Yellow Gumboots Girl - Handmade Magazine

I was asked by Handmade Mag to design something for them a few months ago, and it was such a lovely surprise that they would want something from little ol' me...And I am so honoured that they chose my project to be one of their cover items! It was such a lovely start to the year with so many firsts, as it was my first time in Handmade, and my first ever cover too:) We called this 'Yellow Gumboots Girl', and it was such a happy thing to be stitching, as we were going through the middle of a VERY wet spring in South Australia.

I thought I'd share with you a few more closeup pics of the pillow that I made for them, as well as some of the process pics that the magazine inadvertently left out of the article. So if you're ever slightly inclined to stitch my little pillow for yourselves, this might make things a bit clearer for you.

You will find all the templates for the little girl, her umbrella and puddle in the magazine. This is what they look like when they are traced, fused to fabric, cut out, and fused onto the linen background. I lay them onto the fabric one at a time, place the traced outline over the top to get the placement correct, and then fuse. It looks a little daunting at this stage, but when you lay the interfacing over the top, you can start to see it come together.You can see that the scale and colour of the chosen prints really helps bring the picture to life!

I use a wash-away interfacing with the outline over the top to use as template for stitching the details of the picture. This is then washed away under the tap, patted dry with towels, and ironed dry.

Here's the design with the interfacing removed, all dry, and with a layer of batting underneath. I like that this adds further dimension.The next detail added, is the piped oval around the design. I placed the oval template over the design, and centred it. Then I traced the oval using a fabric marker. Then I stitched the piping around the design, using the traced line as the stitching guide. The piping eases around the curves easier if it's clipped as shown. I overlap the ends by pulling out a small amount of the cord from the piping, and cutting off about 1.5cm. Then I unpick the same amount of the piping seam, and fold the raw edge under. Overlap this edge over the beginning end of the piping that you started with. You can see the join in the picture below is quite un-noticeable, and even the pattern matched up, which was a happy accident!

I then trimmed away the rest of the linen background and batting to 6mm (0.25in) around the piping, and press to the wrong side of the oval. The oval is then centred onto the larger cushion background, and pinned into place. Then I stitched in the ditch, between the edge of the piping and the oval to secure it.

When carefully sewn down, this will leave the oval invisibly secured onto the front of the pillow.

And the back is a cheery yellow spot, which matches perfectly with the yellow hand quilting...I love creating projects that have charm and whimsy, and speak so much of simple childhood fun - my daughter still loves to put her gumboots on and go jumping in puddles, and she's going to be 13 this year!!