I am a Bluebell. What are you? (great idea from http://lilaknits.blogspot.com)

		You have a classic style, are a romantic, easy to love, and people find you appealing. Some may think of you as quiet, but you are really thinking deeply about what is going on around you, and then coming up with the perfect solution.

A Cushy Job Done!

I love my kitchen chairs. My husband says that they are uncomfortable. The compromise is "the cushions". I found some really nice fabric on clearance at Joann Fabrics. It was on a holiday Sunday and it was 50% off the reduced price. So it was $2.50 a yard. I bought all that they had of three coordinating prints. One print was kind of a Mexican oilcloth print. The one with fruit, not the one with the flowers. The second print was a smaller version of the fruit, outlined in red rickrack squares. The third print was a kind of rickrack plaid. I wasn't that crazy about the plaid, but you can always use the coordinating fabrics in areas that you can't see, so you can save the fabric you like. I thought that I could use the plaid for the reverse side of the cushion. Nobody would see it anyway. Well, I made a pattern of the round seat and cut The outlined fabric so that the center of the seat would be an intersection of the rickrack border. I thought that I would put a button in the center to give it a neater look. I wanted to make it a puffier, more comfortable cushion and raise the chair height just a little bit. I bought buttons to cover for the side I liked and some some primary colored, four hole, plastic buttons for the side I didn't. My plan was to use a different color button for each chair. I didn't know if I wanted to make a piped edge or a rickrack edge. The cushion just looked too busy piped with either of the two fabrics and I didn't want to waste the third fabric making wide bias
tape, so I decided to use red rickrack. The only
problem with that is that the rickrack I could buy
by the yard was too small or too large. I needed
six yards, and the package of rickrack in the
correct size was a running 2 1/2 yards. Because
I needed 54 inches running for each cushion,
I had to buy four packages.
I covered the buttons with only the apples from the fruit print.
Instead of sandwiching the trim between the the two sides of fabric, I sewed it on the plaid side after the construction and stuffing. So that on the fruit side it showed just as a border and on the plaid side it showed as a larger rickrack trim, mirroring the red rickrack in the plaid.

It was a lucky break that I had an upholstery needle to sew the buttons on, because I don't think that I would have been able to tighten them enough without one.
Another thing that I have discovered is there is such a thing as CHEAP safety pins. I wanted to fasten the cushions to the chairs with ties. I remembered from my childhood sewing classes that you could sew strips of fabric outside in and turn them inside out to hide the seams. This is done by attaching a safety pin to one end and sliding it through the strip, pulling the strip through itself. Great idea, always worked when I did it before. Not this time! First the fabric
frayed and then the pin broke, so it didn't slide through. I went looking in my old trusty button box for a "vintage" safety pin. No luck, but I did find my handy dandy bias tape folder! It is a great little machine! You just feed the strip of fabric through and then iron. I didn't cut the strips on the bias, but it worked like a charm. Et Voila! I made the tape, folded it in half and sewed it
together.
All in all it was a satisfying project. My kitchen looks cuter. My husband is sitting pretty. I found that thing out about safety pins.
And we are all happy campers. I'm about to get started on my next project...what will it be? Can I top this? Probably!

Here are the cushions on the chairs ready for approval...Do you approve?