Shiny stash-busting, part II

Hello, everyone.

A few days ago, I commented on the amount of shiny-print cotton fabric that is in the stash. A tiny bit of it went into the pincushion.

A larger bit of it went into this:

Sewing machine dust cover

I started by measuring the distance from the bottom to the top on the back side. Then, using the same carpenter's L square, I measured the distance across the top from front to back and from the bottom to the top in front. I also made a rough measurement of the length of the machine left to right. This was purposely a bit long for later fitting.

I used the ruler to mark a polygon that resembled the end of the machine. This is where a mistake crept in: the front side ended up too long. (I'm not sure why, but it was fixable at the end.)

Cutting the end pieces.

I cut out pieces of the outer fabric and the inner (lining) fabric and then used stash bits of batting between them. After quilting each polygon in straight lines, I ran each of the polygons under the serger needle on all sides to keep the edges neat.

Now that the end pieces were ready, I set them aside. The main pieces were cut and I used a piece of spare white fleece for the center layer of the sandwich. (The fleece had been acquired for a project that never happened. Story of my life!)

After pinning for stability, I marked approximate quilting lines with painter's tape and moved pins as needed.

The main piece ready for quilting.

Neatening the edges and making it square was next: this involved folding in half to make sure that corners met properly in both directions, and trimming off the excess fleece. This piece also went through the serger.

Then I pinned an end onto the main piece at one end, making sure that the quilting lines were horizontal on both. There was a corner to turn, which required a bit of clipping, and another corner, and then I discovered that the front edge of the end was hanging down a few inches from the front edge of the main piece. Oops.

I re-measured here and there, moved the pincushion around into the harp area, laid down the little lid over the thread, and checked: the main piece was fine. It was the front of the end that was off. So I put the other end piece on,too, leaving an opening in part of one side to make it easier to put on and off of the machine. Then I trimmed the two end pieces to meet the front edge of the main piece. And re-serged the newly cut edges.

Pressing the seams

The seams were pressed toward the ends. The edges looked ratty with the serging hanging out in the air, so a piece of scrap grosgrain ribbon (thank you Amazon gift wrap!) got pressed into service. And pressed just slightly off of exactly in half, so it could be sewn down with one seam.

The ribbon pinned for sewing.

 After the ribbon was pinned, it was topstitched down and the open slit was also included in the topstitching.

I know the machine came with a hard plastic cover/case, but it's awkward to put it on and off when the machine is on the sewing table. This fabric cover--which actually stands on its own--is more convenient for daily use.

There is still quite a bit of shiny-print fabric left. More little projects are needed!