Saturday 4 May 2013

Eli makes a cushion

My 7 year old son has written a list of things to do before he is 8. On it are things such as 'make a den in the woods', 'cook a meal' and 'learn 11 words in french' - you know, the usual!! Anyway, number 4 is 'make a cushion'. He has been asking me for a while now if he could and with eldest daughter out today walking 16 miles across Exmoor, I thought it the perfect opportunity for some mother/son time. So I asked him to design his cushion. I told him to keep it simple as it was his first attempt. And here's what he drew.



He is learning about Australia this week at school so wanted to do a kookaburra cushion (from the song - kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, merry merry king of the bushes he...) I thought it was perfect!

First we had to scale the design up and then trace each piece the wrong way round onto bondaweb using my very exciting lightbox...


Then the tricky 'choosing the fabric' part. This is always my favourite bit when designing a cushion - sometimes it works first time round, other times you have to go through endless combinations to find the right one. Eli was very definite in his decision making - even with my large selection of fabrics he knew straight away which ones he wanted!


Ironing the bondaweb onto the back of the fabric was my job, but he did all the cutting out himself.




And then laying out, ironing into place and onto the machine! This was the bit he was most excited about, and he did a bloody good job too! Picking it up very quickly, there was only a few mistakes to be had. 






He wanted to use one of my 'fancy' stitches, so did that on the tree to represent the bark.


He added details to the beak and the wing in a grey thread, and he even had a go at sewing on the button for the kookaburra's eye.  






After putting a red gingham envelope back on (which he hemmed and sewed on himself) it was ready for the 'ta-daa' moment. 


Chuffed. To. Bits.



It's perfect in my rocking chair, but I doubt he will let me keep it down here, it's going to take pride of place on his bed.

He's already asking me when he can make another one!!




3 comments:

  1. Awwww :-) My boys also sew, and have their own sewing machine (to keep them off mine when I'm using it). They love making cushions, and have done ones with their names on (as I also have an embroidery sewing machine) and these mad Olympic ones where they printed their photos onto fabric and appliquéd them on. Nice to see you are training an assistant from such a young age! X

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  2. Only one comment on this amazing story.? Its beautiful. It gave me such delight to see the process and the development and his skill and pride...and yours.

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    1. Thank you so much Jackie!! He was certainly so happy in his making!

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