♪ She was stuck indoors in isolation ♪
♪ And she looked around at her habitation ♪
♪ No hesitation, grabbed some fabric and some scissors ♪
♪ It's time for home re-decoration ♪
- What's sewing on friends?
I thought I'd share with you all the little house
and decor DIYs I've been doing right now.
There are more where this came from.
While I am pretty used to spending a lot of my time at home -
both cause I work from home and also being chronically ill,
your body doesn't let you go out a whole lot -
I'm also not used to spending 24/7 at home,
I'm privileged enough to be able to go outside,
a lot of the time.
So I've decided to use being stuck here 24/7
as a good excuse to make some cute DIY things
and put them around the house.
Working at a reasonable pace of course,
because, trust me, if you try
and spend quarantine doing 1000 different things
you burn out quickly. (chuckles)
Today I'm going to be making a round velvet cushion.
I'm trying to secretly,
just one by one, start adding kitsch decor items
to the house cause Luci - not a fan of kitsch -
but if I just do it one by one, hopefully he won't notice.
I found this green velvet in my stash the other day
and I knew I had it to be used to this because,
I have been looking at a lot of kitschy home decor images
on Pinterest and these cushions have been a regular feature
and they got into my brain and so I had to make them.
Let's begin.
All right, so I folded the velvet
in half right sides together
so that I can cut through two layers at once.
Then I found something round to trace around.
This hat was the largest circular object
that I could find in my house.
So I drew around it adding about an inch all around
'cause I wanted to make it as larger circle as possible.
For reference, my circle ended up being 19 inches
in diameter.
Remember, the finished cushion will be about an inch smaller
in diameter, because of both seam allowance
and it becoming a three dimensional object
when you stuff it.
So draw a larger circle than you want it to end up.
Then I cut this out and that gave me two matching circles.
I left this circle sandwiched together right sides together
and then I put pins through around the edges,
through both fabrics, to hold them together,
and then sewed around it like this,
leaving a gap just large enough to fit my hand into.
I sewed around the edges with a straight stitch,
with 3/8 seven inch seam allowance,
from one side of the gap to the other.
Then using some small scissors,
I cut notches every couple of inches along the raw edges,
making sure not to cut through the thread.
This will help it look a little bit neater
when turned around, because it's a curved edge.
The next step is optional but I found this useful
for later on when I'm going to eventually hand sew
this gap shot.
I press the edges around the gap back 3/8ths of an inch
with my iron then I put my hand through the gap
and pulled the fabric out through the hole
turning it right ways around so that the nice velvet side
is now on the outside, and the ugly raw seams are
on the inside.
I used a ruler with sharp corners to help me turn it
out completely.
Now I'm going to put stuffing into the cushion
through this hole.
I had an old cushion to steal the stuffing from,
as well as, a few bits of lightweight scrap fabric.
I thought this would be the exact amount I needed,
but as it turned out this cushion had a lot
of stuffing in it.
It was a very dense a lot more than I anticipated,
and I felt like clouds so I put stuffing
into the pillow until it felt firm but with a bit of give.
(funky music)
And then I hand-sewed this hole shut using a ladder stitch
and matching thread.
I'll pop a more in depth tutorials for ladder stitch
into the video description because I tried filming this,
but with matching colored thread you could not tell
what I was doing.
Now we have a basic round cushion and it's time
to add that sunken button in the center.
To make the buttons, I use a button making kit.
This kit was originally from Dicer.
Again, I'll put a more in depth tutorial about how
to use button making kits in the video description.
So I cut out two small circles of the same green velvet
using the circle template included in my button kit.
I was a little bit worried about the velvet being too thick
to work with this button kit and I was right,
it was a struggle.
I tried and failed to get this to work many times
but eventually I got it to work okay
by making the circle just a tiny bit smaller
by cutting down its edges a little bit.
Okay, so tips for button covering when your fabric's
to thick from this vintage button covering kit from Birch,
which unfortunately I didn't find till
after I finished the pillow.
If your fabric is too thick, dampen it slightly
before assembly or trim fabric closer,
which I did try the second one,
but I didn't try dampening it,
so that could quite possibly help a lot.
Anyway, once I finished that,
it was time to attach the buttons to the pillow.
I marked the very center of the cushion
with some chalk and then with a needle,
and some green colored sewing machine thread,
I put my needle through the center of the cushion.
No, that didn't work, that thread is too thin
and it breaks onto the tension of trying to make an indent
in the cushion 'cause you have to pull the thread
rather hard to make that indent work.
So I swapped to a stronger embroidery thread,
three strands doubled over, so six strands in total,
and a big embroidery needle,
then I tied a big chunky knot in the end of the thread,
and then I brought the needle through the center
of the cushion and out the other side
and back again a few times to create that indent first.
This worked a lot better.
Also I figured out while making my second cushion
that this is easier to do while this is still open,
close it up last because you can reach in
and pull away the stuffing from the middle
while this is still open,
which makes this whole bit of going through the middle
of the pillow with your needle a lot easier.
After going through the center of the question a few times
with my needle and thread,
I then threaded on one button,
pressed it into place in the center of the indent
and then thrust my needle underneath the button
and out the other side.
(piano music)
I thread the other button on and dang it!
The button fell apart, and it was my last button
from the kit.
The back of this button has now been seriously bent out
of shape, and although I tried,
the button just would not go back together.
Again.
So I decided, okay, I have no more of this size
of button left but this top part still looks like a button,
so I'll just use a bunch of fabric glue
and then glue it on to the middle of the cushion.
So I pressed the top of the button into middle
of the cushion with fabric glue waited a few hours
for it to dry and voila!
No one will ever know that it isn't sown on.
Tying off your knot is, I'm not gonna lie
difficult but not impossible, just persevere,
and you can do it.
You might stab yourself a few times,
but wear a thimble or better yet if you have one,
use a curved needle.
And of course I did the one that I'm not filming perfectly,
first time.
Well, I had to iron out those kinks with that first one.
So that's how I made two round velvet cushions
with buttons in the middle
and I think that looked pretty cute and subtly kitsch,
This project is also my entry to my own challenge,
"The Sewcial Isolation prompts,"
but if you don't know what those are,
you would check out the Instagram link in the description
or the last video.
And prompt number one is cuddly cushions.
Thank you for watching if you do this ,
or any other cushions tell me on Instagram,
and put in #SewcialIsolation1,
for a sewcial isolation prompt number one,
"The cuddly cushions" in your caption
so that I will actually be able to find
and see what you've made.
Stay safe and stay crafty, bye.
♪ Isolation, isolation ♪
♪ Make sure you remember daily hydration ♪
♪ And all frustration do some gyrations ♪
♪ Time to watch some animation ♪
♪ Avoid temptation, ♪
♪ Set up a workstation ♪
♪ Play around with face pigmentation ♪
♪ Don't forget online communication ♪
♪ If all else fails, try master- [cuts off abruptly]
♪ She was stuck indoors in isolation ♪
♪ And she looked around at her habit... ♪