Back to the sewing machine, at last!

After a morning in which I painted the bathroom woodwork, did the ironing (yes, even the big linen tablecloth we got strawberry sauce on last Friday!), made three Dorset Apple Cakes...

Who's been at them already?

...a huge batch of veg soup and a second loaf of focaccia (yesterday's having been a bit of a disaster), I felt justified in allowing myself back to the sewing machine this afternoon!

First I produced these.  'Hmm...What on earth?' you might ask.

  

This will no doubt clarify matters.

I acquired the tea cosy on the right on ebay a year or so ago, and it has been waiting in a drawer to have a padded insert made ever since.  The embroidery on it is so beautiful.

At the weekend my Mum very kindly gave me this bundle of goodies...

...which included another tea cosy minus an insert. So, using the Insul-Bright that I bought from Tikki, I created what both cosies needed.  A very quick task, but one which definitely called for a cup of tea at its end.  Oh, and another slice of that cake.  (It has so much apple in it - surely it's part of my 5-a-day?)

Then I did a bit of letter stitching on a couple of small but as yet incomplete projects which I will show once they're finished, and then I did a bit of true 'Used-to-Bee' sewing, recycling this old linen sofa back.

I've only just noticed the similarity between the tea cosy and this embroidery - though they did come from entirely different sources!

First it got divided into three roughly equal sections (not quite equal so the divisions didn't cut through the best bits of embroidery). These were cut in half vertically to create a plain back and an embroidered front.

Next, matching sized linings were cut from vintage (or thereabouts) fabrics.

Then 3 strips 60cm long by 5cm wide. 

And all these pieces were then quickly turned into these...

(With apologies for the photo quality - it was dark when I finished them!)

I will put full instructions into the 'Makes' section sometime over the next couple of days!  Not that it's rocket science...

I'm looking forward to a full day sewing tomorrow, so I'd better go get some sleep so I can make an early start!