the layers overlap.

The finished article is just a wee bit roomy for the cushion - I might re-visit the seams (or I might not), and I need to address the overlap with maybe a bit of velcro, or if I feel really ambitious, a buttonhole or two and some posh buttons.

                                                  But for now, I claim this as an official finish!!

                                                             And now my ta dah moment!

And the wee mistake? I aint bothered........