African Urban Chic …cont.

Well I finally finished my African Urban Chic quilt 😉. It took me so long, because I recently became a granny! Yep I´m all Granified! And so baby gazing and cuddling all take up chunks of time 😍

Anyway, in the last post ( HERE ) I was looking for fabric to make the borders,  I finally decided on black, a printed cream fabric and an orangey binding.

On this quilt I did straight line quilting, I had never done so many quilting lines before!…… and I can tell you….. it takes a while…. Much longer than what I thought it would take!

And I learnt something else too….. my straight-line quilting made some of my blocks look crooked! All these blocks that were all nice and straight….. started to look a little wonkey! So, at first I had a little melt down, even punished the quilt by putting it down in a corner! Then while looking at  quilting sites, I found some straight line quilts, where you could plainly see crooked blocks….. I kid you not! Some fellow quilters were actually quite proud of the crooked look, so I immediately jumped on That band wagon, forgave the quilt and resumed the straight-line quilting.

So there you have it. All finished and I love it!

Jack helped out with the pegs.

While Oscar helped by holding it up on his head.

Think I´ll go sit in the sun and do some quilt gazing 🙂

What do you think, was I right to forgive it for going a little wonkey on me?

 

 

Baby Clothes Pouch

Having finished the nursing pillow, I had some fabric left over, so I decided to make a pouch, which is very quick and easy to make.

These pouches are useful for a whole bunch of things, especially when you have to leave the house with baby, we generally use them to keep a change of clothes for baby. They can also be useful  when the little tots start nursery school, then you can just sew on some straps to the back of the pouch or a handle to the top, and they can wear them as a back pack or bag to take an extra set of clothes to school or whatever.

You can make them any size you want, just adjust the measurements. Mine is approximately 32cm x 23cm, including 1cm seams, so when finished it will measure 30 x 21. The little Flap for the pouch is 12cm x 23cm

After you have cut 2 parts of the outer fabric and 2 parts of the lining, (Lining and outside fabric are the same size), and cut 2 parts for the flap . Attach interfacing to both sides of the outer fabric, and to one side of the flap.

 

Right sides facing each other, sew around the edges of the outer part, the lining and the flap, leaving the top parts unsewn. In the lining leave about 6cm unsewn on the side, this gap is where the pouch will be turned inside out once it´s finished.

To give the pouch some depth make box corners, on both the outer part, and the lining.

To do this fold the corners into a triangle, measure about 3cm from the outer edge in the center, mark with a ruler and stitch along the line.

If you look carefully you will notice that I forgot to leave a gap open on the side of the lining, but no worries, if the same happens to you, just unpick some stitches.

Cut off the triangle bits, but before cutting them off, turn the bags inside out to make sure that the corner seams are aligned, if they aren’t, just unpick and redo. The first photo below shows  my seams,  not perfect but good enough.

Now the Flap ….turn the flap inside out and fold in the corners so  they become diagonal.

Next pin the flap to one side of the outer part.

Then with the right side of the lining facing the right side of the outer fabric, slide outer part including the flap inside the lining.

Pin around the top and sew all the way around, 1cm from the edge.

Trim off the excess bits on top and turn everything inside out through the gap on the side of the lining.

And there it is.

Top stitch around the edges of the flap so that it looks neater, and add some snap studs. Oh… and don’t forget to sew the gap in the lining closed.

And there you have it……. a new nifty pouch. 🙂

Here is a photo of another one I made, but here I chose a different fabric for the flap, and the pouch is slightly smaller.

Nursing Pillow

Recently I made 2 nursing pillows, one for my daughter, and then for a friend of hers, that´s also pregnant. These nursing pillows are really very comfortable for mother and baby and quite easy to make.

The measurements of the pattern are basically what you see in the diagram below.

Fold the fabric, so that the straight edge of the pattern A is on the fold, cut the fabric allowing for 1 cm seams.

Cut a second piece on the fold again.

Do a quick zig zag around the edges to strengthen the fabric, especially as we will be snipping around the edges later.

Then sew both pieces together except for the curved inner part, also leave a +- 9 cm opening on the top so that you can stuff the pillow later on. I´ve placed  scissors where you´re not supposed to sew, so that you get a better idea of what I mean.

To make the slip cover, cut one piece on the fold, this will be the front part.

For the back part of the slip cover, you have to make allowance for the zip. So fold  part A (see first diagram) approximately 10 cm then cut the fabric on a straight line but leave an additional 2.5 cm to attach the zip. and cut the rest of the fabric following the lines of the front part of the slip cover. Below in the photo, The part for the front of the slip cover is being used as a pattern for the back.

Then cut out another part on the fold, equal to the part that you folded out of the way (see photo above) , but leave an additional 2.5 cm above, for the zip

Next, attach the zip to the back of the slip cover. Place zip along the  edge of top part and measure from the edges to sew the fabric strips to the ends of the zip. then cut off the excess zip edges.

and sew the zip to both parts of the back slip cover, making sure you allow for 1 cm extra which will be folded over the zip

Iron and top sitch along the edges .

Then sew both parts together right sides facing each other, but do not sew  the curved part. As you can see in the image I also sewed a quick zig zag around the whole outer edges to strengthen the fabric.

Now for the tricky part…. Measure around the inner part of the cushion covers, then cut a strip of fabric approximately  the same size, mine was +-  64cm (always make the strip a bit longer than what you measured, to allow for the curvature). Fold it in half and cut it so that it tapers from 7cm in the center to 3 cm at the end, these measurements include the seams allowance, your final strip will be approximately 6 cm to 1cm.

Pin and attach to the curved part of the covers.

Then snip around the seams of both covers, so that when the cushion is filled, it allows the outer edges of the fabric to slightly fan out.

Turn the cushion cover inside out through the little hole that was left on top and fill it. I use  cotton stuffing fiber, about 1.5 kg  until it is really taught. then just hand sew the opening on top.

All done, just slip on the cover slip and Voila, you have a nursing pillow!

Thanks for stopping by 🙂