How to make lovely squashy cushion covers

I vaguely remember making cushion covers while in Home Economics class at my very ancient all girls grammar school.

It was all frills and lace, tucks and turns back then.

But it really need not be that complicated. Here's a simple piping/zip cushion which you only need to be able to master a sewing machine to make...

Here's what you'll need:

• A sewing machine
• A cushion (mine's 50cm x 50cm)
• Piping (4 x the width of your cushion + 10cm - so 210cm for me)
• Material 2 x (width + 5cm squared = 55cm)
• plus length of 5.5cm fabric cut on the bias for piping
• Dressmaking scissors
• Thread of similar colour to fabric
• Lots of pins
• Zip of similar colour to fabric
• Tailor's chalk

Get everything you need ready - it makes life 100% easier.
Take your 210cm length of bias cut 5.5cm wide fabric and fold in half (so it's just as long but 2.25cm wide)
Slip your piping into the crease and sew firmly into place.

Take your two squares of fabric which will form the front and rear of your cushion cover.
Cut the piece of fabric which will form the rear of the cushion in half.
Pin the zip and one half of fabric together - front sides facing each other - then sew:

Do the same to the other half of the rear fabric so the zip is sewn into the the middle of the square of fabric.
Lay the rear square of fabric on the floor - right side facing up.
Take the length of piping and lay it around the 4 sides of the cushion - piping pointing inwards:



Take the front side square of fabric and lay it right side facing down
Pin all 3 layers firmly in place.
Sew all 4 sides together 2.5 cm from the edge.
Open the zip and flip inside out . Insert cushion.
Here's what you should have!:

Snowflake hot water bottle cover

A great gift for mother's day, this hot water bottle cover is a real winner. It's pretty simple - if you don't fancy trying the snowflake you can just keep it plain both sides instead.

You will need:

• Red and white double knit yarn


• 4mm knitting needles

For the back:

Cast on 51st (red)

Stocking stitch for 30cm

K1, P1, K1, P1... etc for 7.5cm

Cast off loosely.

For the front:
Cast on 51st Stocking stitch for 35 rows

36: K14 red, K1 white (w), K1 red (r), K1 w, K4 r, K1w, K5 r, K1 w, K5 r, K1 w, K1 r, K1w, K14 r
37: P15 r, P2 w, P4 r, P1 w, P1 r, P1 w, P3 r ,P1 w, P1 r, P1 w, P4 r, P2 w, P15 r
38: K14 r, K3 w, K1 r, K1 w, K2 r, K1 w, K7 r, K1 w, K2 r, K1 w, K1 r, K3 w, K15 r
39: P17 r, P2 w, P2 r, P2 w, P5 r, P2 w, P2 r, P2 w, P17
40: K16 r, K3 w, K2 r, K3 w, K3 r, K3 w, K2 r, K3 w, K16 r
41: P19 r, P1 w, P1 r, P4 w, P1 r, P4 w, P1 r, P1 w, P19 r
42: K20 r, K1 w, K1 r, K3 w, K1 r, K3 w, K1 r, K1 w, K20 r
43: P15 r, P5 w, P1 r, P1 w, P1 r, P2 w, P1 r, P2 w, P1 r, P1 w, P1 r, P 5 w, P15 r
44: K14 r, K1 w, K2 r, K4 w, K1 r, K1 w, K1 r, K1 w, K1 r, K1 w, K 1 r, K1 w, K1 r, K4 w, K 2 r, K1 w, K14 r
45: P15 r, P1 w, P2 r, P4 w, P 1 r, P1 w, P3 r, P1 w, P1 r, P4 w, P2 r, P1 w, P15 r
46: K19 r, K4 w, K1 r, K1 w, K1 r, K1 w, K1 r, K4 w, K 19 r
47: P25 r, P1 r, P25 r
48: K19 r, K4 w, K1 r, K1 w, K1 r, K1 w, K1 r, K4 w, K 19 r
49: P15 r, P1 w, P2 r, P4 w, P 1 r, P1 w, P3 r, P1 w, P1 r, P4 w, P2 r, P1 w, P15 r
50: K14 r, K1 w, K2 r, K4 w, K1 r, K1 w, K1 r, K1 w, K1 r, K1 w, K 1 r, K1 w, K1 r, K4 w, K 2 r, K1 w, K14 r
51: P15 r, P5 w, P1 r, P1 w, P1 r, P2 w, P1 r, P2 w, P1 r, P1 w, P1 r, P 5 w, P15 r
52: K20 r, K1 w, K1 r, K3 w, K1 r, K3 w, K1 r, K1 w, K20 r
53: P19 r, P1 w, P1 r, P4 w, P1 r, P4 w, P1 r, P1 w, P19 r
54: K16 r, K3 w, K2 r, K3 w, K3 r, K3 w, K2 r, K3 w, K16 r
55: P17 r, P2 w, P2 r, P2 w, P5 r, P2 w, P2 r, P2 w, P17
56: K14 r, K3 w, K1 r, K1 w, K2 r, K1 w, K7 r, K1 w, K2 r, K1 w, K1 r, K3 w, K15 r
57: P15 r, P2 w, P4 r, P1 w, P1 r, P1 w, P3 r ,P1 w, P1 r, P1 w, P4 r, P2 w, P15 r
58: K14 r, K1 w, K1 r, K1 w, K4 r, K1w, K5 r, K1 w, K5 r, K1 w, K1 r, K1w, K14 r

Continue work in stocking stitch (red) until it reaches 30cm
Then K1, P1, K1, P1 etc for 7.5cm
Cast off loosely.

