Cover it up!

Most if not all sewing machines come with a cover to help protect them.  The problem is they're usually a hideous plastic that stinks and frankly doesn't look very pretty.  So I figured I can do much better than ugly plastic.  I used two different tutorials to help make this project and also flew by the seat of my pants. The tutorials I used will be posted at the bottom of the page as usual. 

Here's the beautiful fabric I found at Jo-Ann's almost a month ago.  I wanted something colorful and I think the fabric I picked will do this project justice.  Now it's time to measure!  I've been told by my fellow sewers that I have a tiny sewing machine and truth be told I do.  So please do your own measuring.  A couple of things to remember while you measure: 
1) don't forget to include your flywheel
2) remember your seam allowances

Cut out your pieces according to what you just measured. I added batting to the front and back pieces and sew in interfacing on the sides for added plushness and stability.  "Why wouldn't you use batting or interfacing the whole way around?"  Good question and here's my answer.  It's all I had at the time and I wasn't about to go out and buy more when a snow/ice storm is rolling on through.

I wanted pockets big enough on either side to fit my foot pedal and power cord. Or one of the 5 pairs of scissors I own.

I started with sewing the front and back to the top. As I went along I did press my seams to help it take shape.

As you can see from the picture below I had a small error with my measurements.  And looking back I'm still not sure where it all went wrong.  But the important thing is I fixed it later on by taking off about 2 inches of fabric.  My pockets were tricky because I didn't want them to be too small or too large.  I eventually took off a 1/2 inch at a time till I was satisfied.  

I knew I wanted to put bias tape at the bottom of all the pieces but I had trouble find colors to match.  A good friend came to my rescue and lent me her bias tape maker.  I had left over fabric from my fat quarters and thought it'd make good bias tape.  There's a picture of it on the second picture below.  Some help from my friend and a broken seam ripper (sorry T) later I finally managed to get it right. 

I pinned the sides next and this is where I had some trouble lining everything up.  The bottom lined up perfectly but towards the top I had to mess with it a bit.    

Overall I am very happy with how it turned out.  It's the perfect little house for my sewing machine.

Sewing machine cover tutorial #1

Sewing machine cover tutorial #2  (if this link doesn't work please use the one above. I only used this tutorial for the pockets I made.)