Storybook Craft Project - The Hungry Caterpillar Cushion

Welcome to the first project in the Storybook Craft Project. This week's project is inspired by one of my favourite children's books - 'The Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle. 

For extra tips on the applique method, visit these great tutorial on Sew Mama Sew

Materials
Red Fabric
Green fabric (try to get a textured green rather than a block colour)
Hungry Caterpillar Fabric
Calico
Green, yellow, blue, red, and brown thread
Cream backing fabric
13 " Square cushion cover

1. Cut a square of calico 23 x 23 cm - this is the main panel of the cushion

2. Download and print the template below. Trace the shapes onto freezer paper and cut them out (don't forget to transfer the numbers)

3. Iron the shapes 2-21 onto the reverse side of the green fabric and 1 onto red. Cut the shapes out making sure you leave at least a centimetre of fabric all round.

4. Spray some spray starch into a cup and let the foam dissipate. Using a paintbrush, apply starch to the fabric border that you left round your shape

5. Iron the edges over back onto the freezer paper shape until the fabric is the correct shape and all the edges are turned over

6. Pull the freezer paper out and press again. Repeat steps for all 20 green shapes, and one red.

7. Lay piece 9 in the centre of the calico about 7cm down from the top. Pin in place and using green thread in the sewing machine, sew all the way round the shape. Slightly overlapping, lay piece 8 to the right of shape 9 and sew. Continue laying the pieces and sewing, overlapping each time to form the shape of the Hungry caterpillar. Use this picture as a guide to piece the caterpillar together

8. Use the sewing machine, or hand stitch four triangles under pieces 2-4 and 2 on pieces 19-18 for feet, as in the picture below

9. Using red thread, sew antenna on top of the caterpillar's face

10. In a pencil, draw two eye ovals on the red face, embroider them in green and then border in yellow

11. To finish the caterpillar, sew little stitches by hand (about 3mm), alternating in blue and red on the top of pieces 2-21

12. Grab your Hungry Caterpillar spotty fabric and cut two strips 23cm x 8cm and two strips 35cm x 8cm

13. Sew one of the short strips to the top of the calico square and one to the bottom. Press the seams

14. Pin the long strips on either side of the calico square and sew. Press to open - the front panel of the cushion is now completed

15. Cut two rectangles out of your backing fabric 23cm x 32 cm. Hem one of the long edges on each rectangle. We are making an envelope back to the cushion.

16. Lay the caterpillar face up. Place one rectangle on top with neat hem edge down - line up the unhemmed edge to the top of the square. Place the other rectangle with neat hem edge down, lining the unhemmed edge to the bottom of the square. Sew round the edge of the square and fold right way out to complete your cushion cover

17. Put cover on a 13" square cushion

Downloadable Template to be printed on A4 paper

Join us next week for Part Two of the Strorybook Crafts Project - A Gruffalo cushion! So follow along and join us every Friday for the next couple of months!

Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask - I would love to see if you give this a go!

Have a great day

Love Rebecca


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