Between the lines

Working on the cover for a colouring book.

Upholstery for the lazy girl!

When decorating, always keep in mind that no-one's going to see the bottom/back/inside. This is only one small step up from wrapping a loose piece of cloth over a cushion, but it does keep the cover tidy and in place.

So: lay that piece of grey denim you're never going to make a skirt from, face up on the floor. Put the cushion more or less in the middle. (Please excuse the blurry photos, but it was the middle of the night.) Oh yes - zig-zag around all raw edges first.

Fold the corners up more or less like this.

Pin them.
Turn the cushion over to check that everything's neat.

Whip the 'cover' off.

Draw a straight line from the pinned corners to the edge.

(And then it was morning, and the light changed completely!)

Sew along the line, and cut off what you won't need. Probably a good idea to check that your seam's in the right place before cutting, though.

Put the cover back on the cushion.


Fold the corners, then fold the sides up. Adjust the folds so that the edges don't quite meet.

Mark button positions with pins...

... and sew buttons on.


Cut 4 lengths of thickish thread, about 20 - 30 cm long, double each piece up and knot the ends together. Put the loop around a button.

Wind the other end round and round both buttons, pulling them closer together.

All done.

Voila! Hey presto! Siedaar! etc. A zipless cover you can take off to wash, but don't have to tidy every morning.

Skinny stickers

Now that she's debuted them, I can show off the Skinny laMinx sticker that's making my sewing machine feel all swanky. You can get yours at Parklife, a new online shop.

The craft meeting on Saturday was splendid, but although lots of bloggers attended, I don't think anyone remembered to bring a camera.

Need a pincushion fast?

Huge amounts of sewing this morning had me scrabbling around on the floor looking for spilled pins. To speed things up I quickly made a pincushion - it took less than 20 minutes!

How to: trace a circle round a saucer on to a piece of cloth. Sew a row of running stitches around the edge, pull slightly to close, fill with stuffing, pull further closed, stitch randomly over the gap to keep it closed, and stick into that battered silver eggcup you just happen to have lying around.

Craft meeting

Craft meeting this Saturday afternoon from 2:30 at The Book Lounge, corner of Roeland and Buitenkant Sts. We'll be doing more of this. If you're in Cape Town this weekend, do come and join us!

(The picture is of an experiment: picking up stitches from 5 rows down. It's a secret experiment, too, so I can't say much more, but I needed a picture for this post.)

Font

I really like the way these vinyl letters have peeled, creating a new font.

Lamp

Some Friday DIY: a chromed pole attached to a stand; a lightbulb fitting; a 70s lampshade that's lost anything that could be used to attach it to a fitting; the wire skeleton of another lampshade; white spraypaint; flex, a lightbulb, and a fitting.

The screenprint on the wall is by Jacqui Stecher.