Big Project 1 - Giant Upcycled Denim Floor Cushion

I have called this post 'Big Project 1' as this is something I have wanted to do for nearly ten years now... and as part of my crafting resolution for 2014, I planned to start and more importantly finish projects I had always meant to start!

Here is just a small amount of the large collection of old jeans in my crafty room so I had plenty of material to work with.

Selecting several pairs of jeans I cut the pockets off, and ignoring the front and legs for now. 

Slowly but surely I sewed them all together to make the first side of my cushion cover.

So that was the first side completed, a little wonky, but I was happy with the different blues and blacks I used.

For the other side I decided on a diagonal stripe, corner to corner. For this I would use the pieces of leg I had put aside earlier.

The easiest way to do this was to cut open each piece of denim leg and lay it flat. I measured strips about 7-8 inches deep and as long as possible. Each leg resulted in about 7 or 8 strips of denim.

 

The giant cushion is 100 x 100 cm, so a single strip wasn't going to go corner to corner. So I sewed matching strips together initially and then lined them up to start sewing them together.

I tried to randomise the colour of denim as much as I could and line up the join in the middle.

 

So here is the second side of the cushion cover!

I am super happy with it, looks pretty effective and I think would make great smaller cushion covers to sell in the shop. All I need to do is sew them together now, think I am going to use the jeans buttons to fasten it on one side but I haven't decided yet.

So there you go my mega denim up-cycled cushion cover, think I used less than ten pairs, will have to get stuck into some covers for the shop now to make more of a dent in my old jeans collection!

Crafting Resolution

Happy new year everyone!

I am not a big fan of resolutions, as I don't work well under personal goal pressure, but the last few months have been pretty dire for finding time to actually do the things I want to do. Those brilliant project ideas you had five years ago, you collected together everything you needed, but never started and ever worse the half finished projects that stare at you every time you walk past... so this is my resolution, to find the time to craft everything that I want to.

A pretty simple resolution that starts with me tidying up the dumping ground that is my craft room. 

At least I have been collecting some inspiration; 

 

sew a little love 

Anazard.

Tinywhitedaisies

Dutch-blue

check out more on my Pinterest board The Perfect Craft Room.
Or Follow me here! Izzy Morden

Dachshund Draft Excluder Experiement

A few months ago, one of my family members asked if I could make a draft excluder that looked like a Dachshund. I do so like a challenge and with a three month deadline I worked on making the excluder in drips and drabs over the last few months. I decided to make a sock dog, that was low to the ground and with a long long long body. Here's how I got on...

The sewing of the back legs was my starting point. I made a long continuous tube out of another 4 socks and used the remaining pieces for the head, the ears and the tail.

I had intended on leaving it un-stuffed to aid its journey to Australia, however this soon become clear this would be impossible as I wouldn't be able to sew on the dogs features.

So I stuffed its back-end, sewed on the tail and then started work on the head.











 Dachshunds have a distinct head shape which I did my best to replicate. Looking a little wonky in this photo, I gave the nose a pointed look, sweet little violet eyes and longish hanging down ears.

Here it is...

...a lovely long Dachshund draft excluder all ready to be delivered to my uncle Richard of Richard Morden Illustration in sunny Australia.

In fact it was been carried over by my parents as they were visiting and should have been received by now! Hope you like it Rich!