Sewing Machine Cover

Near the end of last year, I really began to notice (and be bothered by) the amount of dust on the top of my sewing machine. I'm fairly good about cleaning out my machine between projects, but I hadn't paid much attention to the top or other areas of the machine that weren't directly involved with sewing.

As I was making a list of projects for this year, I decided it was time to make a sewing machine cover. My sewing machine is one of the most important things in my life and deserves to be treated with extra special care.

There were two guidelines for this project. First, it had to include selvedges, and second, it needed to include some of the new quilting designs that I have been practicing. I sketched out a few ideas to work out the design and figure out measurements, then got busy selecting fabric.

I wanted something fun, bright, and cheery. The main fabric is a Kona solid in coral. My daughter, Erica, chose the background fabric. The main body of the cover is divided into five long, narrow sections. One section is made from selvedges, and the other four will be mostly open space so that it can be filled with quilting.

To add a little pop, three circles that mimic the circles in the selvedges line up right across the front of the cover. It was a little bit of math and a little bit of guessing for where to place these. It all worked out just fine.

At first, I planned to put the numbers 1, 2, and 3 on the circles, but decided that a word would be better than numbers and what better word than "sew" could possibly exist for this project?

The circles and letters are fused to the main fabric, then sewn around using a straight stitch just inside the raw edge. The quilting includes straight lines, pebbles, and swirls.

The construction is completed in exactly the same way as a basic, lined tote, minus the handles. I used a fun owl print for the lining. Most of the time my sewing machine is in mid-project so the top is up and thread is on the spool. The cover sits up higher during those times.

For the times when I am between projects and the top of the machine is closed, I can turn a little cuff up on the bottom of the cover so that it still sits snugly on top of my machine and I can enjoy an extra bonus of owls around the base.

I enjoyed going outside my normal comfort zone, so much so that I'm thinking about putting together a tutorial for this project, or maybe even developing a pattern. For now, I'm just going to enjoy a cleaner sewing machine that calls to me every time I walk by....s-e-w!