Who’s excited about giving handmade Christmas presents this year? ME! I have a mix of handmade and bought for my family, but I’m particularly excited about two of them – these pale green square cushions with hand-printed trees and embroidered blossom. I was inspired to do some block printing by what I had seen at a stall at The Handmade Festival back in September, and decided to combine crafts by sewing little French knots for blossom (or gold baubles!). I wasn’t sure how effective the final result would be, but the time it took has certainly been worth it, and I can’t wait to see the reactions on Christmas day.
Here’s how the magic happened:
1. The first step was to cut the fabric. (Adding a 1cm seam allowance) using a 45cm x 45cm cushion insert, I cut the same size square of material for the front piece, and 2 x [45cm x 35cm] for the back pieces. Make sure each piece is ironed!
2. For the block printing, I used this little tree block and two fabric paints in pink and blue that had I bought from The Handmade Festival. I drew a square 1.5cm in from the edges on the front piece, and roughly measured out on the fabric with small pencil dots where the block would be placed at regular intervals (with some wacky calculations that seemed to work!). I gently dabbed the paint with a sponge onto the block, and pressed. There were some trees that came out better than others, but this gives an overall more rustic effect!
3. I originally planned on sewing blossom on every tree, but this would have been a bit over the top, so I did one tree per line. These were done with little French knots.
4. I then sewed over the edges of the back pieces by folding a long edge twice by 1.5cm, sewing 1cm in from the edge.
5. Placing right sides together with all 3 pieces, I pined all 4 sides and sewed all around the 4 edges with a 1.5cm seam allowance.
6. In order to stop lots of fraying, I used pinking shears on the edges before turning out and inserting the cushion.
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