Creating my Cushion

I have loved the whole process of creating my cushion, as nervous as I was because I didn’t want to mess it up I have thoroughly enjoyed trying out new things and experimenting.

On the front of my cushion I wanted to add lots of texture as I felt that it would make sense seen as my theme was forest fungi. At first I was really struggling with ideas as I felt I wasn’t knowledgeable in what the sewing machines could do. However after speaking to Maggie and looking and hearing about how the samples on the wall in the stitch room where made I started to envision how my cushion could potentially look.

I spent a long week in the stitch room them creating the front of the cushion. I didn’t want it to be flat looking so I started off by applique. I used this process on some of the mushrooms this allowed me to use one of the larger machines with all the options of different stitches to add depth to them. I also used this same method for the butterfly to add pattern to the wings. For the centre fungi I decided to used the fringe foot to create these loops. I really love this part of the cushion I think that it works so well and brings in the right about of texture that I was looking for. The fringe foot loops also resemble my original drawing so it was cool that I was able to recreate that but adding lots of texture.

Other parts of my cushion where more simple such as the hand stitch around the edges of the leaves. I did this so that they didn’t look so flat to the cushion and that it would give them more definition. I use added French knots to the clouds as I felt that when placed together they looked fluffy and cloud like. I find that when I hand stitch things I get very impatient because I have to take my time and make sure everything is just perfect.

The last method the I used on the front of the cushion was the cording foot. I used this on the stems of the mushrooms. I feel that I chose the colours of the threads well for this part and was pleased with how well it fits in.

Moving on to the back of the cushion, I used the digital stitch machine for this to create the underside of a mushroom. I love the back of the cushion I am so pleased with every aspect of it. The colour thread that I choose really compliments the green background but also ties in really nicely with the front of the cushion. I enjoy how the edges of each individual mushroom over lap slightly as I feel it makes the look of it more all over and not spaced out. I find the digital stitch machines fascinating and I am looking forward to using them more in the future.

The actual putting together of the cushion was really nerve racking as I didn’t want anything to go wrong. When we made the mock up cushions in calico I felt more at easy as it wasn’t the real thing. This was my first time creating a cushion so everything was very new to me and I had to learn and understand how each step would them come together and create a cushion. Putting in the zip was the most difficult part and also overlocking. I found overlocking a little bit difficult as I cant move my left arm smoothly with the fabric to feed it through due to my disability however with some practice I started to figure out how I could do it in a way that works well for me and started to feel more confident about using the machine. Also the overlocking machine is very fast so it was hard to work out how to get the speed of everything right.

Overall I am so happy of the outcome, obviously there a slight imperfections that I can see that I would change for next time for example with the cording I would have made sure I had gone right to the very tops of the stems. However for a first cushion I really did put all my time and energy in to it to make the best it could be and I feel that I have achieved this.