When I took a special trip into town with my littlest the other day we visited my local fabric shop, Fabrix, It’s been a while since we have done this together and she reminded me that I always let her buy some buttons for her collection! Who can say no to that? She picked out some sparkly buttons and then spent the rest of our trip pondering what to make. With a bit of thought and discussion it was decided – A Button Cushion!
Not just A Button Cushion
We did that thing where we forgot about the buttons for a couple of days. I was emptying out my bag to show my Mum something and the little bag of buttons was discovered. Both my Mum and I are life long sewers and love a challenge so we started to discuss what we were going to make with my daughter.
We pulled out all the scrap fabric boxes (the ones I let the kids play with, not the special fabrics!) and started. The littlest was determined to make some kind of flower with felt, so while my Mum and her fiddled with felt I chucked in some ideas for the cushion.
The Buttons were turned into flowers so I suggested why don’t we make a scene with them…
A Bit of Raw Edge Appliqué
Going from 5 buttons to a button cushion needed speed for the 5 year old! We pulled out all our greens and blues and layered them out in a way that was appealing to the girl.
I hit the sewing machine for some very speedy raw edge zig zag applique! The essence was speed not accuracy as we wanted a quick finished project.
Once we got the sky and land layered out we decided to add a big sun and include a rainbow too. One of the blue fabrics looked like rain drops. We love rainbows in this house and if we can make something out of rainbows we will, especially as the challenge of the month in Make Time is the word Rainbow!
While I was up at the sewing machine the littlest found some butterfly sequins to add to her button flowers. A button cushion panel was complete! The next phase was turning it into a cushion…
We found the last of my fur scraps that were perfect for the job of edging the cushion. Not quite enough colour to be all pink as requested but I think it worked out okay. I managed to insert my first cushion zip ever too!
From buying buttons to a button cushion in just over a days work. I have one very happy little girl who never stops cuddling her very own idea!
Making Time to Share our Knowledge
I think it’s important to hand down skills and ideas to younger generations, making time to share out knowledge. A Button Cushion took 3 generations of family to make together and our 5 year old loved spending time with us sewing on her buttons, that was her job!
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