Arrange knitting right sides facing in. Stitch 2 lengths and bottom sides together. Now turn the right way round and stitch white yarn through the neck of the hot water bottle cover. Voila!

Prussia Cove Sandy Lamp

Here's a lovely little trick I learned from family holidays to an estate in south Cornwall. They used wine bottles but you can use any type of bottle - here I've used an old olive oil bottle.

What you'll need:

• An old bottle


• Sand from your favourite beach


• A small lampshade A bulb (60watt)


• A bottle lamp holder adaptor (I used this one)

First thing's first - get the sand into the bottle. By hook or crook. If you're brighter than me you'll use a funnel... Bang the bottom of the bottle on a hard surface a couple of times while filing to shift the sand down into it: Next, attach the lightshade and lightbulb to the adaptor:

Hey presto: plug it in and switch it on!

The Craft Homemaker

Recessions are a good enough reason to dust off the sewing scissors and set to work designing and creating your own masterpieces at home.

I admit to being the seamstress for our school fashion show 15 years ago - largely because I was the only one who could work a sewing machine. From there I went to art college and painting took over. I never really sewed again.

Here I am at 30, cautiously dipping my toes back into the lost crafts of homemaking - knitting, sewing and upholstering, among other things.

It's nice. It means I get to furnish my home with bespoke curtains, lamps and cushions and I don't have to pay the ends of the earth to do so.

Enjoy x

New-Age Anonymous

You used to be branded a recluse if you were a techno-geek.

Now it appears the tables have turned.

Last weekend Google-lovers in the Bergerhausen area of Essen, Western Germany, apparently egged houses whose owners had opted to blur them out on Google's well-loved Street View.

Not satisfied with a good old-fashioned egging, the vandals taped 'Google's cool' notes to their mailboxes.

Yes Google's cool, but is criminal damage on Google's behalf really that cool? Really? Nothing more imaginative going on up there? Nothing better with which to ocupy your time? I'm already shuddering at the possible IQ of the perpetrators.

Google was quick to "distance itself completely" from the craziness saying of those who chose the blur: "we respect their wishes".

It's quite some world when you can't even choose anonymity for fear of being targeted as a kill-joy.

My other-half remains free of even Facebook. I know this is a serious slur on new-age humanity but each to their own, no? In years to come my Grandchildren will probably disown their wayward Gran for her online idiocy, while Granddad takes the limelight of their affections. The rough with the smooth, you see...

A Middleton class wedding

And so it is. A few hours ago my news-gland twitched with this little sentence from @BBCBreaking 'Clarence House has said Prince William is to marry Kate Middleton next year.'

You know, I already blogged about this - 4 years ago. Romance on a plate. This time it's ('exclusive') romance on a thimble. And this time it's actually happening.

Charly said he was "thrilled, obviously, thank you. They have been practising long enough". Living in sin - that's what I like to see from a modern-day Royal Couple.

I'm also loving New York Times reports that Kate's "solidly middle class" mum said to have previously "chewed gum and used unaristocratic words like “toilet” and “pardon” in front of the queen." What's wrong with pardon anyway? I was always told that was preferable to 'what?'

Dave of the Cam has bizarrely admitted he slept rough on the mall the night before Charly and Di's nuptials. Imagine that. I shall expect nothing less from him next year.

Wills is said to have asked Mr Middleton's permission for Kate's hand - I hope Kate's paid the same repect and asked Ben Fogal for Wills'.

The Mail are triumphant that Kate has 'worn William down', as every good woman does to her man, of course. The Sun's calling Kate Wills' 'African Queen' presumably because got engaged last month in Kenya - anything to sex-it-up, eh Murdoch?

The Guardian is awash with anti-royalist 'do we get a day off for the wedding - and then another for the divorce?', and you know the digital age has truly arrived when Queeny tweeted it as @BritishMonarchy. I'm sure they could have come up with a better twitter name for her than that...

All that is left is for 9 months of media-glare, fanfare and souvenir production. Good luck to you, middle-class Kate. Your face is already on the tea towels...

First there was Coco Pops

First there was Coco Pops who bizarrely tried out a whole new (rubbish) name.

Then at the beginning of last year Cornwall Council announced to the world it was changing its branding and unveiled its new logo.
The rejected Cornwall Council logo

Then thousands of people went the old-fashioned way and signed a petition against the 'un-Cornish' branding and the council backed down, throwing thousands of pounds in the bin as they did so. I've got to say, I rather liked it. The logo, not the petition.

And now Gap have done it the technological way - reacting to Facebook criticism they've gone and binned their new generic, bland offering, saying "We've heard loud and clear that you don't like the new logo. We've learned a lot from the feedback. We only want what's best for the brand and our customers".
Gap's rejected logo

So why do organisations go to all the bother of changing if they weren't 100% sure about the logo they unveil in such a glorious fashion? Gap, especially, centres its marketing around its brand - most recognised through its elongated logo. What were they trying to achieve by the new logo, which let's face it, is about as interesting as a vacuume cleaner?

It looks like they were going for digital - new age, and in doing so simply became as generic as every other page on the web. And they could have probably bought few dozen Dyson's with the money they wasted.