I’ve got some Liberty oilcloth in stock and we were thinking about what we could make from it. Anna JP came up with this fabulous Liberty BBQ Cover. She’s used the Manning oilcloth which looks really great in her garden. I’ve asked her to tell you about the sewing project below.
About the Liberty BBQ Cover project, Anna says “I had been thinking about practical uses for the darker patterns of our oilcloth for some time, and decided to see if the green Manning fabric would work in the garden. A table-cloth, contrast-sided floor cushion, or barbecue cover all seemed like possibilities. When I brought the Manning fabric into the garden, it made a lot of sense in the setting. The colours are classy, natural shades of green, stone and black, and the print echos the distant hills which we are lucky to have as a view.”
“My project was decided for me when I started the annual post-winter garden tidy-up and noticed the dreadful state of the old barbecue cover. It was ripped and patched-up, held on with bungee cords, and had never fitted properly in the first place. As a result the barbecue spent all winter going a bit damp and rusty, and was always hidden behind the shed so we forgot to use it, even in summer.”
“The construction of the cover was fairly simple, but needed careful thought to ensure I minimised the number of seams which could potentially leak. I made it with one long rectangle for the ends and top in a continuous piece, and two side rectangles. Inside are ties to keep it secure on the legs of the barbecue. Sewing the oilcloth was quite easy as all my seams were sewn coated-side-in. I bought some self-adhesive seam-sealing tape from ebay which I carefully ironed over the rear of each seam after sewing. Hopefully this will keep it weatherproof! It took about 3 hours to complete, using roughly 3.5m of fabric.
I’m really pleased with how it turned out, as we can now keep the barbecue in our main seating area rather than having to hide it away. Just having it visible is a great prompt to use it, and we’ve already had more barbecues this year (2) than all of last year (1)!”
The oilcloth is on sale at the moment which makes this an affordable project. You can buy the fabric here. We all think this looks fabulous and is the perfect t protection for a BBQ.
Alice x
