I’m calling a halt to Winter here in West Sussex. It may be rainy, still cold and dark in the mornings outside but inside I’ve called time. It is now officially Spring and I’m off. I’ve got a wind beneath my sails, a spring (geddit) in my step and my creative mojo is rocking. I’m planning Easter and thinking about what to give up for Lent. It’s all looking up.

My plans for this year in my house are quite simple really – BRIGHTEN. I’ve said this before but I’m still on a mission to make my home feel like a cloud so lots of white gloss and light fabrics are in order. I can hear some of you ask how I’m going to manage that with two small weaning and nearly crawling babies. Sticky fingers will almost certainly be all over the place but I’m careful to choose slip cover furniture that just gets popped in the wash. I think it’s called having your cake, eating it and then not worrying if the cake gets smeared all over the sofa.

Part of my grand Cloud Exercise are these new cushions. You may remember that last year my Springtime Cushions looked like this. Well this year they are a similar design but using very different fabrics.

My gut feeling is that these will end up in a bedroom, as they are ‘bedroomy’. Can you see that?

Although I love this one on this chair I feel that it needs to be on a bed. On a guest bed. Waiting for a special person to come and stay and prop themselves up on it while they read before turning the light off and going to sleep.

They are soft in the sunlight. You know the sort of sunlight I mean. The sort that pops out from behind a raincloud for just a moment. Filling the room with the promise of warmth to come in the next few months.

The sun teases at this time of year, of that there is no doubt, so I’ve taken it upon myself to help it along as it makes its mind up. Filling the house with brighter fabrics, numerous paint jobs and celebratory corners.

I’ve just noticed that I left a pin in that cushion. Can you see it? *blush*.  I’d better remove it before I have guest spear themselves.

What you will need for this project:

(These measurements are for one 50 x 50cm cushion)

• 1 x 50 x 50cm cushion pad
• Two squares of fabric measuring 56 x 56cm
• 46cm zipper (in a colour to match your chosen cushion fabric)
• 20 x 70cm for the fabric band
• 20 x 140cm for the fabric tie/bow
• Thread to match your fabric
• Sewing machine
• Pins
• Scissors
• Measuring tape
• Pencil

Measure and cut the two fabric squares for your cushion cover to match the size of the cushion pad you have chosen (I covered both a 50 x 50c pad and a 30 x 30cm pad and then added extra 3cm on all four sides of the fabric squares to allow for the hems), then fold along and pin one of the edges on both of the of the cushion squares creating a 1.5cm hem, (iron down if necessary) these folds will be used to pin and then sew the zipper to.

Start pining the zipper to the hem ensuring that you leave a slight overlap of fabric on each side of the zipper so that when the zipper is closed, the fabric lip you have created hides the zipper thus creating a neater finish.

At this stage of pinning the top of the zipper should be facing upwards; machine the zipper in place removing the pins as you go.

When the zipper has been machined in place, pin together the remaining open ends (where the zipper finishes but there is still fabric yet to be sewn together), and machine together (as illustrated in the first and second photos above).

Measure out your contrasting strip of fabric for the cushion band and then pin a small double hem along all four sides.

Machine the hems removing the pins as you go. Iron the fabric strip if necessary.

Take your cushion cover and lay the fabric band horizontally (and in line with the zipper) along the middle of the cushion.

When you are happy with the positioning of the band and it looks straight, pin in place at either side.

Then, flip the cushion cover back over the opposite way thus encasing the fabric band inside the two cushion pieces. Your cushion will now look inside out.

Start pining all the way around the three edges of the cushion ensuring the fabric band stays in the place you originally pinned it. Remember to remove the pins from the inside attached to the band and to open the zipper so that you have an opening to turn the cushion back the right way once it is stitched up.

Before you turn the cushion back the right way, cut off the two bottom corners of fabric, this will make for neater corners once the cushion cover is turned back the correct way.

As with the fabric band, use your contrasting fabric to cut, hem pin and machine the strip of fabric which will become the cushion bow. Iron the strip of fabric if necessary.

Tie the fabric bow onto the fabric band attached to the cushion.

Use a few hand sewn single stitches to secure the bow to the cushion cover, insuring it doesn’t move.

Welcome to Spring. My Spring.

I’ve decided that in my house it is here already. Why? Because I just can’t take another moment of Winter. I need the promise and the hope.

And I need the colour. You see the colours of Spring go really well with my daughter’s tiny peachy foot. It’s a peachy foot that I regularly take a nibble out of just to hear her giggle. It’s a foot that has a little toe that reminds me of a pine nut. And a foot that is constantly wriggling and squirming as she’s so desperate to communicate. It’s a foot that makes me smile when I think of it and one that is soft and smells of baby bath.

It is also a foot that nestles well in these cushions and has already started to beat them to pulp. So I think the cushions will be staying, as my favourite girl’s foot likes them. They go well together. And there is nothing I like better than matching accessories.

I love Spring, I love my daughter’s foot and I love you.

Cherry x

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Cherry Menlove

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