leather cushion

New Leather Cushions

| Tiddleyworks

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This was the one that started it – the cushion I made for my daughter’s birthday.  I really loved these chevrons and how lovely the leather felt and looked.  So I set to and started coming up with some new ones. 

Because the leather I work with is usually offcuts, finding a whole cushion-sized piece is not easy.  I thought about making a simple patchwork and came up with this minimalist 3 patch look.

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I topstitched the seams on the front which helps the seams lie flat and adds firmness.  The back sections were overlapped and laced as before.

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I’m chuffed with this design.  I’d love to make patchwork with leather but the nature of the material means it looks best when shapes are kept simple.  Here are a few of the ones I’ll be taking with me to the pop-up shop tomorrow (Sunday 10th April 2016).

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Birthday Present

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It was my daughter’s birthday recently.  She is a massive fan of the cult series, “Twin Peaks” and as part of her present I wanted to make her something twin-peaksy themed.  The stunning chevron patterns came into my head, and off we went.

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I had a good stock of high quality black and red leather, so those were the colours.  Originally I set out to make a handbag but I couldn’t get the zigzags to look good within the size and style of bag I knew she’d want.

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So, when all else fails, make a cushion!  The pattern was drawn out full size on paper and the zigzag paper templates were used to cut out the red chevrons which were carefully positioned on the background black square using a helpful amount of glue.  I then stitched round the edges of the red shapes to hold them down properly.
The back of the cushion was two overlapping pieces of black leather laced with thonging made from long strips of the red leather.

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The finished cushion is about 12 inches square.  I used a 14inch pad inside it so it’s plumped up nicely.

My daughter’s blog is a must if you are a Twin Peaks fan – it’s at https://knitpeaks.tumblr.com. Enjoy!

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The Little Chair

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The Little Chair

This little child’s chair has been handed down through our family for many generations.  I can remember my grandfather reeling off a long list of names of all the children who would have sat in it.  I think it dates to the early 1800’s and was originally a high chair which stood on a table/stand to be used at table or could be taken off and the stand used as a table.  The stand, if it existed, is long gone and the little chair has obviously seen some hard times.  One of the front legs has been completely replaced and the remaining one is cracked and has been repaired.  Someone must have loved this little chair a lot to have taken so much time to repair it.

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Charlotte Stephenson and her grandchildren

Here’s a photograph from around 1905 showing my great-great grandmother surrounded by all her grandchildren.  My grandfather is the little boy perched on the arm of her chair and his sister stands behind him.  Look closely at the little girl in the bottom right of the picture – she is sitting in the little chair.20160108_163322_kindlephoto-8661877.jpg

I made a little rag rug seat pad to fit it as the old fabric had faded a lot, and have also added a little leather cushion I made as it looked just right.  The cushion was made as a sample for a potential buyer but they didn’t want it.  I don’t mind – it suits the little chair just fine!