Sewing Projects

Bazaar at Babylon

People today love beads and bright, shiny fabrics. This cushion by Christopher Nejman from his latest book Pillows, was inspired by the decorative ideas of India and by the crazy quilting. It incorporates crazy piecing, lame inserting, yarn flowers, beads and metallic fringe.

This cushion has been made on a traditional sewing machine with a miracle-stitcher or pearl foot for the yarn embellishments.

MATERIAL IDEAS

46 cm square (18”) of duck cloth for base (or calico)
46 cm square (18”) heavyweight fabric for cushion back
23 cm of 107 cm wide Lame (1/4 yd of 42”)
23 cm total of 3 to 5 colours of batik
Chenille yarn
Flat ribbon yarn
Gold metallic thread
Invisible thread
Craft mirrors
Craft glue
Gold metallic fabric paint
Opalescent metallic fabric paint
Tulip fabric paint (optional)
2 m of 4.5 cm wide lightweight fringed trim  (2 ¼ yd of 1 ¾”)
2 m of 4 cm wide beaded trim (2 ¼ yd of 1 ½”)
Invisible zip and invisible zip foot
Glue stick
Fibrefill

To Make

1. Cut a 41 cm square (16”) piece of duck cloth.

2. Cut a triangle of hand-dyed fabric from a 10 cm (4”) square.

3. Lay the triangle in the centre of the duck cloth.

4. Fuse interfacing to the back of your piece of lame.

HANDY HINT: Use a low heat iron and no steam. Steam will cause the lame to distort.

5. Cut 5 cm (2”) strips of lame the width of the fabric so you have nice long strips to work with. Fold the strips in half lengthwise. Now you have 2.5 cm 1 (1”) doubled strips of lame.

6. Cut your batik fabrics into 8 cm (3”) strips.

7. Lay a folded strip of lame on one side of the triangle and pin. Lay the 8 cm strip of fabric on top of the folded lame and pin. Stitch the fabric and lame down with a 6 mm (1/4”) seam along one side of the triangle. You may use any colour thread because it will not show.





8. After sewing the seam down one side of the triangle, fold the fabric and lame open and press flat. Then cut off the extra tails of fabric that extend beyond the triangle.

9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 on the opposite side of the triangle as shown.




10. Continue adding strips of lame and fabric around the cushion, turning clockwise as you overlap each new addition.

11. Attach a braiding or cording foot to your machine and set it up for a couching stitch with gold metallic thread.; Couch down a decorative ribbon yarn with gold metallic thread, moving around the cushion in large curves in a random fashion.

12. Attach a miracle-stitcher or pearl foot and thread your machine with invisible thread. Drop the feed dogs and couch down green chenille yarn to make free motion flowers and leaves around the cushion (we used a stitch width of 1.5).

13. Glue craft mirrors to the centre of each yarn flower. Apply metallic fabric paints to make decorative, free form designs on the cushion.

14. After the paint dries, add beaded trim around the cushion top with a narrow straight foot as shown.

15. Over the beaded trim, add a light, metallic trim so the cushion has a double layer of trim.

16. Cut a piece of heavyweight cotton for the backing fabric. It can be hand-dyed or hand painted or a solid colour as long as it coordinates with the front. I hand-painted the fabric shown using Tulip paints and textile medium. After paint dries for 48 hours, heat set to be permanent.

17. Next, using a fabric marking pencil and freehand, draw a flower design on the backing fabric.

18. Attach your miracle-stitcher or pearl foot again. Use the same green chenille yarn to couch over the drawn design.

19. Glue a coloured jewel onto the centre of the cushion back flower. Wait for it to dry then embroider your name if you wish.

20. Attach the backing and zip, stuff the cushion and you are done!

Further information

This project has been reproduced from Pillows by Christopher Nejman, published by Krause Publications (ISBN 97-808-968-940-37). It includes 15 fabulous projects, 9 of which use an embellisher and all with beautiful step by step photos and easy to read instructions. This great title costs £14.99 and is distributed in the UK by David and Charles. For further details tel: 0870 990 8222.