Memory Cushions - keepsakes created in a morning
People come for private lessons at Stitching Kitchen for a range of reasons and this week I was lucky enough to be part of a very special project.
A new customer messaged with a request to make memory cushions from precious items of a loved ones clothing, these were sports wear so not the easiest for making cushions from!
Alongside hearing about the tragic loss of a friend in a road traffic accident we looked at what would work in terms of making a cushion and how to include all the logos and details on the football shirt.
We used an 18 inch cushion pad. The plan was to make a simple cushion from the black sweatshirt including the detail and logo on the front. With several deep breaths we used a rotary cutter and quilting ruler to cut accurately.
As these are stretchy knit fabric we cut a 18 inch square from the sweatshirt and used a narrow (width of presser foot on the machine) to join them together with a small turning gap which we sewed by hand. My client is a keen crafter but hadn’t much experience on the sewing machine, she felt she could manage the straight seams but was too nervous to tackle the harder fabric and applique. She did an awesome job of the black cushion. We worked as a team to get both cushions done in less than 3 hours!
The football shirt [1997 Liverpool] is not only of incredible personal value but is also made of a synthetic, probably polyester, and is very slippery and didn’t want to sew well on the machine no matter if a stretch needle used! After appliqué ing the neck band to the back of the shirt and adding the logos on the sleeves as patches I decided it was probable in our best interests to use the overlocker to construct the cushion. As this project was planned on the fly if I ever find myself wanting to create a patch from the neckline details on a football shirt again I would create a better edge or border to my patch before applying it next time.
The football shirt had logos across the front of the chest and also another one at the hip line. As we were able to get a 18 inch strip which was longer than needed we decided to make a fold to show the logo and create a pocket. The bottom hems of back and front then became the bottom edge of the football shirt. Both cushions were finished by using a mattress stitch by hand. These are not likely to find there way onto a sofa and so are unlikely to need to be washed so we didn’t make an removable cover.
The finished cushions looked fab and I hope the family find some comfort in having his shirts transformed to make these special keepsakes.