Cover yourself up!

My poor old machine...It comes up against a lot of abuse...The spool holder is repaired with a cocktail stick and I have been woefully neglegent with the oiling of it all. After nearly 7 years of hard graft I thought it about time to treat it to a proper cover. This is how it goes...

You will need:
The old cover (or newspaper to create a pattern if no longer about)
Material (about square metre should do it)
Enough elastic tape (at least half a cm width) to go around the base)
Bias binding tape in a contrast colour
All the usual notions.

Read on for instructions...


How to:

Pattern:
1. Chop up the old cover along the stitching lines. Mine worked out to be one piece. Lay this on the new fabric, pin, and cut leaving at least 2 cm seam allowance at the base, and 1cm all around.
2. Carefully cut out the rectangle where the machine handle will go.
3. Cut an additional strip the width of your machine for the pocket. I measured mine height-wise against my most used scissors so they would fit.

Pocket:
4. Iron over the top hem of the pocket piece, pin one strip of bias tape at the top edge and run two sewing lines across to secure tape and hem at the same time.
5. Pin to main section, then sew up from the base to form separate pockets.

Handle hole:

6. Carefully iron a strip of bias tape in half (enough to fit around the hole section plus an additional cm just in case);
7. Fiddly bit -Slot over the raw edge of the machine hole and slowly stitch in place, folding the tape around the corners. If you've sewn over your fingers with a machine before you might want to hand stitch this bit.

At this point, slot the cover over the machine to check the fit and pin where the base seams should be.

Base:
8. Iron the two seams at the base, remembering that when you sew, you need to have left enough room to run the elastic through;
9. Pin and sew.
10. Using a safety pin, thread the elastic through one side. When it appears out of the hole, secure with the pin. Pull to a loose gather at the other end, pin with a second safety pin and trim. Repeat with the other side.

Sides:


These seams form a 'T' shape with the two top edges meeting in the middle, and the long side coming straight down.
11. On the reverse side, fold in the first top edge and sew to the middle. Repeat on the other side.
12. Then, align the two long sides, pin and sew, making sure to go forwards and backwards over the elastic at the bottom to secure the two sides together.
13. Repeat to enclose the other end.

Finish:


Turn the right way out, straighten seams and trim all loose ends. Fill pockets with scissors, tape and thread and feel chuffed. x