Tag Archives: Tutorial

// Quilted Bench Cushion Tutorial

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27-08-2012

This weekend I made this bench cushion, inspired by the Pia Wallen blanket that’s so popular nowadays. First I made a square quilt top and after I constructed it into a pillow.
I made it for the Molger bench from Ikea, but with a little bit of adjustments in size, it should be possible to make for any kind of bench or chair.

The materials you will need for this tutorial:
– Two colors of cotton (I used about 1m black and 20cm white)
– Foam for the inside of the pillow (2 cm thickness)
– Ruler, scissors and threaded sewing machine
– Zipper (40cm or shorter)

First, cut out all the pieces for the quilt itself (you will have to cut a lot of squares). I used a seam allowance of 1 cm (included in the measurements) so it would be easy to iron the seams open. Than cut the foam and the pillow parts.

After you cut all the pieces, you can set the pillow parts aside and start assembling the quilt top.

01. First you will make strips of each 10 rectangles, sewn together, like in the picture. In total you will assemble 19 of those strips. When the strips are ready, iron the seams open.

02. Sew all strips together like shown in the illustration, and iron the new seams open. Your quilt top is now ready for assembly.

After the quilt top is finished, assemble the pillow with the other pieces.

01. Fold pieces 5 like shown in the pictures, and stitch it to the zipper end, so the total length of this piece is 40 cm (if bigger, you can cut this later on).

02. Sew pieces 4 on the sides of the zipper. After this, cut excess fabric that could be there so the size of the total zipper piece is as big as piece 3.

Here you can find further explanation of the assembly of the zipper. It’s actually a tutorial for a clutch, but the zipper principle is the same.

03. Sew the zipper piece, piece 3 and pieces 2 together on the sides (seam allowance 1cm) and make a rectangle. These pieces sewn together will form the sides of the pillow.

04. Pin the side pieces to the quilt top (right sides facing each other) and sew together.

05. Open the zipper

06. Repeat step 04, attaching piece 1 to the pillow.

07. Turn the whole thing inside out through the zipper hole, insert the foam and voila, your pillow is ready to be used!

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// DIY Wood Bead Potholder

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23-07-2012

As you might have noticed from this post, I like wood beads. This time I bought some bigger beads, to make a wood bead potholder. I used a neon yellow string with it, because I like the combination of the shouting neon with the natural and calm wood texture.

I went to the craft store and bought 15 Wood beads (diameter 30mm / about 1,2 inch) and a stretch chord. You put all 15 beads on the stretch chord and make a double loop on the end. I pulled the chord a bit so my circle would be tight enough. Then I hid the two ends in the last two beads so they weren’t visible and voila, done. A quick and simple DIY project to make a nice new design object for your dining table.

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DIY Passport Cover

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28-04-2012

cocolapine_traveling
It’s always a good idea to protect your passport, especially if you travel a lot. This can be tricky since most covers out there are not transparent and customs will probably ask to remove them when checking your passport.

And that is why I DIYed my own transparent passport cover. It’s very easy to make and the good thing is that you’ll probably have some plastic lying around. For my cover, I used the wrapping that came with our bed sheets.

So, here’s what you’ll need to make your very own transparent passport cover
– (re-purposed) plastic, around 20x40cm
– scissors or knife and cutting mat
– ruler
– sewing machine and thread

And here’s how you make the cover
Cut the plastic in four pieces and place them on top of each other like shown in the picture below. Sew all layers together on the border of the biggest rectangle (go slow when you are sewing the three layers together, so you will not break your needle!)

Put your passport and traveling documents inside and you will have your own transparent passport cover to protect your passport on your many travels.

Happy Traveling !

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