More elementary sewing

I'm really not a very good sewer. (Is that a word? As in one who sews, not the thing that transports sewage...) I get impatient with all the measuring and pressing, which really seems to be the most important part, and then I get on the machine, and it feels a little like trying to control a wayward puppy - everything just bouncing along towards the end helter skelter. My lines are rarely straight.

There's a little part of me that thinks I ought to just quietly lay the sewing ideas aside and concentrate on getting better at the things I can do. But then I really really yearn to be not just a competent sewer, but a good one, one who can make myself dresses just how I want them and create clothes that will fit and last (in my dreams, I can whip up beauties such as this from the very desirable Sarah Seven shop on Etsy...). Absurdly unrealistic as that may be, I find myself slowly persevering at my most basic skills, hoping somehow some super sewing skills will unexpectedly blossom.

So, I got down to cushion covers the other weekend. I'd found some lovely patterned linen from the Cloth House (thanks for the tip on that to London Zest) and I had a book from the library. It instructed me to cut two pieces of cloth - one a square with sides equal to my cushion plus 3 cm, and one the same but with an extra 15 cm on the width. The larger was cut in half and the two halves got one hem each. These then get put overlapping, right sides together on the square, and the lot is sewn together. As Alexander the Meerkat would say, seemples.

Except for when you get a bit lackadaisical with the cutting out and end up with not quite a square... I learned my lesson and recut.

And finally... corners snipped, cover turned inside out, hems pressed and cushion inserted, it actually looked pretty decent and I felt quite proud to have made something I can actually use. Not quite a master seamstress but not bad for now.