Tuesday, December 18, 2007

More about that sewing...

So, here is a picture of the outside of my DPN case:
DPN case!


I love the combination of brown and blue, and I like the blue paisley with both the other lgither blue and the brown. I *love* the blue stitching on brown fabric. True, it's much easier to see my mistakes that way, but I like to think it adds to the handmade quality. =]

Here is a view of the inside:
DPN case inside shots

You can see four of my five sets of DPNs in there. (My 7s are currently stuck in the still-in-progress not-touched-for-a-month second garter mug cozy.) I know I don't really have enough DPNs to warrant a case, but I somehow still manage to lose whichever one I need.

The case is almost but not quite done. I have two more seams to sew to connect the back paisley bit to the blue and brown pocket bit, and I have some iron ons to iron on. I hate wasting something as expensive as iron on material, so when I made my iron ons for my circular case, I made a bunch to use for these. For a while I debated not putting them on this case so I wouldn't feel bad if I end up with, say, two size seven needles, or the like, but I think I'd like the case better with them. I'll probably iron them on horizontally on the blue fabric.

Speaking of my circular case...here are two pictures of that!
Circular needle case
And a close up...
Circular Needle Case
I am so proud of myself for both of them.

Though the circular case was almost exactly based off of the one in the back of Stitch n Bitch, the DNP case is my own design.

I couldn't find any measurements for pocket width of dpn cases, so I'll share what I did for mine!

I'm assuming that I'm going to store needles sizes 0-10, and then there are three larger pockets, either for more large needles or for other accessories. The largest pocket holds my metal gauge ruler.

To make the DPN case:
  1. I cut two pieces of the light blue fabric 22" long (as long as half the width) and 9" wide (because the tallest dpns I saw were 8.") I did the whole sew right sides together / turn inside out / iron thing.
  2. For the pockets, I cut four diagonal pieces of brown fabric. The diagonal goes from 2.5" on the short side to 4" on the taller side. I did the whole sew right sides together / turn inside out / iron thing for both of those, and I added a decorative zigzag stitch on the edge. Because I can.
  3. I sewed the brown pocket on the light blue fabric with the following pocket divisions:
    1. 1 small edge pocket, <1">
    2. 5 pockets 1" wide (for needle sizes 1-5)
    3. 4 pockets 1.5" wide (for needle sizes 6-9)
    4. 3 pockets 2" wide (for needle sizes 10+)
    5. 1 pocket ~2.5" wide (for accessories)
  4. After sewing the brown pocket to the blue fabric, I sewed the brown top flap to the blue fabric. Since I was going to attatch all the brown/blue stuff to the blue paisley, I didn't worry about the 'back' of the blue looking neat. The flap was cut on the same diagonal as the pocket, and it was sewn in with the longer part of the flap covering the needles with the shortest pockets.
  5. I cut out two pieces of blue paisley fabric and did the whole rs tog/stitch/flip/iron thing again. If I trusted my hemming abilities, I could've just cut this piece large and hemmed the sides. (Is that the right word?)
  6. I cut out 1 piece of brown fabric 4" wide and 44" long (aka, 4" wide on the 22" bolt, not cutting at the fold). I pressed this piece so that both sides of the long part were folded under, and I sewed (with a decorative zig zag stitch) the sides of the brown fabric down. This means I now had one piece of 44" long ~2" wide 'belt'.
  7. I sewed the belt to the back of the blue paisley. If I was a better sewer, I could've combined steps 6 & 7 to make the stitching nicer. As it is, I've decided it adds 'charm'.
  8. Last but not least, sew the blue paisley bit to the blue/brown pocket bit. Poof, you're done!
I know that wasn't much of a tutorial, what with no pictures or technical information, but since this is the second thing I've ever sewn, I'm pretty okay with the fact. Next up is sewing a tote (or two or three...) from the back of S 'n B.

As an early christmas present to myself (or, more accurately, an 'I have a 25% off B&N coupon to use up today' purchase) I bought Bend the Rules Sewing. Though most people tend to gravitate toward the bag on the cover, I have a MAJOR crush on the 'pleated beauty bag', and I happen to think I might have just enough brown and paisley to make one. I hope so! I know it's kind of silly to be all matchy matchy about my fabrics, but I love this fabric and color combination so much I see no reason not to...for now at least. Besides, this way if the bag turns out not-fit-for-pursedom, it can be a knitting bag, and it can match my other knitting accessories!


Allright, that's enough for now. If you're still bored, I updated my Ravelry projects page, so if you're on Ravelry, you can poke around there. Tata!

No comments: