The uninventive inventor: August 2013

Well that's been a crazy couple of weeks... and by crazy I mean I'm really just struggling with the bereavement of any materials, equipment, stock etc. for making interesting stuff, now that I've high tailed it out of sixth form college and now stuck in the wailing limbo of waiting for University to come around.......... eep.

Of course it's still been busy enough that I haven't posted a thing on here, what with cat-settling a kitten that seems to be getting quite (ahem) mature...

"My body is ready"

...Then there's been running around the top of Britain. Again.

Speaks for itself

Bagpipers: every ruined castle in Scotland has one

Plus there was the time I was shoved into a certain series of books by a certain brother to take up any spare time and life I thought I might have had.

GOD DAMMIT THEY'RE BRILLIANT! DAMN YOU

PEER PRESSURE! DAMN YOU! THE OTHERS TAKE YOU ALL!

So with no equipment and living in an area bereft of DIY shops I've been forced to busy myself with old school craft. And I mean old school.

I feel ninety three years young again

Yes I started trying out tapestry, no I have not aged several decades and yes, I usually despise most of the ready planned floral sets (which do seem to be coming back fashion-wise at the moment and I must admit, do look quite good on handbags I've seen lately). I decided to try my own patterns for my generation (and which are a thousand times simpler), with a couple of other interests of mine in mind...

.....so.....beautiful...

I am a big Bioshock fan and a sucker for Steampunk. Seeing as Bioshock + Steampunk influences = probably the greatest game out this year (plus my favourite game of all time amongst others) I thought about using some imagery from my own personal favourite vigor whilst playing:

FLY MY PRETTIES! FLY! AHAHAHAHAHA!

For this rather more simple make, you're going to need:

Plain Tapestry Canvas (ten count if you want to use wool, use a higher number for finer sewing/cotton)
Wool of various colours
Wool/tapestry needle
(optional) image to use
Pencil/marker pen

(...and for a cushion)

White cloth
sewing needle and cotton wool
stuffing

Personally I began with getting the image I wanted to recreate, printing and cutting it out; in this case a murderous crow contempt with tearing me apart because that's always the first thing you think of when finding a design for a cushion cover.

You know, for kids!

I traced the design onto the area of the tapestry canvas in pencil keeping in mind the area around the edge of the cushion front needs to be at least a centimetre or two clear from the edge. It's probably better to do it in marker pen – you can see it clearer.

And then onto the sewing using wool of the correct colour I sewed...

...And sewed...

Here we go...

...And kept on sewing...

Day 3: Huh, taking a bit longer than expected

...And kept on sewing...

Day 6: Well this is starting to get tedious...

...And then a little more sewing after that...

Day 9: Oh for crying out...

...Followed by another course of sewing...

Day 13: I know, maybe I could just knit myself a noose and be done with it...

...Yeah, so I think with this project I've worked out why the finished products are always associated with old people...

Anyway one trip to Scotland and back and the main bit was finished before I keeled over.

I'm free... I'm finally free...

All that's left is to fold in the sides, sew those up and then attach the back cloth. Add some stuffing, sew it all up and you have yourself a tapestry pillow.

You can use it for smaller scale pieces as well which won't take half as long such as key rings and... well... smaller cushions... And it's a good time filler when nothing is happening/you're going places with nothing for your hands to do. It's one I might start up again to have a go at once in a while. But what to theme it on this time...?