Home- Ed festive designs - making a christmas tree cushion.

We spent the first session learning how to control the sewing machine. Susanna helped us control the speed by practicing on sheets of paper with different designs to go round. The machines were not threaded up.

When we came to a corner we had to make sure we put the needle in the paper lifted the presser foot and turned the paper with the needle still in the corner of the paper.Then we could continue to sew round the designs.

Some of the designs were hard and some were easy, some had twists and some had turns, but most were strait.

We even had a ZIG -ZIG design on the paper. The hardest part, was learning how to control the speed and to do a corner because you have to be precise.

We then learned how to thread the sewing machine. You can follow this link to see a little video that Rosie made on how to thread the machine.

To practice sewing on fabric we sewed some squares together to start to make a cushion cover for the book corner.

We learned how important it is to press each stage of the sewing to set the seam and to get a neat crisp edge. We opened the seam to press and used the toe of the iron to make a really flat seam.

Susanna marked out onto some stripy fabric a triangle shape which was going to become our christmas tree with a special ruler and a fabric marker (it washes off immediately)

Clara is pinning her ribbon on to her fabric so she ready to sew on the sewing machine.

We are now tacking the ribbon and lace which secures the ribbon before the machine sews it.

Rosie and Clara are practising cutting fabric and trying to make sure they don't chew up the fabric. Trying to make long even cuts.They both said its a lot harder than it looks!

Sewsanna helped us design some christmas trees which had ribbon stitched on that we brought in from home. In this picture Isla is stitching her ribbon onto her christmas tree.

Tabitha struggled to keep the sewing in the right position. There is a lot to remember when you are sewing along , keeping it straight, making sure the fabric doesn't get tucked up underneath and letting the machine do the work ,it all stays nice and flat.

I struggled to keep the sewing machine in the position I wanted, some of ribbon was on the wonk. Luckily the Sewing Fairy fixed that for me. Sewing onto fabric is really different to sewing on the paper as the fabric moves a lot and you need to control where you are gong to keep things in a straight line. The stripes on the fabric helped.

Rosie is using a pattern to cut out the side pieces of the cushion front. You had to get it exactly right because then it would be the right shape - like a cushion.

Isla has pinned the pieces of fabric to the cushion front when they are flipped over they will hide away all the raw edges and fluffy ends of the ribbon design.

When Isla was stitching she went slightly off course but got the quick unpick and we were able to make a new straight line of stitching.

Tabitha has flipped it over and pressed the seam flat. She looks very pleased with the result.

Now we are adding the tree trunk .In the same method of stitching so we can flip the fabric over.

Here is a better picture of the ribbon and where its supposed to be pinned into the seam.

now Rosie is sewing the bottom of cushion and the tree trunk to complete the square front of the cushion.

More blogging!

The girls then added finishing touches to the christmas tree. Tabitha did some lovely chain stitch and they all added pom poms.

We then had to work on the back of our cushion. Its difficult to show with photos but we made a hem on two edges on the back of the cushion and overlapped the back to make an opening for the cushion to go in. We then had to stitch the whole way round the cushion to complete the project remembering to trim the corners to reduce bulk and enable us to get a sharp neat corner. Phew!!

Hemming

Pressing each stage especially where we made the hem.

Stitching the whole way round

Trimming the corners careful not to cut through the stitching .

Tabitha this is fantastic. I love the fluffy edge it looks like snow. I particularly like the hand stitched embellishments including chain stitch excellent work.

Clara you have done lots of stitching on the machine because I think yours had the most lace and ribbons and you have achieved a beautiful cushion.

Isla your confidence has really grown and your use of the machine has broadened well done for using zig-zag. Great use of the pom poms.

Sorry Rosie we didn't get an individual photo of you but your cushion is really lovely its very neat and you are excellent at threading the machine and sorting out the machine for the others during the session. Girls you have achieved some fantastic results. I look forward to seeing your evaluations at the beginning of next term. Its been lots of fun sewing together. Looking forward to our next sewing adventure next term.

Were all really pleased with our cushions and the parents that received them for christmas presents were all delighted. We found that some of the hardest challenges were threading the machine, cutting out, threading the needle. Some of the bobbles on the cushions have already started to come off meaning that we needed to concentrate on making sure the anchor stitch was really effective. It would have been even better if we had more time to add other things (goats and dogs for Tabitha!). We are looking forward to making a wash bag next!