Elephant Cushion…and giveaway!

There are a lot of people I promised this to, but due to the inexplicable breakdown of my scanner, I have been unable to do it until now.  So now we have: new scanner (whoop! I love my new scanner.) and the ability, finally, to scan elephants.  Not whole elephants, of course (blimey, just imagine it), just flat ones made of felt.  Cushion sized so to speak.
This cushion was first made for my god-daughter for her first birthday, and then after I gave it to her I made another one as a store sample for the lovely organic Mod Basics range for Birch.  Although really I made it again because I was sad I had given it away (even if it was to a very good home).

You will need:
 The pattern pieces, downloaded from here
Main Fabric (Yellow Dottie) – Fat Quarter
Backing Fabric (Coral Elephants) – Fat Quarter
Solid Pink – 10cm square
Solid Green – 10cm square
Solid Teal – 10cm square
Solid Aqua – Fat Eighth
Dottie Green – 10cm square
Dottie Teal – 10cm square
Dottie Coral – Fat Eighth
Silver Grey Woolfelt – 30cm x 45cm
Strawberry Dream Woolfelt – 10cm x 45cm
Black Woolfelt – Scrap
White embroidery floss – scrap!
Bondaweb – 50cm
Toyfill
(This may seem like a lot of bits, but it’s really mostly scraps with some felt and 2 fat quarters, honest!)

How to put it all together:

1.  Print out your pattern pieces.  Before you do anything else, you need to reverse them otherwise all your pieces will be the wrong way around (the best way to do this is to hold the pattern sheets up to a window the wrong way around, and trace the lines on the other side of your paper).  Trace out your elephant onto the paper side of your bondaweb, joining the pattern pieces as marked.  Always use the bondaweb as sparingly – trace as close to the edge as possible!

2.  Roughly cut out the elephant (not on the lines, about an inch all around), and iron this piece onto your grey felt.  Now cut it out exactly on the lines.  Put to one side.

3. With your remaining bondaweb and the same method, cut your inner ear out of the dottie coral, and your droplets out of the solid aqua.  To know how many droplets to cut out, decide what word you want.  The first time I made this cushion, I did my God-daughter’s name ‘Hester’.  This time, I wrote ‘hello’.  Ideally you want to keep it between 4 – 6 letters.  Put to one side.

4.  Cut out your letters from the strawberry dream felt.  If you have any left you can use the bondaweb, if not, just cut them straight out.  Put to one side.

Half Square Triangles

5.  Half square triangles:
Take a 10cm piece of a solid and a dottie in one colour, and lay face to face.  Draw a line from corner to corner (fig. a).  Sew a 1/4″ seam on each side of the line (fig. b), then cut down the line (fig. c).  Open out the triangles, and iron flat (fig. d).  With a 1/4″ seam, sew a row together using the main picture as a guide.

fig. a

fig b

fig. c

fig. d

6.  Take your dottie yellow fat quarter, and cut down to 55cm x 35cm (as close as possible).  Join your strip of triangles to the bottom edge of the yellow fabric, making sure to centre as much as possible.  You may lose some of the first and last set of triangles.

7.  Iron on your elephant to the left hand side of the yellow fabric, leaving at least an inch around the edges.   Sew all around the edges – I used a pink thread to highlight against the grey.

8.  Cut your outer ear out of the remainder of your grey felt, and iron your inner ear centrally to it.  Stitch down one side twice to secure to the elephant head, using the pattern piece marking as a guide.  Your ear should remain flapping. (note: I liked the idea of a small pocket for secrets behind the elephants ear, but never actually got around to it.)

9.  Using the remaining bondaweb, cut out your eye and iron onto the elephant head.  Stitch the eye highlight with white embroidery thread.

10.  Place all your droplets, and the letters inside them, to look as though they are spraying out of the elephants trunk.  You may have to fiddle about with the layout to get it to work properly – each cushion will vary according to what letters you are using.  Once you’re happy with the layout, iron on the droplets, and stitch around the edge with the pink felt.  Then either iron (if you used the bondaweb) or pin on your letters, and sew centrally through each letter.  Go slow, don’t worry too much about perfection (if you are using pink thread, you won’t see it much in the pinky red felt!).

11.  That’s your cushion top completed!  Next, cut your elephant backing fabric to the same size as your finished piece, and right sides facing.  Sew around all four edges, leaving a 5″ (approx) for turning and stuffing.  Turn the right way out, and poke all your corners with your fingers leaving nice sharp corners.  Then stuff, stuff, stuff, as firm as you can.  Once you’re all stuffed out, ladder stitch the edge closed tightly.  And that’s it, we’re at the end!

But hang on, I hear you say.  In the title, you promised us a giveaway… Well, we’ve put together these lovely bundles to make the cushion (they contain the felt and fabric, but not stuffing or bondaweb) – you can purchase them here – and we’re going to give away a bundle to one of you. 

All you need to do is leave a comment on the blog naming a famous elephant.  Yes, a famous elephant.  We tried this in the shop earlier – and once you get past the obvious, there are surprisingly few, I think.  I’m going to leave this open until this time next week, and then I’ll randomly generate a winner!