...by my standards, I have been gutsy of late -- in what way?... Well, I've been cutting into quite a lot of my most favourite treasured pieces of vintage fabric in order to make cushions!... You know what I'm talking about, right?... Those pieces that you've been looking at forever but never doing anything with because they're so precious, some still with original price tags on them from the 50's, 60's or 70's (ridiculously cheap!), all nicely folded on that one very special shelf...
I'm really going for it this time as I've been cutting into some of my favourite type of vintage yardage: beautifully printed and textured barkcloth like the yummy fabric used for the cushion in the forefront.of all the photos. While I used to be able to find such beautiful fabric in local thrift shops, I very rarely happen upon such vintage loveliness in the shops these days. Nevertheless, despite its local scarcity, I think it's high time for me to start bringing this fabric out into plain sight to enjoy in everyday life instead of treating it like archived museum pieces hidden on dark and dusty shelves, don't you think?...
To give the cushions a clean simple look, I decided to back all the patterned cushion fronts with complementary fabric in solid colours; I did not adorn the cushions in any way (no crocheted edings here!) and hid the closure as much as possible by sewing an invisible zipper into one of its seams. Basically, my goal when putting together each one of these cushions was to let the beauty of the fabrics speak for themselves; I tried to pick backing fabrics that would not distract the eye from the patterned fronts, but instead enhance the beauty of each pattern and colour combination...
For the most part, I backed the cushions in this post as well as another big batch of cushions I'm working on now with linen, velvet, velveteen, cotton-linen blends, fine wool suiting fabric and corduroy. While some of this cloth was from my own reserves, I did have to do a grand tour of all my local fabric shops to try source a good deal of it. And, I have to confess, I was rather disappointed with what's out there; definitely never enough colours in any of these fabrics and, oh by the way, where is all the corduroy?... I was hoping to back some of the cushions with corduroy because it does haves a certain vintage vibe about it ( I am a child of the 70's after all!), but I could barely find any in the fabric shops and was told that, sadly, it's just not being used much these days -- do you have a good corduroy fabric source?...
In case you're wondering, I will be listing these cushion covers and a whole bunch of other ones in my Etsy shop starting in July... Also, I will be temporarily shutting down my Etsy shop as of tomorrow for about a week as I will be heading to the lake in a couple of days where I will be spending the long weekend with family and friends (Happy Canada Day!); I won't have my computer or good internet access at the lake until I move my rose-hippy self out there for the summer around July 7th, at which point I will re-open my shop. Thanks for popping by and I do hope you all have a very sunshiny first weekend of July!...
Beautiful Beata. I have so much fabric on my shelves and I haven't touched my sewing machine for over... 2 years? 3 years??? For a few months I've been feeling a need to dive in and do something about it, make something... But still I ahven't taken the leap. But although they are so lovely decorating my shelves in neat piles, they really deserve to be exposed in their full beauty. Love your cushions. Gorgeous collection.
Xxx
Posted by: Annette | June 26, 2018 at 04:48 AM
Oh these are treasures of fabric... lovely that they are now liberated into the most dreamy of cushions. Have a happy holiday!
Posted by: mrs robinson | June 26, 2018 at 08:54 PM
Gorgeous! where can we purchase these?
Posted by: Christine | June 26, 2018 at 11:10 PM
Oh, I really like every one of these cushions. Good for you for giving yourself permission to cut into these beautiful fabrics.
Posted by: Jody | June 27, 2018 at 02:43 PM
All are gorgeous! Corduroy would be a perfect match, good luck with the hunt.
Posted by: Angela - Southern USA | July 01, 2018 at 06:33 AM