A cushion for the 12th Mechanized Brigade

My sewing machine is back from the expert ministrations of Tony from Lewisham and Deptford Sewing Machines (recommended by Barley from Fabrications), smelling of oil and running beautifully. It was time to get on with making this cushion I had been promising one of our volunteers on TheSite.org for so long. And here it is.

I took the logo from the Brigade's Facebook page and printed out a template.

I initially wanted to do the logo from felt and the backing from red material, thus enabling me to make a bigger cushion - but I found that the heirloom stitch I was using to make a thick line was rucking up the material making it look crumpled. I decided to use felt for the background too. This made for a smaller cushion, but I thought this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if it was going on tour! Here is is in progress, with the template.

And here it is with Alonso, the rather stern gentleman found in a charity shop by a university friend many years ago, and given to us three or four years past. He looks rather army like and official so I thought he might enjoy being photographed with the army cushion;

And finally, here's the man himself, in TheSite.org towers with his cushion. Hopefully he likes it - it's hard to tell from that smile....

And, in the background you can see a pinky purple Octopus, our YouthNet mascot Octi. At some point, I have to make an Octi costume as I plan to run the London Marathon 2013 dressed as him. I'm not entirely sure how to go about this eight legged sewing project - but I'll keep you posted...