Outdoor Canvas - Something you should know

Hello! Outdoor canvas is a wonderful fabric for pillows, cushions, you name it! There is a huge variety of colors and patterns to choose from. But, something you should know if you are purchasing handmade products made of this fabric -- it unravels! So what's the big deal about that you ask? Well after continued use you may find that your seams are fraying, which is absolutely not good.

 

In order to prevent this from happening, the edges must be sewn with a serger to lock the edges and prevent fraying. I serge all of the edges on everything I make with outdoor canvas to prevent this and to create a clean, finished seam.

 

When you are shopping online for pillow covers, pillows, cushions, etc. always ask the crafter if the raw edges are serged to make sure you are getting the quality you deserve!

 

 

Inspired by being lazy!

 

I got this wonderful citrus colored fabric, Robert Allen's Beach Bongo, for making a couple of pillow covers. This is an indoor/outdoor fabric, which I love. After I cut my pillows out I noticed I had a chunk of fabric left over that had some of the seashells on it. I decided to cut the seashells out and make them into appliques, which I then stitched on to pieces of bright green burlap.

Well, now what. I thought about sewing them on to pillows, but I already had pillows. What about a runner that could be thrown over an outdoor table that would look great with the pillows tossed on to accompanying chairs. I just happened to have enough bright orange burlap. What luck!

I cut the runner, and placed the appliques when I realized I didn't have any orange thread.  I didn't want to sew the appliques on to the runner and be able to see a different color thread on the backside.

 

Here's where the lazy part kicks in -- I was too lazy to drive to the fabric store to buy orange thread, so I decided I'd sew the appliques on by hand using strands of the orange burlap. 

Liking the look of this, I then wove some of the green burlap threads along both long sides to frame the appliques. But now I had to figure out how I was going to 'lock' the long edges so they would not fray. This is normally where I would have sewn them by machine, but again, no orange thread.  Well, I remembered my cross-stitching from years ago and decided this was going to be the solution. I love the look, but the problem with cross-stitching is that IT TAKES SO DARN LONG TO DO!

 

Oh well, as I mentioned, I was too lazy to drive to the fabric store to buy orange thread...so that's how this particular runner was designed.

 

Robert Allen Island Ibis Coral Tropical Pillows

I loved this fabric from the moment I saw it because it contains all of my favorite colors! It turned into very fun, bright pillows which I photographed on our patio at the office. Our green chairs and purple flowers were a perfect setting.

Okay, so did you ever buy a remnant rolled up in one of those little bundles but you don't unroll it before you purchase it? I know, dumb. But I did. And, when I got home and opened it up, there was a flaw large enough that I could not cut two 18" pieces for a pillow. So I went to work on a plan, because now I don't want to drive all the way back to the store to return it. Well, I chopped it up into several pieces and created this great quarter turned design. I think it turned out really fun. Admittedly, it was a pain to make and took more time than it really should have, but, I like the result. This is outdoor canvas and it ended up being a 16" pillow. Lesson learned.See this pillow on sale now at Float Interiors