Friday 24 January 2014

Little Fox Sewing Machine Cover and Pouch

This is my last post about the handmade items I made for Kelsey from Everyday Fray as part of our skills swap.  The thing that Kelsey was really keen to get was a sewing machine cover, and since I had so much fun making this one as part of the Sew Sew Modern swap, I was more than happy to oblige.

Lil Fox sewing machine cover and pouch 

For the shape of the cover, I used this pattern, which I already had.  Kelsey's sewing machine is a Janome which is set into her sewing table, so I had to tweak the shape a bit to fit.  Drafting the new shape and calculating the size of each panel was actually quite fun (yes, I'm a nerd!).  You can see how long and low it is in the picture below (cat for scale).  The little paper pieced foxes (made using this pattern) are really cute and were fun to stitch up.

I know Kelsey is as much a fan of linen as I am, so I decided to use some Essex yarn dyed linen in steel  as the background for both the sewing machine cover and the matching pouch.  I quilted the exterior of both pieces quite heavily, the sewing machine cover with swirls, and the pouch with echo quilting around the fox. I love the texture of this kind of heavy quilting, but I have to admit that it did make assembling the cover and the pouch a little bit challenging.

Sewing machine cover - cat for scale 

For the pouch, I used my old standby, the open wide pouch from noodlehead. For the back of the pouch, I traced around a "K" with a water soluble pen, and then echo stitched around it.  Once the marking was removed, it left a raised initial which I think is quite cool (and maybe a little bit more subtle than appliqué, for example).

Lil Fox Pouch - back

So that's what I made - it was a lot of fun and I'm really pleased with how these items turned out.  I'm even more pleased that Kelsey likes them (check out her lovely post here, not least because I took these photos at about 7am when the light was less than ideal and her pictures are much better!).

Have you ever done a skills swap?  This was my first one and I'm thrilled with how it went.

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8 comments:

RobotMomSews said...

OMG!! Those foxes turned out so cute! Beyond cute! Incredible!! Love it! She is one lucky partner for sure!

Erica said...

These are adorable. Next time I participate in a swap I hope you are my partner!

Suze said...

The fox says you are incredible. You are gal after my heart. I adore your quilting. I'm stil intimidated by FMQ and one of my goals for this year is to practice and have fun with it. Also, I've been looking for a very reasonably priced fox pattern to make something for my grandsons - they love the song - What does the fox say? I know Kelsey also says she is thrilled. Thanks for sharing.

Kirsten said...

Love the foxy sewing machine cover and the pouch is so cute too - especially the "K" !

Lucy | Charm About You said...

Lucky Kelsey! The foxes are so sweet and your quilting is just brilliant! The initial looks so cool!

Leanne said...

Everything you sent is wonderful, thoughtful and with lovely details. You are a great swapper.

Lou said...

Super cute foxes, I love them! And I'm going to have to steal the quilted Initial idea from the pouch, the subtlety is ace....

Renee said...

oh my goodness these are cute! I love the quilting--it adds a great texture and detail to both!