Curtains, Cushions and Chairs

It is that time of year when it seems pointless making any more new summer garments but too soon to be thinking about winter, so I am turning my attention to soft furnishings.

There are two rooms which I want to update, my sewing room and the lounge and kitchen. An easy way to do it is by replacing the soft furnishings.


I wanted to start with the sewing room because it is where I spend my evenings and it is important to me to have everything to hand and orderly.


Earlier in the year I bought these units from Ikea which I have shown you before



They are a beautiful pale green colour and house most of my fabric stash, patterns, books and so on.
 I keep scented candles -away from all the fabric I must add! And a vase of fresh flowers on the lower unit, and it now holds jars of buttons too.



 I have a small table which I sit at to sew, and on it is my beautiful brand new sewing machine courtesy of Jaycotts. Click here to go to Jaycotts web site


I have recently added some thread storage to one of the cupboards and I love seeing my threads all neat and tidy. I will be getting another one to sit under it shortly as I still have another box full of assorted threads!


I think that they look really pretty, plus it is so practical not having to sort through boxes of threads trying to find the correct colour.


I recently bought this beautiful screen printed furnishing fabric. I wanted to get as many things as possible out of it so I first measured enough to make my curtains, and with what was left over I just had enough to cover these two very old chairs which I have in the room.
The one with the fabric back is the one I sit at when sewing so I made sure that I put plenty of wadding in place to give my back something comfortable to lean on. Both chairs have seats which push out. I removed the old covers, cleaned the chairs and replaced the covers with new ones using the  discarded ones as a template. I also added some wadding to the seats. This was really easy to do as the fabric just needed tacking in place.


I have some fat quarters of Michael Miller designs and with these I made some cushions. For the cushion backs I made simple envelope openings out of curtain lining fabric. There was not enough of this expensive fabric for backs which will not be seen anyway!


I have an old table which I use as my sewing table, it is a bit small but it is what I use to sew on. I have the sewing  machine at one end and my overlocker at the other with a chair each side.  It was deserving of a new tablecloth so I made one out of this "Paris" fabric.. My pins are in a jar, and my scissors  and sewing tools are just kept in trays for now.


The curtain fabric is rather stunning. I cut out lining to help it to hang nicely and also to stop the fabric from fading in the sun. The lining is sewn into the fabric so it is as one piece on the top is a wide ruflette tape.



I needed to put new curtain rails up, previously this was my son's bedroom and he had a curtain pole. He still comes to stay when he can, and I don't think he will mind the lovely pictures of famous tourist attractions on the new curtains.



The curtain lining and all the furnishing fabric was purchased from Abakhan Fabrics Click here to go to Abakhan web site I also bought lots of rolls of ribbon because whenever I need some I can never find any, well, now I have enough to last me a very long time!

This is still my sons room  when he comes to stay, he is a Doctor but  he does  come home when he can.  I still keep a bed for him and these are the soft toys he has bought me over the years!



I have an easy chair in the room where I sit to do any hand sewing or to read a sewing book . It is very peaceful and relaxing in here. Some of my rolls of fabric are hiding behind my chair.

 The cushion fabric is another Michael Miller and I love it.



The next thing I want to do now that this room is finished for now, is to get cutting out the lounge curtains from this roll of fabric I bought from Abakhan. I also want to make a new kitchen blind from it, cushions, and seat pads for my dining chairs. So I guess I will be busy for a week or two! The windows are very large - the full height of the room, and I am wondering if loose linings might be easier then the sewn in ones I made for the sewing room?

 The other thing I have been experimenting with is printing on fabric. I made a piece of printed fabric which is going to be part of the front of one of my new cushions.  I used some of Matthews photographs and copied them onto my fabric. With this piece I made a travel journal and pen holder for him.  This is something I want to do more of and try to perfect.

I hope that you have enjoyed looking round my sewing room. I will of course update you on my lounge and kitchen once I have done them.

What are you sewing at the moment? Do let me know. 

Angela.