Come Fly With Me

While 2012 was a little lean in terms of stitching productivity, I did manage to put these photo album covers together. They have just been published in the January Holiday edition of Australian Homespun.

As always, the challenge for this project was to come up with a concept that is just a little different to every other pattern that has ever been published :) Not an easy task! In the end, I was pretty happy with my long-booted, stripe-y legged girl, packed and ready to travel the world. I've used some felt applique and embroidery, including the dreaded satin stitch!

I had fun searching for & purchasing just the right fabrics. The red cloud fabric is 'Free as a Bird' of the Cut Out and Keep range, a beautiful organic cotton from Cloud 9. The text fabric is called 'Town Square' from Sweetwater's Hometown range. The red and blue wavy bits remind me of geological profile diagrams! They are fussy cut from a piece of Anna Maria Horner's 'Innocent Crush' range.

The January edition of Homespun is available in Australian newsagencies now. Or a digital copy can be purchased at Zinio who are having a great special on Homespun subscriptions. Be quick though, the offer expires this weekend.

Mum's 30-minute reversible ironing board cover

We usually spend some of our summer holidays at our farm. The weather is hot, hot, hot with most days at least 40 degrees Celsius. So it is a perfect time to be inside sewing during the heat of the day. 

I have my grandmother's old ironing board at the farm, and it was desperately in need of a new cover. In a nod to my fabric-hoarding predecessor, my Mum and I dug out an old piece of fabric from Grandma's stash.

In a combined effort, Mum sewed while I wrote the tutorial :)

Requirements:

• Two pieces of fabric the length x width of your ironing board plus approximately 8 inches. We used the old floral fabric for one side, and a blue and white micro-check for the other. Our ironing board is 54" long and 15" wide at the heel end.
• 1.5 yards 1/4" elastic

Lay the two fabric pieces on a flat surface, right sides together. Lay the ironing board on top of the fabric, table side down.

Mark a line 4" beyond the perimeter of the ironing board.

Cut both fabrics along this line. Pin the two pieces together. 

Using a 1/4" seam, sew the two pieces together, leaving a gap for turning at the straight end of the cover. If you have an overlocker, simply overlock the pieces together. Mum says the gap needs to be big enough to get your fist in!

Turn the cover right side out through the gap. Press the seam.

Topstitch 1/8" from the edge, leaving an inch gap for inserting elastic later. Topstitch a second row of stitching 5/8" from the edge to form a casing.

Thread the 1/4" elastic through the casing. Place the cover over the ironing board and adjust the elastic to length such that the cover fits the board firmly. Secure the elastic to length with a few stitches, or knot it if you're feeling lazy :) Trim any surplus elastic. Done, ready for action! In Mum's words, "A blind man would be pleased to see that".

And in a nod to Jamie Oliver, whose 30-minute Meals take me two hours, we relinquish all responsibility for the claim that you will whip this ironing board cover up in the time declared :)

Kind regards,
Bloom and Bloom's Mum