Cross stitch margaritas cushion

This cushion was sold as a kit from Vervaco but was actually only the cross stitch itself so I had to find the cushion and backing fabric to make it up.  The kit was a present and not the type that I would normally pick but I still completed it. The kit came with plenty of yarns, even though it may not look it at times, there were plenty of every colour. The instructions also recommend that you separate the yarns into their different colours at the start - I didn't do this straight away but wished I had, the greens were very close in colour as were the yellows. The kit was lacking a graph pattern to follow so you had to rely on the colour printed which was confusing at time and meant at times I had to wait for some natural light to complete sections.  I did use the photo at times to try and guide me.

When  making it up I didn't bother to make an opening, I figured that it wouldn't be the type of cushion that would be used much. The backing fabric was some I had in my stash following the making of cushions for the lounge.

This cushion is a little bit special as both my son and daughter had a go at completing some of it and it has inspired my daughter to get on with one of her tapestry kits that she had for Christmas.

Chair covers

About 4 years ago we purchased some seats to go with a table that had kindly been given to us from my in-laws, at the time there was a limited selection of dining chairs in dark wood to match but we found some that went well.  The seating was a plain beige colour which looked nice in the shop but sadly did not stand the test of time with a family with 2 kids and needless to say were getting pretty grim with dirt and stains.

Back in September my other half suggested taking them to an upholsterer to be recovered and was pleasantly surprised when I suggested that I do it myself.  I managed to find some lovely fabric in John Lewis to fit in with our kitchen (Oak and Aubergine units) and I set to taking them apart. The seats came off relatively easily but the previous covers had been stapled in place very securely, it took a couple of evenings to take them off with my wrist aching at the end. 

It was then very easy to cut a template from the cover out of the new fabric and then recover them. I invested in some fabric protector spray and gave them a good coat and soon they were looking like new.

The hardest part was finding some staples to fit the staple gun we had but a very helpful person in screwfix opened the box so I could try them for size in the store.  I mention the names of the businesses I find useful in my blog not because I get any payback or commission from them (although that would be great!) but because I believe in giving credit where it is due and assist you my lovely readers to know where good places for sourcing things are.

If you would like to see the end result then please admire the pictures below, I am going to attempt to do more work in progress pictures when working now but I am on a bit of a catch up projects that I have completed already.