Continuing with our theme for small projects to make for our future sales table or exhibition events, a needle case can be quite a useful thing. They can be made in many sizes and shapes with as few or as many inserts as you desire.
When making the red one above, I had a go at making a flat ended section of a Dresden Plate block combined with a Drunkards Path curved piece and improvised with small pieces of sashing and adding lots of buttons and charms to bring it to life, it also has a pocket on the inside and a wider spine that will hold a reel of cotton.
The grey case on the left is a simple oblong with curved edges.
The hexagon needle case on the right, is the one that I have included instructions for below. It is also a good opportunity for those who enjoy sewing by hand or for those who enjoy adding hand or machine embroidery embellishments to their work.
Requirements
– 2 fat quarters with contrasting fabrics
– 5″ x 10″ piece of felt in a complimentary colour
– 5″ x 10″ piece of wadding
– 4 Inch piece of elastic (or a hair band)
– Button
– Embroidery Floss for embellishment and embroidery needle (optional)
– Contrasting Cotton Machine Thread (if not using Embroidery Floss)
– Matching machine thread
– ¼ inch foot
– Pins
– Rotary Cutter and 6×12″ quilters ruler (although I used a hexagon template for this project at 4.5”)
– 4.5″ Hexagon template (if not making it using your quilters rule)
– 6” Ruler
– Washable marker pen
-Scissors
– Snippers
Method
Cut out two hexagons at 4.5”
If you are using a hexagon template that can be used for multiple sizes, cut your fabric into a strip 4.5” wide before you start to cut out.
Measure one side of your hexagon (mine was 2.5”) and cut out 2 x 60 degree triangles by 2.5″ (or to match whatever size hexagon you are making). It makes it easier if you blunt the corners of the triangles (I blunted the bottom two corners of my triangles after the photograph was taken).
Using a quarter of an inch seam, machine stitch the triangles to the hexagons along the long edge (right sides together)
Iron the seams over making sure the seams are ironed under the darkest side.
You will be pinning the 2 pieces right sides together, and if you blunted the points on your triangles the two pieces will fit perfectly together and the centre seam should match. If you sometimes have trouble matching to a perfect point, I used a 6” ruler to measure ¼” down and put a dot on the seam line.
Use these dots to match both sides ready for machine sewing by pushing a pin through the fabric, (through both dots.), right sides together.
Pin the rest of the hexagon sides together and sew down the whole seam at ¼” .
Iron your seams flat.
You will now use this front piece as a template.
Place the front of your needle case on top of your inside fabric and draw around it and cut out the inner piece, repeat this process for your wadding.
Then place the front of your needle case on top of your felt, draw around it. However, you will want the felt to be slightly smaller, so from the drawn line, draw another inside of it ¼” smaller, then cut out along this new line.
Putting right sides together, join the front fabric to the inner fabric using ¼” seam but leave a gap of 2 inches so that you can turn it the right way, (remembering also to put your piece of elastic in at the centre of what will be the back of the case), tucking it inside the layers. You will also add your wadding to the outside of one of these sides before stitching. I also stitched over the part where the elastic is a couple of times to ensure it was secure.
Cut the seam allowance down to avoid bulk, apart from where the opening is, and iron the fabric flat.
Hand sew the small opening closed.
Edge stitch around the needle case at 1/8” inch to help it to lie flat.
If you want to machine stitch some fancy stitching, now would be the time to do this, or if you are hand embroidering, you can do this as I did.
Add a button approximately 1 inch in, depending on the length of your elastic and the size of your button used.
Lay your felt on the inside and draw a line down the centre, stitch this line to fix the felt to the inside.
Copyright © 2021 Standish Quilters Website. Join us and explore quilting