A customised Cushion...

I love a good craft project, granted I'm not great at it and have been known to hem trousers using industrial parcel tape. But I do like to make and do presents for my friends, don't worry I'm not going to teach you how to make a sock bunny (although they are always fun) today's craft comes to you via a primark shopping bag.

And before you ask ladies I'm not talking about the paper brown ones that inevitably break as soon as you leave because 'you only popped in for black tights and seem to have bought three tops, two pairs of jeans and a pack of hair bobbles and forgot 120 denier tights' . I'm talking about the cotton ones that you have to buy when the paper ones break. They normally have quite cool patterns on like this.

So it is a cool shopping bag but it does say primark on it. So I thought I would make it into a cushion for my friend. Here is a step by step guide on how to make it.

To make it look more fun I sewed buttons onto the headlights and wing mirrors. As the bag has patterns on both sides I mixed up the colours. As the number plate said Primark I used one of thd handles and sewed Bella on each piece and then sewed it too the bag.

Once you have done this cut down the side of the bag (neater than I did) so you have pieces like this.

I then pinned the edges along each side like this

I then used a sewing machine to sew down all four sides, I sewed the sides inside out.

Once you have sewn each side leave a small gap to add your stuffing and fill your cushion. I used some stuffing that I already had but it should be available in all good haberdashery shops (ALWAYS wanted to say that)

Ok so here is where my craft skills come into question. Once you have stuffed your cushion you will be left with a gap, as I'm not great at craft I don't really know what to do here other than to hand stich it which is what I did. It's not great but I did it at the bottom so I figure no-one will see. (Shh don't tell anyone) If there are any budding crafters reading this then please let me know how to do this bit.

And here is the finished cushion....Ta-dah

Oh and proper Blue Peter moment but here is one I made earlier.

Same technique and a canvas bag from primark.

I would love to know what you think?

Gemma xx