Stitch Sewing Machine Cover
Back when I first met Connie, we had a little situation between the two of us which led to a post titled: Connie Put Your Clothes On.
For those of you unwilling to click back and check out what the world I'm talking about, here's the gist: I was so excited to whip off the cheapo plastic dust cover on top of my new machine to show her off to some family, that I totally ripped it in the process.
Doy.
It did, however, give me a perfect excuse to make her a new cover. I thought . . . this will be brilliantly easy! I'll just cut the already torn plastic cover apart so I can see the exact pieces used, cut out my own with some cute fabric, and VOILA! New cover.
I was so completely excited with the results. Here's what she's been rocking since that day:
Can you tell I was double fist pumping my way through using one of the many decorative stitches on my machine? Because I totally was.
What was NOT revealed in that post was the ugly side of the cover . . . the side that doesn't *really matter* but was hiding some really dirty secrets. Like this:
And this:
Yeah, when I first started sewing I was just really making it up as I went along and had no clue how to finish things properly at all. To the extent I clearly didn't even realize you could just fold something under TWICE so that you have a nice folded edge and not some raggedy garbage underneath.
So . . . big whip, right? It's not a big deal. It's not like anyone but me knew and it's not like it was being worn so hard that it was going to fall apart because of its shoddy construction techniques. But since I got my sewing room all lovely and organized, I felt that it was time to give Connie a facelift as well. After all . . . she really deserves it. We've been through a lot together over the years. :)
Besides, when I saw this pattern I could NOT resist.
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Beyond Measure sewing machine cover pattern by Bloom |
I had a moment wherein I pondered copying the idea but kind of making up the pattern, but this for me was about polishing her up and making something a bit more clean and finished so I went ahead and bought the pattern. (Plus - - I felt unsavory just yoinking the idea.) This was the first time I bought something in Australian dollars as well . . . not sure why that made me nervous, but it did.
I'm a dork.
So anyway, this pattern is so completely adorable, and I just love love love the patchwork panel, the sweet little ruler detail and of course those buttons. But I also had my heart set on using my Pop Garden fabrics . . . I've had that in my mind ever since I got a little stack of them with my birthday moneys. Those lovelies have been predestined to pretty-up my sewing room since they were first created.
You didn't realize that when you were dreaming these designs up, did you Heather? ;)
The only problem? In general, Pop Garden is a collection that is chock full of LARGE scale prints. I didn't truly realize the scale of them until I had some in my hot little hand, but I felt it wouldn't do them the proper amount of justice to cut them up into those tiny squares. So I chickened out a bit. And I went skulking around through the hutch for some other options.
I settled on some of my Tailor Made fabrics, this very cute Japanese print I've been sitting on from ages ago waiting for the right project, and a a few coordinating pieces I pulled from here and there.
This was what I ended up with:
Don't get me wrong, I really liked it. I did. But as I started laying out the pieces I found myself getting really nostalgic for my original plan to use the Pop Garden, and I waffled. I know! After I had just cut out 60 2" squares and sewed em all up pretty like (and huzza - - I definitely used the Quilter's Grid which made it so perfectly pointed!). But I set it aside . . . I promise I'll figure out a different way to use it for some other project.
So I pulled the Pop Garden stack back off the shelf, put my finger on my absolutely favorite print of the bunch and without overthinking it too much (too late!) I sliced it up. Because I only had 1 precious fat quarter of it, it really wasn't going to work to make a continuous panel all the way to the other side, so I cut up an equal piece of Swirly Buds in Yellow and sewed em together to get the right size panel piece.
I had found some of that adorable measuring twill tape on Etsy, and the seller (Little Red Cottage) was kindly enough to throw in some extra cute crochet trim with my order that just happened to coordinate perfectly . . . so I decided to throw that into the design as well! Rather than going with 13 of the same exact button to finish the embellishment I elected to raid my vintage button stash and found 13 buttons that drew out all the lovely colors in the fabric. I pondered switching up the font of the word "Stitch" on the front . . . I even thought about putting a different word on there . . . but in the end I liked the way it was, so I stuck with the original design element there. I had to chop a bit of fabric off the bottom of the cover before I finished it as the sewing machine it was designed for seems to have been just a little bigger than my gal, Connie. But no problem . . . that was an easy fix.
I defiinitely learned some stuff along the way on this one as well . . . most notably, how to make and use piping. Never done that one before.
The good news . . . it is SUPER easy . . . it kinda makes me want to make some new throw pillows for my couch and pipe em out. :)
I think the only thing I would change about this pattern, in hindsight, is a bit beefier size of piping . . . it's pretty small (at JoAnn that size was only available as cording) and delicate, but it does the job.
I really love how this turned out . . . more than anything because it makes me see just how far I've come since I first started sewing.
What new skills have you picked up lately?
