Handmade Swatch Cushions

I've become a little bit obsessed with adorning my house with cushions and in doing so have reignited my love affair for sewing. I bought my mini john lewis sewing machine about 4 years ago and for just £50 is one of my best buys ever. At the time the lady in the haberdashery said I should get the £99 version as this one was designed for really light sewing and not cushions/ bag making. However it's never given me and problems and is the perfect first sewing machine - I highly recommend it!

I made these cushions from a selection of swatches ordered from the John Lewis website. You can order 6 to any address within a period of time for free. They post them to your house completely free of charge and they have some of the most amazing fabric's on offer. I know it's a little unorthodox to order swatches to make free cushions but I do end up spending a lot of money in the haberdashery section of John Lewis so I think it's fine. You can order your swatches here. You can only order 6 at a time and you do need 7 to make each of these cushions that are about 40 x 40 cm. But you can of course order swatches to different addresses, maybe work, home, parents house, boyfriends house ... you get the idea.

1. You need to sew four swatches vertically together and three swatches horizontally together. 
2. Then sew them altogether to make a massive piece of patchwork swatch. 
3. You then just need to sew the edges on two more sides. 
4. Sew the edge about a centimeter on the remaining open side to neaten it up. 
5. Put your cushion inside then work out where you need your buttons.
6.  Sew the buttons on then make holes for the buttons on the other side. 
7. You can then sew round the button holes to stop them fraying and to keep it all neat. 

It's so easy to do - I bought some buttons from John Lewis that were about 20p each and used the inner cushion pads from some old cushions I had lying around. Altogether these cost less than £1 each and I love them. They really set off some plainer cushions I have and look so cute on my sofa's!

Piggle Banks

For the last few weeks my life has become a blur of piggy bank making and I'm excited to write this post to share that some of the first ever finished piggle banks have made their way onto the internet at our etsy shop 'Piggle Banks'

So far Terry the orange piggle, Boris the teal piggle and Pixie the pink piggle are all looking for loving homes. They've been made completely from scratch and by hand. They are designed to be filled with pennies until they are ready to burst then with a little cut of their bellies you can reveal all of your savings. Ideal for those of us who are always dipping into our piggy banks. Above you can see them warming their bums ready to set off to their new homes! We have so many more fun designs to get up too I can't wait to share them with you all!

Handmade Christmas Wrapping Paper

      

I know it's probably a little early for most but I've been planning Christmas for so much longer than this now and I wanted to start sharing all my homemade handmade additions to Christmas. I'll get it out there early - I am Christmas fanatic. I love everything about this holiday and the preparations are probably my favourite bit. 

Christmas is the perfect time to create homemade goodies and get crafty. But if I'm buying things I like to add a little bit of care and attention in somewhere - starting with the wrapping paper this year. I mainly make my own wrapping paper as I don't like the designs on offer in most stores also the price of wrapping paper makes me weep. You could easily spend £20 getting enough wrapping for all your family and you are literally watching that £20 be ripped up and thrown in the bin on Christmas morning. It's especially heartbreaking if you buy someone a massive present that requires an entire roll to itself.

My homemade wrapping paper makes people feel a little more special, shows a little more thought, allows you to keep to a colour scheme and most of all costs so so little. I made 12 metres for £5 but easily had enough paint to do another 6 metres. 

All you need is: 

Strong Brown Paper (6m for £1 in most stores)

Selection of Dulux Tester Pots in the colours of your choice (£1 each)

Some Christmas Foam Stamps (50p - £2)

Dulux Tester Pots are perfect for crafting like this - you get the perfect amount of paint and there is a brush built into the lid making painting your foam stamps effortless. Literally paint the stamps, press down and repeat. I did four designs altogether including just some presents in plum to wrap up the birthday presents of the seasons. I picked everything up from the range to mine but all of these goodies are available in any craft store or large home store. 

I love this wrapping paper - tied with raffia it looks so cute under a real Christmas tree. There's something about wrapping presents in brown paper that just make presents look a little more thought through and authentic to me. I can't wait to wrap everyone's goodies in this years paper.