Cushion Making at A Handmade Cottage
I love a bit of craft, me. But I’m the first to hold my hands up and say I that I am NOT an expert. By any stretch. I’m barely a beginner… but I have caught the crafty bug and decided to recruit my lovely friend Jodie May at A Handmade Cottage to teach me how to make a cushion cover. And as luck would have it, she was just as excited about it as me.
My adventure began at The Cloth Shop on Portobello Road. An Aladdin’s den of colour, frills, buttons and trims.. and rolls and rolls of every kind of fabric you could imagine… *sigh*
I chose my fabric pretty speedily, (when I fall in love, everything else just disappears.. especially when it comes to fabric. And cake) and took it to the counter to be snipped to size. Jodie May had given me very clear instructions on this, so at least I sounded like I knew what I was talking about. Kinda.
Then it was off to the station to board my train to Jodie May’s lovely cottage in Bishops Stortford.
She met me at the station and we wandered into town to have some lunch and a bit of a natter. We holed up in South Street Pantry – a gorgeous café in the heart of Bishops Stortford, with pretty cups and teapots and the most enormous cakes I’ve ever seen. It’s also where Jodie holds her craft club, so it was a bit like visiting with a local celebrity… she is well loved 😉
We totally lost track of time (there was a lot to catch up on) so quickly pegged it down the road to Jodie May’s cottage.. but not before we’d bought ourselves a piece of Blueberry and White Chocolate cake, to take away to have with our tea. When I say ‘we bought’ I mean ‘Jodie May bought’. (Thank you Jodie May.)
Then, it was template cutting, newspaper pinning and sewing machines on on ON for my lesson! (Very exciting.)
The final result could not be any more perfect. It is my new favourite cushion.. and seems to be the favourite of anyone else who visits my flat too.
You’ll be pleased to know that I didn’t sew myself to Jodie May’s curtains, nor did I sew myself to Ralphy. I managed to sew in a straight (ish) line at a very respectable (ridiculously slow) speed… Jodie May seemed to be very proud of me and I was very excited about my achievement. Gold star for Poppy!
It was such a lovely day. Friends, tea, sewing, cake, crafting and chatter…it left me feeling all glowy and like a super sonic seamstress.
I wonder if Jodie May will consider coming to hold a Poppy Loves craft club one evening on Portobello… would you come? Do let me know and I’ll see if I can twist her arm. (Cake bribe.)
For the full instructions, more images and patterns etc, just pop over to Jodie May’s blog here. And, if you make one yourself, please let me know – I’d love to see!
PATTERN & INSTRUCTIONS HERE
Jodie May
Ah a lovely reminder of a lovely day … looking forward to our next project! 🙂 x
Claudia
As I wrote on Jodie May’s blog, many cozy congratulations from Italy! <3
Abi
Beautiful fabrics and of course cake! What a great day! I love making cushions now, I have a bit of a Liberty pash going on in my blog: http://bit.ly/1LDUkmm
Rosi
The Cloth Shop is one place I’m definitely going to check out! I currently deliver soft furnishing workshops from my home-based studio in London, but now venturing into making high-end, one off cushion covers! xx