Crafty Couture!!

I've loved the entire process of this project but as mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts my strengths really lie in coming up with a concept and translating this through the making process. I absolutely love our concept of embedding emotion into a object through the use of stitch which translates the time invested in each object and have found it really exciting watching people engage with the project allowing us to realise this. Needless to say though, I've been really looking forward to the making stage of things where we can finally see what all our work has been building up to!

I've been working hard making my 13 samples into cushions the last two days, we're meeting with June, Julie and Ben to donate the items tomorrow. Ideally I'd have started sewing over the weekend however because it's been Easter I've been working crazy amounts so I haven't had chance!

I ummed and arred about how to go about making my cushions (I've decided to make all cushions because the fabric I've bought can be cut to just about squeeze 6 cushions on and I can't think of a way to rejig it to fit in any panels for draft excluders!). Because of work I've really had a limited time to make my items so sewing them on a machine would be the easier option! However because the whole driving point behind our concept is the amount of time invested in the items I can't help but want to stick to this completely and hand sew the entire thing! In the end I decided to hand sew, the small amount of extra stress for me would be nothing compared to carrying out the concept to the best of my ability and how this extra care could really positively impact someone's life. Therefore I have also decided to embroider my own button hole loops (I really like making things extra challenging for myself!) as well. I want the cushions to be entirely hand made, like crafty couture! These are the items I made...

I'm really, really pleased with how the items have turned out! It may sound silly but I was a little worried to begin with as I'm quite a perfectionist when it comes to my work and the colours used so I was a bit lost as to where to begin with some of the samples as they were really out of my comfort zone. I found the process really enjoyable though and it was a brilliant learning curve for me to have to complete something where I didn't have entire creative control as the pieces were created by individuals with their own unique style. The combination of these different styles really emphasises how many unique individuals have donated their time to the project and the quality of the samples really shows how much they care. I'm so glad I decided to push myself to hand embroider every aspect of the cushions! The extra time taken is really in keeping with the concept and I don't think I would have found the process as rewarding had I used machine embroidery, although that's just my personal interpretation of the concept I guess! The tags seem really effective on the items as the majority of them have a good 4+ names as contributors alongside the stitches which that individual has added. The exception to this is the cushion with the knitted sample, I fell in love with this piece so much that I really wanted to show case it on it's own cushion.

I'm so excited to see what the other girls have made when we go to Inn Churches to donate the items tomorrow! Hopefully June, Julie and Ben will love the items as much as I do!