Reading time and a little bit of comfort

 

Good morning from a wet and rather windy Leicestershire.  The clocks have gone forward so Spring has now officially sprung, although if you looked out of  my window this morning you wouldn't think so.

Like a lot of us my projects and photographs this one has ended up on more than one social media site and a lady from one of the cross stitching groups I belong to recently asked me how I put together my cross stitch reading pillow as she would like to make something similar for her son.  I know I have shown you all this Newton's Law cross stich before but I didn't write a post on making the pillow.

Now as you all know I am very much a novice and I am learning as I go along and tell myself only I know where the imperfections are.  Anyhow rather than trying to add details to a facebook post I thought I would write it here and then anyone can find it should they wish to and I can put a link in the post for the lady who asked me to follow.  

So here goes.  Firstly it doesn't have to be  a particular type of cross stitch that is used. You can use any cross stitch big or small as long as you can make it fit to your cushion.  You can also use any type of cross stich fabric whether it is aida or evenweave. With this cross stitch I used the 14 ct. Aida that was supplied with the kit. What I always recommend if you are using a cross stich to make a pillow is that once you have completed it and have washed and pressed it that you add an iron on interfacing to the back of your work.  This will hold your stitches in place and protects your cross stitch.  I have written about this and you can find the details under  my hints and tips section here  

Although you don't need to line the whole cushion I do recommend that you line the cross stitch area as this is going to form the pocket of you reading pillow and is going to get the most use with books or a kindle being placed inside on numerous occasions and again this will protect your cross stich. 

In this instance I made an envelope cushion so the next steps are really about making sure you have your all your pieces and then the construction of the cushion.

If you are making an envelope cushion once you have measured out your cushion you should have:

1. The front pocket of you cushion in this case your cross stitch.  Now this cross stitch wasn't quite big enough to fit across the cushion so I decided to put a border around it and again this will  give it a big of extra protection but I did this before adding the lining as you will want the lining to cover the whole of the inside of the pocket. 

2/You will have your front piece which is in this case is the floral material.

3. Your two back pieces to make your envelope remembering that the bottom piece will be longer than the top so that you get our envelope.

From the picture above you can see I have sewn the bottom of the piece of the back and the bottom of your pocket to the front piece and the sewn the top of the front and back pieces together.  Now you can add a bit of the contrast fabric along the top of the bottom back piece as a trimming  to finish it off but you don't have to. This fabric had quite raw edge that frayed so it needed something covering the edge to prevent it from doing it.

So you should now be able to see how your cushion is going to come together you just have to make sure your pocket is placed correctly or if like me on a previous project I found the pocket was inside out when I turned it all through.  As you can see by doing it this way that my pocket is the right way around. 

And as a second check I will pin everything together so I can make sure I am happy with the overall look before turning inside out  re-pinning and sewing together.

Hopefully at the end of all your efforts you should end up with a reading pillow that looks like this.  

This particular reading pillow was a birthday present for a friend and colleagues birthday and the squeals were very loud when she opened it and it now sits in pride of place in her cottage along side her blanket I had made for her a couple of years before. 

You don't have to make an envelope style cushion its really whatever you prefer.  At the time when I made this one I wasn't that confident in putting in a zip I always had a fear that I would break the needle. I have since now conquered that fear too and quite happily add zips to my cushions.

These two were Christmas presents for my partner and son in law this year. The fabric I bought off Amazon as a fat quarter and I cut the fabric so that I could make a pocket and top piece and I added a bit of ribbon as a trimming to finish off the pocket.  Now what you can't see is that the top piece of the fabric is joined to a plain piece to make the inside of the pocket so that once the pocket is placed it looks like one continuous piece of fabric.  Its 100% cotton but I still lined the inside of the pocket due to the wear and tear its going to get with all the books that will be put inside it.  

I think they make great gifts and even though we are only just coming into spring time I don't think it is ever too early to be thinking a head about  birthday or Christmas presents.  Dare I say I am working on a few things already for this year. 

Hope some of you will find this helpful 

Mx

NB:  I tend to use an 18" cushion for my reading cushions.