Saturday 23 October 2010

Cushion Confusion

I know, no-one should be confused by a cushion, should they?

I thought it would all be rather simple.

But I'm having a devil-of-a-time trying to sew up this thing! Well, not sew it up, per se, but:
a) work out how big to make it! You want it to be firm and snug - not floppy and ripply - but it also has to actually fit over the insert
and
b) get both sides the same size!

Problem "b" is proving quite difficult because the front and the back are quite different. The front is made up of granny squares... here it is... I mentioned it in another post, here.


And the back is (mostly) a solid granny... it's the one that I made from the Charity Daisy that I wrote about here.


I know I should have blocked them. It would have made everything clearer. But I thought - since it would all be stretching over a pillow eventually, anyway - that I could get away without doing it.

So I just tugged and pulled at them a bit, lay them flat on top of each other... thought to myself: yeah, that looks about right...

And then I started sewing them up... and this happened:


Whoops.

Hmmm.... so... back to enlarging the daisy side.

And then we can try again.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Caz :)

P.S. I still don't know how to solve problem "a". I'm just hoping it will somehow magically be the perfect fit?

P.P.S. Can any more experienced, wiser crochet-ers help me out with any of this?? Would love to hear from you if you have any advice (or even if you don't - comments are always welcome :-) !).

12 comments:

  1. Well, first of all -- your blocks are gorgeous! And as much as I would love to offer advice....ahem...well, because this is something that would/does happen to me, I will leave the problem solving to others more wise than I.

    Regardless -- it is still a work of beauty!

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  2. Your work is very nice. I really like the colors you use in your work. Very pretty!!

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  3. I do keep looking at the pics to work out what is happening so I can help you out...
    I am thinking that the sides are the same amount of trebles but they are not measuring the right size for the front and back...Maybe easing the back to the front would help...or doing an extra row and either increasing or decreasing slightly to take into account the number of trebles on the side that needs it...
    If you can give me a better idea of whats happening I will try to help out...
    You can send me a e-mail at
    kludas@bigpond.com
    regards Michelle...

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  4. I will try to explain how to make your two sides end up the same when you sew it together. Your two sides are fairly close together in length so it won't be to hard to fix :) As you go along sew one pair of stitches together (the front and back), then the next stitch on your long side, sew it to the pair of stitches you previously sewed together. In essence, what you are doing is gathering your longer side to fit your shorter side, but it won't look like you gathered it. About every 10 stitches you "gather" a stitch like I just explained. This spreads out the stitches that you are gathering so that it doesn't bunch up in one place yet it makes the lomger side line up with the short one when you are all done. Also, as you go along, line up your stitches to see how many you are off, that will help you see how many more you need to gather so you can space out your gathered stitches easier. Play with it a bit and you will see what I mean. I'm not very good at explaining how to do things, but hopefully this will help. If not, you can email me at mamasu55 (at) aol (dot) com and I will try to help explain it better. Good luck and just want you to know I really like your cushion cover!
    Susie

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  5. It looks lovely, I hope it works out. I would just stretch it to fit but I'm guessing you tried that. hum dunno. Very pretty.

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  6. beautiful colours - this happened to me when sewing up a hat the other day - could you try safty pinning it together before sewing?

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  7. Can't help with your problem, just chiming in to say yep, they're gorgeous!

    I just started a contest on my blog. Come on over and see if you'd like to enter. It should be fun!

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  8. Michelle, Susie M (and everybody else!) : Thank you so much for your ideas! Think it's lovely that you'd take the time to help.

    Update: I added a few rounds to the back (daisy) side. I then blocked both sides, and, by golly, did that make a difference! Now that they are off the pins, they have flopped back a bit, but I think I've got more chance of success now. Will update you again soon! :)

    Thanks again for your lovely comments!
    Caz xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  9. Hi Kaz, your blocks are gorgeous :0)
    Hope you are having more success now. I just pin mine together making sure all 4 corners are correct ,then oversew.
    Can't wait to see the finished cushion .
    Jacquie x

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  10. Don´t have any clever advice - but it will be a great pillow when it´s done! :-)

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  11. Both sides are really lovely. No clue how to make them the same, I suffer frequently from the same problem. Hope you figure it out!

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  12. Hi Caz! i agree with Susies advice, but I always hook them together with single crochet because I'm not so great with the needle.... If mine don't match in terms of numbers of trebles or doubles, I just skip one on the long side and carry on until it is even... once you've finished you can't really tell... or maybe you can, you might have to zoom into my pics and have a look!!!!! Good luck, it's going to be beautiful

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