Overdale Fabrics

For this tutorial you will need:

One 6 fat quarter pack.

Use 4 of the fat quarter fabric pieces to cut out:
49 x 2½ ” squares
4 x 2½ ” strips for the cushion cover
1 x 2½ ” strips for the bias binding

Use 2 fat quarter fabric pieces to make:
a 17″ by 12″ piece and a 17″ by 8″ piece of fabric for the back cover.

You will also need:
17″ square of wadding (batting)
Coordinating sewing thread
1 button
16″ cushion pad

Making the Front Panel for Your Cushion Cover

Start by cutting all the fabrics as detailed above.
All seams are using a 1 cm seam allowance.

Once you have cut all of your squares start by laying out your design.
Sew all your pieces together into rows.
Then sew all the rows together. Making one large central square.
Finish off your panel with four strips around the outer edge.

Place the finished panel on top of the wadding and pin into place.

Use top stitching to secure your panel onto the wadding. I’ve use the technique of stitching in the ditch.

Trim back the wadding to the same size as your top panel.

You now have your front panel.

Making the Back Panel for Your Cushion Cover

Using one of the 2 ½” fabric strips make it into a piece of bias binding. If you need help with this refer back to my previous tutorial “How to Make Bias Binding”.

Take your 17” by 8” piece of fabric and secure the bias binding onto one of the longest edge.
Make a buttonhole in the centre about 1” above the binding edge.

Hem your 17” by 12” piece of fabric along the long edge.
Lay flat and place the smaller panel with the bias binding over the larger panel at the hem edge with a 3 ½ “ overlap.
Pin in place.

Take your finished top panel and place it on top of the backing panel with right sides together and pin in place.

Hem all around the outer edge and trim off the excess.

Turn right side out through the back flap.
Press well and all you have left to do is sew your button in place and insert your cushion pad.

It would be lovely to see your makes using this tutorial, please join us on Instagram and tag us in with #overdalefabrics.

A friend asked me to make her a handbag and I thought I would create a new pattern with a patchwork panel. Whilst I was making her’s I decided to make one for myself at the same time!

I started by creating the patchwork bag panel out of the fabrics in our ‘Fox in the Forest’ fat quarter collection. I simply cut two 2.5 inch strips of all six fabrics and created a panel.

I then teamed this with our aqua spot cotton canvas. I love using canvas for bags. It’s a great fabric as it’s hard wearing and gives the bag a really quality finish.

For the interlining I’ve used the Bosal fusible In-R-Foam to give the bag a really great rigid flexible shape. This is my favourite interlining as it transforms the bag. You can see in my photo how it turns the bag into great sturdy shape that will stand up when you put it down (the bag above has the interlining and the droopy bag below doesn’t!).

For the lining I used the left over fabric from the ‘Fox in the Forest’ pack, I love adding prints to the lining as it gives the bag a really fun look.

I hope you like my new summer handbag. If you want to use any of the fabrics or interlinings used in this blog post then just follow the links and they will take you to the relevant items in our online store.

For this tutorial you will need:
One 18” by 13.5” piece of Bosal fusible In-R-Foam
Four jelly roll strips of complimentary fabric designs.
One 12” by 13.5” rectangle of fabric that looks good with your jelly roll fabrics.
One 18” by 13.5” fabric for the reverse.
Complimentary fabric for your bias binding.

To make one large placemat.

Choose your jelly roll strips (I chose the yellow and blue designs from our ‘Petite Fleur’ collection) and cut them into 6.5” pieces. I cut two each of three of the deigns and 1 of another giving me seven pieces in total.

Arrange them and then sew together vertically with a 1 cm seam.

Iron seams flat.

Take the piece that you have just made and the other front panel fabric (I used our ‘Stitch Leaf Autumn’ fabric) place them right sides together and sew along one of the short sides with a 1 cm seam.

Iron seams flat.

Pin your backing fabric (I’ve used ‘Wild Flower’ blue fabric) right side up to one side of the Bonsal fusible foam. Turn over and place your front panel the other side.

To fuse the foam and fabrics I lightly iron both sides to make sure everything is in place.

Then remove the pins and iron over both sides again, but this time moving the iron slowly so that the fabric fuses securely to the foam.

You can now add decorative top stitching if you want to. I’ve stitched in the ditch for the front side panel and then top stitched vertical lines on the leaf fabric.

Make your bias binding tape by following the instructions in my previous tutorial “How to make a Continuous Length of Bias Binding”. I’ve used our plain “Turquoise Blue” fabric to make the bias binding as it matches perfectly.

Finally all you have to do is add the bias binding to the outer edge of your placemat. I start on one of the short sides as the join is less noticeable here. Attach the binding with wonder clips if you have them (pins if not) and sew down the first length, create a mitre corner and then repeat down the long side and continue until you have sewn the all the way around your placemat.

That’s it you now have your first placemat. You can now repeat it for a whole set of four, six or just two.

You will need: two pieces of complimentary fabric. I’ve used our ‘Beige Polka Dot’ cotton canvas, ‘Summer Meadow Pink’ cotton fabric, and a piece of Bosal In-R-Foam fusible foam stabilizer (all available in our online shop). Coordinating thread and use of a sewing machine and iron.

Start by deciding how big you want your basket to be. In this tutorial my basket was made using the following measurements:

Using a water-soluble fabric pen start by drawing out your shape on the bosal foam and cut out. Then place it onto the back of the fabrics and draw around the foam then add a 1 cm seam allowance and cut out. You can now erase your pen lines.

With right sides together pin and sew the fabrics together with a 1 cm seam, leaving an opening down one side. I left a 10 cm opening. Trim off the excess at the corners.

Turn your fabrics right sides out through your opening.

Iron flat and turn in the seam allowance on the opening.

Place your foam inside the fabric bag. Make sure it’s all lying flat and then iron flat so that the fusible foam bonds with the fabric.

Sew up your opening. Then sew the base of your basket. You can see that I sewed a 16.5 cm by 11.5 cm rectangle base.

Now pinch one of your corners and pin in place. Repeat for all four corners.

Finally sew a seam at right angles from the top of the basket to the base to create the walls and corners.

It’s that easy!

Now all you have to do is fill it and enjoy.

In this tutorial I am using a 25 mm bias binding tool to makes approx. 4.8 meters of 1 inch bias binding.

Make you pattern piece by following the measurements in the diagram below.

Place your pattern onto your fabric making sure that you line up the grain line on your pattern with the selvedge of your fabric. Cut one piece.

Pin the two shortest ends together matching notches. Sew with a quarter inch hem. Iron the hem flat.

You will now see that you have a loop of fabric, with a 2 inch overhang on each side of your hem.

With a water erasable pen mark a series of points two inches from the edge of your fabric to use as your cutting guideline. You can mark them as solid lines if you prefer. Then cut along your guidelines.

You should now have a continuous strip of fabric that is 2 inches wide and approx. 4.8 meters long.

On the ironing board push one end of your fabric through your 25 mm bias binding tool (use a pin to help it through the tool at the start). I then pin the fabric to one end of my ironing board so that it frees up one hand then pull back the tool and iron the bias binding flat as it comes out of your tool.

Continue to do this for the whole length and you will now have a lovely long length of 1 inch bias binding in the fabric of your choice ready for your sewing project.