cushiony comfort

[brokenblossom.livejournal.com]

Finally got around to sorting out photos of some beanbag cushions I made last year. Want a look? Well then, click here to

Here was the first one I made. It was a birthday present for a friend of mine who lives in a different city, whom I often miss, and when I know she's going through a tough patch, I just want to give her a hug. So that's the (extremely twee and probably a bit too cute :-) ) idea behind this cushion. If she's at home alone, and feeling blue, and just wants a hug, she can cuddle this cushion, made with love by me for her, and know that someone misses her and cares about her...



There you go! It was incredibly cheap for me to make. The black fur fabric I'd had lying around for years (literally, over 10 years... I remember my mum showing me how to use it to make a black cat hand puppet when I was at primary school, and somehow, a sizeable amount never got used up!). I bought a couple of squares of coloured felt, cut out the letters, and glued them into place on the cushion (nothing very strong, just enough to avoid having to use pins). Then I bound the edges down by just stitching around them w/ a thick silver thread. Machined 3 and a half sides, turned it inside out, then filled it up w/ bean bag beans. This was another cheap part. When my friend had moved into her house (rented, student accomodation), she'd found a pretty grimey old beanbag left there by previous tenants. Not wanting to use it in its icky state, but loath to waste the beany goodness inside, she slit it open and poured the beans into a black binbag to save them... But never got around to making anything, and offered them over to me instead! They were quite a nice filler for my friend's "hug", as they sort of mould to yr body shape when you hug the cushion, and it's a bit firmer than a regular squishy cushion. So in w/ the beans (not too many, to leave ample space for movement and the moulding to form effect), handstitched the opening shut, and there you go! One very cheap birthday present (but made w/ much lurve...)



here's the other, and firstly, apologies for the crappy quality. Didn't have a photo of it, and no digi cam for me, so took it w/ my not-so-hot webcam, so the colour's very off. Know that the fake fur in this case is a very bright and vibrant green! Well, this one was a cheer-up gift for my sister, then facing the finals of her microbiology degree. Having made the hug one, I thought that green fake fur could make a nice grassy effect, and my sis loves the colour green, and cute naive design like daisy type flowers, cherries, ladybirds (ladybugs ;-) ), just sweet little motifs like that. So, cut a basic flower shape from one colour felt, cut a round centre from a contrasting colour, glued it onto the flower. Then placed the flower on the 'grass' background, and stitched around the centre to fix the flower to the cushion, while leaving the petals free for a more natural effect (well, as natural as felt and garish faux fur can get!). More beans into this cushion (and all over the floor... they're pesky little critters), and hey presto.

Hope you like :-)