Throwback Thursday--Sewing Machine Cover

In the summer of 2013, I received a surprise (and much appreciated) thank-you gift of a Tonga Treats Mini (40 charm squares) in Coastal from Timeless Treasures for participating in a quilt drive for victims of Hurricane Sandy the previous fall. I wanted to do something special with the fabric, and last October I settled on making a sewing machine cover. 

I sewed 36 charms in six rows of six and then layered the whole piece with some left over batting and a piece blue/navy print from my stash. I free-motion quilted it with meandering stitches on my Singer treadle machine using Superior King Tut cotton thread in papyrus. (This was my first FMQ project on the treadle machine--and my first FMQ project ever--other than little practice squares.) 

After quilting, I folded the piece in half wrong sides together with the fold at the top and stitched down each side. Then I turned it right sides in and sewed the seams again to make french seams. I hemmed the bottom edge, and topstitched it a couple of times.  

Next, I pinched triangles of fabric at the corners where the fold was to make the same kind of flaps that you see on the inside of a paper grocery bag, except I made them on the outside of the cover. I stitched across the widest part of each flap. I also pinched and topstitched around edges of the cover (where you would see the creases on a grocery bag) to give it a little more definition and strength. It's a little hard to explain all of this--I hope you can see what I did from the picture. 

To finish off the cover, I folded the flaps down over the sides, sewed ceramic buttons to secure them, and added one button as a decoration on the front. The buttons are part of a handmade collection that I bought from Sandra Lance last year. 

The completed cover measures approximately 18 1/2 inches wide, 7 inches deep and 9 inches high. I use it to keep the dust off my treadle machine when I want to leave it out during a long-term project. The cover also fits perfectly over my Singer Featherweight when the bed extension is down. Lately I'm thinking I might need to make a second cover, so they don't have to share. If I do, I might quilt the top to a piece of muslin and then put on a separate lining. That would reduce some bulky seams. I'll try to remember to take pictures as I go to show better how it is made. 

My sewing machine cover reminds me daily that it is important to make quilts that I can donate to give hope and comfort to others. 

I'm linking up today with Quiltin' Jenny for Throwback Thursday and to My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday.