2015 Projects - Feb update

Back at the beginning of the month, I posted some of the projects I wanted to work on during the year.  One of these was a desire to improve my sewing machine skills, and another was to finally finish off a number of the UFOs (unfinished objects) / WIPs that I've had gathering dust for some time.

Well, today I made good on both of those.  This month I finally finished a cross stitch project that, embarrassingly, I worked out that I'd actually started about 2 years ago...  It was a Winnie the Pooh design called "Reflection in the Puddle", (I'm a Pooh fan), and I can definitely remember starting it at least 2 winters' ago (and I think I had the kit for a few years' before that, too)...  With some concerted sewing in the evenings over the last couple of weeks, I finally managed to finish it!

I'm never too sure what to do with these pictures when I've finished them.  I don't necessarily want to frame them and hang them on the wall, but I also don't want to fold them up and put them in a drawer for the rest of eternity either.  So I decided to make this one into a cushion, and utilise my new-found sewing machine confidence (ish) at the same time.

I found some nice fabric in one of the local craft stores (again making use of compulsory coupons), and also some cute pom-pom trim, as well as a suitably sized cushion insert.

I also found an old cross-stitch magazine that had a tiny 3-step tutorial on how to turn a particular project into an envelope cushion, and started measuring up.  It got a little more complicated than I had originally planned, as the aida (with my stitching on) wasn't quite the right height for the cushion, so effectively I had to make it into a panel between two larger pieces of fabric.  This meant the pom-pom trim probably wasn't going to work as I'd originally planned, so I'm saving it for another project.

I also slightly mis-calculated the amount of overlap I'd need on the back of the "envelope", and it only just covers the enclosure, but it works ok.  Next time I'll remember to add another few inches to my measurements!  My hems are getting a little straighter (the holes in the aida helped a bit), and I feel a bit more in control of the sewing machine, so it's all good.

And here's the finished piece!