A handmade Monday treat

by Naomi

As promised last week, this Monday I am bringing you something I made with my own two hands!


Yesterday it was the birthday of my beautiful friend Emma.
I wanted to get her something special, and wasn't sure what...but then I saw this fabric and thought 'Oh Wow!' It's so cute - I knew she would love it!

I was given my first sewing machine (a beautiful shiny red number) for Christmas, and so decided to make a couple of cushion covers. Having passed textiles GCSE by the skin of my teeth, I knew I would need to find an easy-to-follow 'how to' guide. It came courtesy of the wonderful Cherry Menlove, who's blog on cooking, crafting and life in general is completely addictive!

I used her simple cushion cover guide and scaled it to the size of my cushions. I added in the bow detail by stitching two strips of ribbon across the corner of each cushion, before stitching the cushion panels together face-to-face.

Et voila!

I was really pleased with how they turned out and Emma looked very happy with them. The fabric was bought on eBay, but you could easily upcycle sheets and tablecloths found in charity shops. The cushion insides were taken from some old cushions and the zips and ribbon was bought from a local market.

Oh, and because birthdays always require something sweet, I made some scrummy Oreo Cheesecake Truffles (very easy and totally worth it!):

160g sleeve of Oreo cookies

100g full fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
150g cooking chocolate, broken into pieces

Put the Oreos in a food processor and whirl until they're powdered and then mix them with the cream cheese. Put the mixture in the fridge for about two hours to chill. Once cold, remove the mixture and roll it into small balls and place them on greaseproof paper. Once you've made the balls, chill them again for about 20 minutes. Melt the cooking chocolate, then roll the Oreo/cream cheese balls in the melted chocolate and place on clean greaseproof paper to cool.

 

Have a great week!

 

-x-


Facts: handmade cushion covers using recycled cushions and locally bought accessories.