(Sewing) Class Roll

I've been looking for excuses to use Vilene S320, so I invented something. It's a sewing tool roll to hold the essentials for a craft class, "car craft" or indeed "lunch-meeting craft" (as I was seen to be doing on Tuesday.... talk about multi-tasking...!).

Here's a quick how-to...

1. These are the dimensions that I used - but you could vary them according to the size tools you're likely to carry. From the centre fold I measured out 11cm and drew a vertical line. Then I measured out another 15cm. From the bottom edge I measured up 8cm and I made the overall height 18cm.

2. Make your pattern and cut a curve between the 8cm mark and the top of the side section. (You can draw it freehand, trace around the side of a plate or make a straight line instead of a curve).


3. Block fuse some Vilene S320 to both the outer and lining fabrics and cut them out with the pattern. I find a small rotary cutter ("the sports blade") does the job beautifully.

(You might also notice that my preferred pattern weight is a piece of old railway line, but feel free to use the tools of your own choice!)

4. Cut a 20 x 16 cm piece of H640 wadding and fuse it to the back of the outside piece, centred horizintally and vertically. The seam allowances should be clear of wadding.


5. Cut a 6cm square of felt and a 21cm piece of 20mm wide elastic.

6. Stitch the felt to the lining piece with a single row of machine or hand stitches. Centre the elastic about 5-7 cm from the bottom edge.

7. Turn the ends of the elastic under and stitch it securely (reversing the full width of the elastic and back-tacking securely). Stitch 3 divisions - spaced 1.5cm apart - from each end of the elastic.

8. With right sides of fabric facing, stitch the two pieces together all around the outside edge using a 6-7mm (quarter inch) seam allowance - leaving a 10cm (4") gap in the bottom edge.

9. Clip the seam allowances away from each corner. Use pinking shears to trim around the curved edges. If you don't have pinking shears, you can either clip lots of tiny triangles out of the curves (or understitch/backstitch the lining side, if you know how to do do that... it's all explained in my patterns...).

10. Press the straight seam allowances open, including those at the gap in the bottom seam.

11. Turn the whole thing through to the right side out - taking particular care to turn the corners through sharply - and press it very flat.

12. At the opening in the base seam, take particular care to turn the seam allowances straight and flush with the rest of the seam. It's a good idea to slipstitch (ladder stitch) them together.

13. Topstitch a few millimetres from the top edge - from one curved edge, across the straight centre section and over the other curve.

14. Fold one edge over (creasing at the point where the curve ends) and press it flat.

15. Topstitch the edge in place through all layers of fabric.

16. Lay a piece of ribbon across the back of the wrap and fold the other edge over. Line up the ribbon so that it's level with the top of the folded-over area in the middle.

17. Stitch the folded edge down - through all layers of fabric and the ribbon. Stitch all the layers together along the bottom edge.

Fill it up with all the bits you're likely to need if you're crafting away from home and tri-fold it. Tie it up and off you go....

If you want to try this and need some Vilene S320, don't forget that it's on sale in the shop until this Friday (6th March 2010)... it's right here.