And this little bit of crafting stayed at home


New cushion inserts and removable covers. Fingers crossed Lucky doesn't eat them! I finally broke down, the furniture shop a few doors down from me had the cheapest sofas I've seen here on special offer just before Christmas, I bought one.  

Despite adding found-on-the-street foam and cushions, sitting on the terrible sofa supplied by the landlady was still uncomfortable, it was really just a skeleton of a sofa as all the base and back cushions were missing. 

In celebration, and semi-need, I made these cushions and covers from the last little bit of scraps of some favourite material I had leftover from other projects- the ribbon hides where I pieced together the corduroy left over from a skirt. The backs are plain black and greyish linen cut from some old worn out trousers. So a little bit of old and a little bit of new - and I got to enjoy the holiday in comfort. :-)

Comments

Love them! I might have to borrow your idea if you don't mind.
Soja said…
You are very welcome! :-) I don't think I have more than an inch wide scrap of each material left.
Rita said…
Really lovely cushins!
I am staring to quilt and patchwork and I am loving it.
I came across your blog because I I was looking around in the web if I could find a walking foot for my Lervia sewing machine, and found a comment you left in another blog about having adapted a universal walking foot to your machine. Could you give me some lights? What is the model of your machine? I already tried one and did not fit in mine...Was it easy? Did you have to release that metal thing in the front of the needle?
Soja said…
Hi Rita,
Thanks!
I hope you read this comment, I'm not sure how else to contact you. ;-) I have a Lervia sewing machine too (I bought it from from Lidl about 18 months ago).

I bought my walking foot online from a UK company called Jaycotts. The sold it as a universal walking foot, though the packaging said Janome. I couldn't work out how to attach it correctly at first, but it was easy. It screws onto the foot shank and there is a lever on the foot which must rest above the screw that holds the needle in place.

Here is a link to the foot at Jaycotts (although I think their photo is not the same as the foot they sent me...) and a photo of it on my machine - hope that helps!

http://www.jaycotts.co.uk/acatalog/Universal_Presser_Feet___Accessories.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/soja/2446798058/

BTW I have also purchased a pintuck foot and free embroidery foot from Jaycotts and a universal invisible zip foot from another company and they fit my Lervia machine too.
Rita said…
Hi Soja!

Thank you very much! This was very helpful. I will try to understand with your photo how to adapt the foot.
My machine is a very simple Lervia that I bought in Lidl a litle more than a year ago. It is the same as this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuaifeadh/2163057115/

I am learning to quilt now and would love to be able to adapt a walking foot. I borrowed a universal walking foot that fits a Singer machine from a friend, but could not adapt to my machine.

Thanks :)

Rita


here is some stuff I have been making:http://saquitolas.blogspot.com/
Soja said…
What a beautiful looking blog you have! :-) And lovely things you have been making.

We have the same machine - so the foot should be fine, I didn't have to adapt it at all. It made a huge difference with the quilting, it stopped all the layers puckering up. The only disadvantage is that I feel it reduces the space under the foot, making it harder to put the fabric under it - however I've managed to sew through a quilt with it so it can't be too bad.

I know that some machines are more specific, some singers and all berninas seem to need either their own band attachments or some kind of adaptor to fit other brands. I have been able to attach my old Singer feet (from a 1960s Singer machine) onto this Lervia.

I think the Lervia is a generic type of machine, I'm not sure if I could get it fixed if it ever broke, but for the price I think it is a good machine.

Happy Sewing!
Rita said…
Thank you very much for your help!

I will order a walking foot just like your!

BTW, the coaster are really beautiful! What a great gift

Rita
saquitolas@gmail.com
Anonymous said…
Hi, was looking for info on Lervia and posted a link here:

http://www.magicmum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=114&t=195910

If there's any problem I'll edit the entry.

tg
Soja said…
No problem tg!

Not sure how to contact you, but I read the thread you are linking from, and the answer to the persons problem may not be a walking foot.

If the problem is the fleece being the bottom layer and getting caught up in the machine, the answer is to put a layer of tissue paper under the fleece, sew through this with the fleece and cotton, and then rip it away once she has finished.

The walking foot will help to keep all the layers from slipping about and puckering, if that is the problem. On my Lervia you can adjust the pressure from the foot with the dial on the top left of the machine - 2 is the normal setting, for thick layers three maybe better...

Hope this helps, if you or your friend reads it!!
Anonymous said…
Thank you so much for your reply! I must go look at my Lervia, I didn't think you could adjust the pressure, I thought the dial at the top left was for the thread tension? I will look tomorrow...
Soja said…
Hi again - obviously did read the thread in detail - I didn't realise it was you with the Lervia ^_^

The dial on the top is for the foot pressure, the dialon the front, beside where the thread feeds through is for the tension of the thread on the top of the fabric (I'm just sewing through some cotton now, quilted with fleece in the middle and have it set to five). The tension of the bottom thread can be adjusted by turning (carefully with a small screw driver) the screw on the side of the bobbin case.

Another thing that might help maybe to use a thicker needle, thicker than you would use for light weight cotton alone. I'm using a '14/90' needle right now.

Good luck - hope it works out for you, I'm happy to help if I can!

Just wondering, are you sewing the baby blankets in 'Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts'?