I went on a trip with the friend who dubbed me Phone Home... and she was bragging to another friend about how great my flat iron cover was and that I made it myself and I'm a genius yada yada (she really gives me too much credit!). I had to sheepishly correct her and say, actually that's my Vera Bradley flat iron cover and I didn't make it. So I was thinking about that for awhile and thought, why couldn't I make that? I have semi-serious sewing skills - I can do it!
I looked for a tutorial online but didn't really find much to help me out. I ended up studying the construction and materials of my own, and came up with this tutorial to make your own. As a side note, for your own, you may want to adjust the fabric measurements to make them a teeny bit larger. I was working with a scrap that just happened to be as wide as my measurements. It works great, but is just a tad on the snug side. This is a long one, but there are plenty of pictures!
The inspiration - my Vera Bradley flat iron cover.
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| Materials |
Materials:
Fabric for outside 8" x 12.5"
had some leftover. You'll want to use the kind that is dense
enough to quilt without fabric on both sides.
Bias tape or fabric to make it - at least 44"
Basting spray or whatever you use when quilting
Directions:
Cut out the fabrics and batting. Spray the basting spray onto the batting and center the fabric on top of it, smoothing in all directions to get rid of bubbles.
Machine baste the edges of the fabric down all the way around. Now it's time to machine quilt it - any design you like! I tried a repeating loopy loop on this fabric. This was the first time I've quilting without a fabric on the bottom, but it turned out fine with this dense batting. It should end up looking like this:
fabric & batting open-faced sandwich
Trim the extra batting off the edges of all sides. Now we'll make the rounded corners. I took a drinking glass as a template and drew around it, then cut along the line I drew. Do this to all 4 corners of the cover and the silver lining fabric.
rounding the corners using a drinking glass
Next, I made my own bias tape for binding. Cut your fabric strips 2" wide and sew them together either using a diagonal seam or a straight across seam. I did straight across to save time. Press seams open. Press fabric in half length-wise with wrong sides together, like this:
If you need a better guide to making the bias tape, here's a good article from Suite101.com. Scroll down to "Joining the binding strips" and check out the pictures below it. Set the bias tape aside for a moment.
Lay the outside fabric face down on the table with the batting up, then put the silver fabric shiny side up on top of it. You can machine baste all this if you want, or you can omit that part.
Take your bias tape and fold one end of the tape in on itself 1/2" so you have a nice folded edge instead of a raw edge there. Starting with this folded end, pin the bias tape to the outer edges of the silver fabric. The raw edges of the tape should meet the outside raw edge of the sandwich, and the folded edge of the tape should face in. Tuck the corners so it lays nicely. Stitch using 1/4" seam.
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| All sandwiched & pinned |
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| Bias tape sewn in place |
Fold bias tape over to the outside of the fabric and pin in place, carefully rounding corners. Edge stitch.
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| Pinning the tape on the outside |
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| It should look like this. Kind of reminds me of a pot holder! |
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| Close up of corner. Don't look at my jagged loopies! |
Fold in half length-wise & pin along open edges. We're going to leave one short end and about 2" of the long edge open so you can slip the curling or flat iron inside like a sleeve. You may want to skip pinning that area so you don't forget (like I might). Now, sew right on top of the previous edge stitching from the opening all the way to the folded side of the cover. I backstitched a few times when beginning and ending just to give some extra reinforcement.
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| Don't forget to leave an opening! Mine is on the left-hand side. |
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| Extra close-up |
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| Here's what the opening should look like |
Voila! You're done. Here's the inspiration and the imitation. Not too shabby, eh? Like I said earlier, I'd make the next one a little wider (meaning 9" or 10" rather than 8"), but that's just what I had to work with at the time. It works great, but is a tad snug.
I hope this tutorial was clear enough and had suitable photos. Let me know if I can change it to make anything more clear! Also let me know if you try it and how yours turns out!
© E Thompson 2010
