Sartorial Sunday: colourful holiday blocks

Its been awhile. Longer than my self-imposed twice weekly blog schedule. I've been on week's holiday to delightful Broome in the far north of beautiful Western Australia. On my journey I took a suitcase full of clothes, jewellery, cosmetics, books and our laptop computer, and despite this weighty load, I tried to leave behind expectations and plans for the time away. Of course, this is not easy and I unintentionally took with me an expectation that I would write up numerous projects and reviews for the blog. Fate intervened.

This was a break I needed and was craving after a hectic, stressful month and a busy year (hasn't it just flown?). At the airport before our departure, I was still cramming in last-minute work emails and was hoping to work on a few unfinished tasks while away. Frustratingly but fortuitously, the service on my Optus iPhone was non-existent in our accommodation at Cable Beach. So no emails on my phone nor the ability to use my phone as a personal hotspot for my laptop.

A week of virtual web-free bliss ensued! I did use the Mister's iPhone to connect briefly several times (he has remained with Telstra despite their premium pricing, purely because their service has always been superior in our experience meandering off the roads most travelled) but there is something about not having your own set-up that makes it less attractive and I easily slipped into life with limited internet. The longer I lived without it, the more I wanted to navigate life without the constant ability to look up everything and anything instantaneously. It makes life simpler and forced me to live in the moment - just what holidays are all about.


Slipping on something fun and simple without getting out an iron, hairdryer or make-up also enhances a holiday if you ask me. In her column The Rules today (in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspaper supplements), Maggie Alderson wrote about the joy of frocking up and 'how good it feels to cast off the comfies and dress up every day'. I agree wholeheartedly, but the opposite is also true. It feels so good to cast off co-ordinated outfits and/or workwear and dress down every day on holidays, even if you only iron haphazardly, slap on a little make-up and quickly dry your hair most mornings like I do. Holidays are for taking breaks from your everyday - from your work to your grooming.
 
Tomorrow it's back to work for me and that entails make-up, office wear, time on the computer and with my pal, the internet. With all the colour blocking in vogue today, it might be easier to bring a sense of holiday fun into my outfits even when I am office-bound. My love for red, blue, yellow and coral items continues, with recent cheap and cheerful additions (pictured below) promising a good start to the coming summer and festive season. Bring it on!

Country Road Ikat T-shirt
Cotton On Tegan Oversize Tee in Milk/Cobalt stripe
Just Jeans Stretch Chino in red
Country Road Crop Jean in ultramarine
Yellow belt similar to mine from Sussan (couldn't find on website)

Easy instructions for sewing cushions with zips

As a child I loved playing "make believe" games, pretending I was a teacher, a librarian, a shopkeeper, a housekeeper, a secretary, a radio announcer, a baker, an author, a magazine editor etc etc. Nothing unusual there. As an adult, I still like to pretend I'm something I'm not every now and then. I don't see why kids should have all the fun.

Recently, I've been pretending to be my friend SM's interior decorator and sewing lady in my spare time. My "client" needed some new cushions for her navy couch and the brief was pretty clear - European pillow covers made from a cotton with a soft feel so they would be comfortable to cuddle up with when watching movies and smaller cushions for show in a more durable fabric. The Euro pillows were to have an envelope opening and no zip to ensure comfort when laying on them. The others were to have zips so that they looked great on both sides. The fabric needed to tie in with the navy couch and a green lamp shade. We settled on a fine navy and white stripe for the Euros and a reversible green and off white geometric chain pattern for the others.

I started by sewing the Euro pillows as I could easily adapt the pattern I had from a pair of yellow ones I made for our guest bed (see here). Then it was onto the more challenging task of the zippered cushions. My experience with zips is limited to the skirt I sewed in a class earlier this year and a striped cushion I created for our living room by studying another cushion cover and freestyling. I decided to follow some illustrated instructions from The Laura Ashley Book of Decorating this time to do it "properly". The 1987 edition of this book was given to me a few months ago and I have been worried what on earth I am going to do with it. It's very uninspiring (the photos and decor are quite hideous) but it has step by step instructions for all sorts of soft furnishings and crafts.

I found that the instructions for a cushion cover really simplified the process of inserting a zip for a novice like me. Apparently that Laura Ashley knows a trick or two about these things! So I thought I'd share the instructions and illustrations on how to sew a square or rectangular cushion cover with a zip opening. If I can do this, so can you!

CUSHION COVER
1. Measure the width and length of your cushion insert. Add 12mm (1/2 inch) all round and cut two pieces of fabric to these dimensions.
2. With right sides facing, pin the seamline on one side and machine stitch (12mm from edge), leaving a centrally positioned space for the zip opening (see image below marked Fig 4). On a 30cm square cushion, for example, a 20cm zip would be about right. I used 46cm zips for 55cm cushions.

3. Lay the two pieces of fabric flat, wrong sides up, and press (iron) the seam open.  Sew the seam allowances in place (see image below marked Fig 5).

4. Pin the zip in place centrally over the seam and between the machine stitching. Undo the zip a little. Using a zipper foot, machine stitch all round the zip teeth as shown in Fig 6 (pictured below).

My notes/tips:

• While doing this hold the material in place (or pin it together) over the zipper teeth (if it's not covering the zip while you sew, the little flap you are creating will not conceal the zip in your finished cushion). 
• I sew back and forth at either end to make the ends strong.
• It may be hard to sew around the slider and pull tab of the zipper. When your machine's foot gets close to it, wind the needle down, raise the machine's foot, slide the zipper up (in the opposite direction from where you are about to sew), lower the machine foot and continue sewing.

5. Once you've sewn all around, open the zip and, with right sides together, join the back and the front of the cover by stitching the remaining three sides. Trim corners (as in the picture below), turn right side out and press (iron).

Et voila!

I couldn't quite believe how proper they looked! Like real, legitimate zippered cushions!

I loved delivering these to my "client" and completing the "installation" so to speak, but I've now lived out my fantasy of being a seamstress. I couldn't see it being a lucrative career and, once I became faster, I could see it becoming a boring process. So, it's back to being a sewing hobbyest for now. I do want to sew some Christmas stockings to hang on my new mantle but at any given moment I can go back to the drawing board, ask myself "who do I want to be today?" (Trinny and Susannah style) and embrace my next career-for-a-moment. Variety is the spice of life, after all.