Patch Happy

home-made patchwork sofa

Patches. Make me happy.

A few years ago I re-covered a very drab Ikea sofa in a grey leaf design:

It did look tasteful but after 5 years I thought the room needed an injection of colour. I have been saving up bits of upholstery fabric for a couple of years. A local fabric shop sells oddments for 50p each in beautiful reds, golds and blues. I had a few bits from charity shops and leftover robin-egg blue from the curtains I made which you can just about see.

I also had material from the Maureen stash (a stack of haberdashery I inherited from Great Aunty Maureen) including this lovely oriental style fabric that I had already used to make the bird cushions and a pale green one with pink roses that had been a pair of her curtains at some point but she was planning to recycle. Some of her fabric dated back to the early 1970s, which makes it quite vintage now, just like me. It is so very satisfying to finally use up fabric that had been saved for over 30 years - a tribute to a fellow hoarder.

Detail of Maureen fabrics 

It took about a week to complete and I finished it off with a matching cushion. The teal up-cycled cushions harmonise well.

Patchwork. It is like an infection. Now I can see all sorts of patching possibilities. Soon we will be living in a patchwork house.