Patchwork Sewing Machine Cover

Hello all. I've been a busy girly recently, so apologies for not posting this sooner.

I've just got back from a long weekend away in the Windsor and Oxford area. My Husband and I have National Trust memberships so we went to visit Cliveden House and had a lovely lunch there. We also visited Waddesdon Manor and Blenheim Palace which were both lovely and had a mooch around Oxford town centre on Sunday when it rained. It was a lovely relaxing weekend and got back this afternoon.

Before we left I finally finished my patchwork project ...  a sewing machine cover.

My new sewing machine did not come with any sort of cover and it collects dust sitting in our office. I wanted to use up some of my scrap fabric, so the idea was to create a patchwork cover.

I used this tutorial for information about how to cut out patchwork squares and this tutorial which guides you through constructing a sewing machine cover using measurements from your own machine. I took measurements of my sewing machine and worked out how many patches I would need to create panels for the net of the cover. In all I needed 62 red and 62 blue.

The actual cutting of the squares I did in a whole afternoon and then piecing together each patchwork square was done in stages during free evenings.

This week I spent my time sewing together the panels. I firstly sewed the squares into strips and then sewed the strips together to create the required size panel. I then followed the tutorial to construct the cover, basically sewing all the sides together like the net of a cuboid (maths teacher much?).

The only problem was that it was too big!! As I was constructing the cover, I used my sewing machine to test the fit. It was too long and far too wide - there were two extra patchwork squares in the depth of the cover. I did some unpicking and got the correct size, so it now fits perfectly!

The inside is lined in red 1/4 inch gingham, which I constructed using measurements from the outer patchwork cover. The edges are finished using red bias tape from my stash which I bought on my trip to Walthamstow. I really like the finish the bias tape gives but it was all sorts of fiddly to do. I had to look online for a tutorial on how to do corners (I found one on YouTube) but still didn't get 100% complete success. I would definitely use it again though, as I did get better with practise.

So there you go, a completed patchwork sewing machine cover!

I'm still enjoying the school summer holidays and I've got another project lined up to start tomorrow which will probably take me up to the weekend. I'm not planning any trips outside so it's a good thing the weather hasn't been good and isn't likely to improve, according to the met office.

What's everyone up to in this rainy summer weather?