Ok, so MY SEWING TIME is after the kidlets go to bed. tonight, it started at 8pm.
I can dream all day, and plan out a million things, and maybe even cut stuff out, but I can’t turn on the machines unless everyone is asleep.
That means that I need to GET STUFF DONE, quickly, and with things I have onhand. I read blogs on my phone while I wait in the hallway for the Bean to fall asleep, and I saw this awesome needle book (although, according to TipNut‘s tutorial list, I think it might technically be a needle case, not book. semantics) and immediately put all other plans on hold to make one. but then, as I was about to cut, I came up with all these things I’d change, so I made up my own, entirely.
But then I didn’t have the right size zipper.
so I faked it. and as I did that, I thought, maybe someone else might have the same problem, so here’s what you do:
See: the yellow zipper is too short to go across the blue fabric. (It’s the leftover from a chain zipper, I love love love chain zippers, but sometimes, all you have left is 4″, and it’s hard to use!). if i’d had more blue fabric, I would have used it, but I had the gingham, which is lining… so I used the scraps to sew the ends of the zipper shut to the gingham.(you can sorta see the cream colored stitches in this first shot, about 1/4″ from the ends of the yellow zipper)
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| (sew scraps to ends of zipper, right side of fabric to wrong side of zipper) |
Try to give yourself at LEAST a 1/4″ of fabric on each side of the zipper, so you can fold it. and maybe 2″ of lengthening….
Then you iron.
first, Iron the scraps away from the zipper, like this:
then fold over and iron all 3 other sides of the scraps (like on the right side, below). the left side is done here.
then, (look at the right side of this pic) fold over again, so it looks like the left side, and all the raw edges are tucked in, and sew (or baste) all the way around. (well, you don’t have to do the folded side, but to the other 3 sides)
then sew the zipper in to the bag, acting like it’s just a regular zipper (I did try to center it). when I was trimming the fabric before I turned the bag right side out, I also trimmed down the gingham zipper extenders, so there’s not too much bulk in the corners.
and here’s the slightly blurry photo of the finished product… a nicely fitting zipper.
and the perfect needle case for me. exterior pocket, for pattern notes, or embroidery bobbins; zipper pocket for thimble, snips, and a skein of floss or two; and on the other side, a snapping needle book, with wool to hold the pins…
