DFabrication

It's raining again in Manchester, but the plants seem to like it so I'm not complaining. Just wish I could find a time consuming job now to get me out of the house. I've been trying to make the most of my time though and have another quick tutorial / explanation of my bedroom to offer.

I originally had bought one piece of fabric to cover my bed sheets for the bedroom. It was lime green and black and stripey and I was kind of confused about the whether I liked it or not. But I went ahead and stuck it on there anyway because I'd bought it so I kind of forced myself into it. I then came to realise it was boring and quite ugly.

So! I embarked on a new mission, to create something much nicer, and more in keeping with the room and my new curtains. To tie in these (slightly wintry) curtains with the bedcovers was a little bit of a challenge, especially as summer is now on its way and I wanted something light to keep the room bright. I went for green to contrast with the brown and green in the curtains and decided to use applique because I could use a variety of fabrics mixing colours and textures to mtch any season.

I chose the shape for the applique by copying the weird cabbage shapes from the curtain. I didn't want the shapes to be too small because I'd be sewing all day.


So! I drew out the pattern I wanted on some baking paper, which is just as good as tracing paper and much easier to get hold of. I cut the pattern out and used it as a pattern for the applique.

To decide on fabrics I pulled a few out of my hoard and threw them all together in a pile. This is a very easy way to work out what fabrics work together. Just stick to the basic principles and don't worry about using contrasts and different materials.

Once each piece was cut out, two of each fabric. I then pinned all the pieces together, deciding to put the floral shapes into groups of three as in the design on the curtains.

The most difficult part of this was sewing the pieces on, I sewed around the outside of all three and then around the centre. You do have to sort of wrap yourself in sheeting to make sure you only sew through one layer of fabric, and it hurts your arms after a while but it doesn't take long. I used a zig-zag stitch on its widest setting. This is the final result, a very cheap and easy way to brighten up the bedroom.