Scrap bag Saturday - sofa throw

Today's scrap bag make is a sofa throw.One of my 12 for 2012 was to make more soft furnishings for the cottage. I have used the curtain and upholstery fabric samples that I picked up for free earlier in the week. I tried to pick out the fabric colours which would combine or contrast with my living room decor to give me a good starting point.
My kitchen is my workshop as it is really the only space I have big enough to set up the sewing machine in this small cottage, so I just take over the tiny kitchen table and use the floor for spreading out the bigger works in progress.

I just cut the sample pieces into random squares and oblong shapes,with no measuring or straight lines, a few I left as whole large squares. I sewed several together to make strips and laid them out on the floor to get an idea of how best to join them together to get the effect I was looking for as I went along.

The throw soon built up in size as the blocks were quite large so it didn't take very long to sew together.The fabrics were mostly tapestry type materials and so were quite substantial and heavy so I decided to only make the throw  4.5 ft x 4.5  ft because of the weight of it.
This was the completed top of the throw before I added a backing to it. I used an old flat sheet for the backing.

I love the mix of colours and patterns in it and it is very touchy feely because of all the textured materials.

The last stage was to iron out the seams and then add a backing. I sewed the backing on using the bagging out method. Laid the two pieces front side to front side, sewed around the edges leaving a small gap at one edge, then turned it inside out using the gap to pull the fabric through,just like turning a duvet cover inside out.This way I don't have to put a binding on it,I just sewed up the small gap once everything was right side out.I might get around to making some big fat tassles to add to it.
It will be mainly used over the back of the sofa during the day to protect it a bit from this little monkey, who likes to survey his kingdom, and watch the chickens, out of the living room window.

It will also be handy for a snuggly cover on winter nights.
Another unique piece of soft furnishing completed to cosy up the cottage, and no pennies spent in the process, just a little time and effort.


Have you created anything from scrap today?