Sewing machine cover #2

Can you guess what it is yet? 

Oh, I told you in the title.  Well that spoilt that then.  I was asked by a friend to make her a sewing machine cover like the one I made for myself - see this post if you are at all interested. 

I made some changes this time.  Instead of using the DMC light effects thread, I used Perle Cotton number 5.  Well ladies, call me a heathen, call me anything you like, but I do not understand the hype about this thread.  It's pretty much like any other embroidery thread, just not stranded.  What am I missing?  Other bloggers rave about Perle Cotton.

I used all pink buttons this time.  On my own cover I used a mixture of pink and red from my stash, but I didn't have 6 of one and 7 of the other this time and had to buy a pack.  They had no nice ones in red at all in Hobbycraft so I made do with all pink.  The tape measure ribbon is different too.  On my machine I used some ribbon I'd bought from East of India but I didn't have enough left so I had to make do with this cheaper version from the craft show.

I'd also ran out of the blue spot Bliss fabric I used for my lining.  The only think I had to hand in sufficient quantities was Lily and Will yardage which I'd bought for dining room stuff.  It goes well enough.  This time my lining is MUCH better.  Confession?  I made a lining, remembered how big it was on the last version so made it smaller.  It was way too small!  I had to rip it out and start again.  This second version worked perfectly.  In fact, on this second go around the whole thing went like a dream, other than the lining issue and the 4 or 5 times I was merrily sewing when I realised my bobbin had run out about 10 minutes before!  I'm really happy with it.
I decided to pop in a little pincushion as an extra.  What follows is not a tutorial, but I did take some pictures along the way, just because! 

I made a 9-patch square from 2 inch Bliss squares.  Almost all the points match!  Wahoo!  I cut 4 strips of linen 5.5 x 2 inches and one square 5.5 inches.  I sewed the strips together to form the sides of the cushion.

I then sewed the sides to the top and this was tricky.  I hadn't thought about those corners.  I had to kind of lay them flat diagonally.  By the way - notice I press my seams away from each other.  I always do that.  Everyone else says not to but I read one blog where it said it was better and I find this way the seams of darker fabrics don't show through the lighter parts.

I turned it right side out with bated breath.... OK, so the corners are lacking in skill, but never mind!

And ta-da! One wrinkly, badly-sewed, badly-ironed pin cushion!   How do you iron things like this?  The turning inside out made the linen very wrinkly but I just couldn't iron it without making it worse!

Side view.  Hm.  I think I've made better!  Maybe I should have put piping in the edges...
You also get a glimpse of my WIP shelf there.  "A WIP shelf?" I hear you cry!  Oh yes, of course, who DOESN'T have a WIP shelf?  More about that next time...

Bliss! A post in which I say "piping" quite a lot

After the weekend's shenanigans with my machine, she's working again.  I put her through her paces on Sunday.  Should I be calling her "her"?  It sounds like I like her and at the moment I still don't - I'll refer to her as "it".  I decided to get going on the sewing machine cover I'd started.  I managed to finish it in a record 7 hours!  You people that whip up a quilt in 2 hours amaze me!!

I have noticed that I like looking at progress photos on other blogs as much as I like seeing the finished item, so I thought I'd take some as I went along.

This pattern is from Australia Homespun Vol. 11 No. 11, but you can buy it from the lovely Bloom, see this page here.

I had been struggling with my patchwork pieces when the machine died, so I finished them off on Sunday.  Then I added the side panel that I'd hand-embroidered with the word "Stitch".

I've used white linen, a Bliss layer cake (well a tiny bit of it!) and some tape measure twill that I happened to have in my card-making stash!  The embroidery is sewn in DMC Light Effects thread.

Here's a close up so you can see just how wonky my patchwork is!

I'd forgotten I'd need buttons and I didn't have 13 matching so I used a combination of red and pink buttons (again from my card-making stash).  I think they offset the blue thread nicely.  This is the DMC Light Effects again.  There is a thick layer of fusible fleece on the back of this machine cover, so does this count as me having done some hand quilting?  If you enlarge the photo you'll see the spot of my blood!  I do like to put something personal into a project...

See it?

I thought that I would be stitching in the ditch along the patchwork, but the pattern didn't call for it, so I didn't.

That's my piping.  I've never done piping before and I was scared but it was EASY.  I used my zipper foot as I don't have a piping foot and it worked fine.  I did have to do an emergency mid-project run to Hobbycraft to get the piping cord... I really should consider planning ahead!  I bought a metre of one Bliss print and a half metre of another for lining and piping, but this used up the tiniest bit of fabric, 2 inches I think!

Piping added.

What do you think of my piping efforts?

The next step was to sew the main panel and the end panels together.  We're talking 2 layers of linen, 2 layers of fusible fleece, 2 layers of medium-weight interfacing and 2 layers of cotton.  My machine said no, so I bought out this baby:

Oh yes, the walking foot.  Why was I scared of it?  It took about 20 seconds to install and is BRILLIANT!!  It made short work of all those layers and soon I was finished.

Ta Da!!  Sorry about the light - it was 6pm when I finished but I HAD to get photos.

This is the back, and you can see that I messed up the lining:

I used a blue spot print for the lining and when I put it all together, it formed a sort of cuff on the right side.  The lining isn't supposed to be showing on the front, but I liked it so sewed it in place like that.

The lining was bigger than the outside piece, so I ended up with ruffles and tucks and it looks a bit of a mess, but it's on the back! 

Go on, admire that piping again!

Sandra, I'm declaring this as my March LANT (Learn a New Technique) - I did walking foot sewing, piping and Quilt As You Go, oh, and hand quilting!  No full quilt for me this month, maybe April (or maybe not!).

By the way, I see I have loads more followers, thanks girls and welcome!  I wanted to come and visit you, but the list is no longer in date order of when you joined so I can't identify you, feel free to let me know if you're a new follower so I can come and visit you.