How to Create a Simple Sunglasses Case with Patty Young

Hi, I'm Patty Young with the mod kit and today I'm going to show you a cool little project I did with my Baby Log Zeal machine, but you can do it with any machine you have at home. This is a padded

sunglasses

case

that has this. adorable herringbone pattern and it's so easy to sew so let me show you how I have all the supplies you'll need to make this project right here in front of me the first thing you'll need is pieces of fabric that's the beauty. of this project you can make everything with just small scraps, literally no piece is larger than 4 by 7 inches and you have all the dimensions in the class notes, so don't worry about writing them down right now, you will need three different ones. prints to achieve the herringbone pattern you see here you will need some small pieces of quilt batting, you will make a self-healing mat, a ruler, a rotary cutter, a marker, a rotary tool, you will definitely need an ironing board. and the iron setting as I have it here next to your machine, this is crucial because you will be going back and forth from sewing to ironing, from sewing to ironing and you will need a sewing machine, preferably with a foot width guide of one quarter inch, like What I love about this foot is that it has this little guide on the side that helps you achieve that perfect quarter inch seam allowance that you leave for this project, but if you don't have this foot, don't you worry. any standard presser foot will do, now is the fun part, let's start sewing, so the first step is to draw a vertical line down the center of the batting piece.

We know this piece of batting is four inches wide, so I'm going to take My ruler and place it at the two inch mark like this and we'll mark that center line. Don't worry if you don't have a fabric marker because this line will never show on your finished piece and it's very important to have. it's perfectly centered because this is where you're going to line up the points of your herringbone pattern so that all your little fabric pieces are lined up right against this center line, so now we're going to start sewing our herringbone pieces.

The first thing you're going to do is take one of your colored strips and line them up right sides together like this short side against the long side once you have your strips right sides together like this, it's time to sew your first seam and line it up. against that quarter-inch seam guide and sew the first set of stitches. I'm only using two and a half millimeters in length here and you don't need to backstitch at the beginning or end. Perfect, now you want to iron that seam, press that seam down. like this and line up the tip of your first herringbone piece with the center mark and the top point on the top of your batting piece, like this, this is the only pen you will need for this project because after this step Everything will be practically sewn together , so you won't need a pin, but I like to put one here so it doesn't move, so the next step is to take the next color and line it up against the length.

Right sides together like this and then we're going to do our quarter inch seam here. This is a quote while you sew projects, so everything will be quilted directly on the batting, so let's take this to the machine and do our quarter inch seam making sure that that point is perfectly aligned with the line that you marked sometimes my batting gets stuck there we go again no need to re-stitch here beautiful it's already starting to show that herringbone pattern we can get rid of that pin for now and press this down directly onto the batting and then the next piece goes on exactly like we did the first piece, the short side against the long side like this, with the right sides together and then we're going to do our seam. on this side, so we'll put it in the sewing machine like this.

I love when it starts to look like a fishbone. Look how beautiful, then you can take your last color. We're going to be this is a very repetitive process, but. Now you'll see why you need your ironing board right next to your machine, because otherwise you'll be standing and walking around your room like I did the first time before I got smart. Now let's align it. just like we did before and start the process again, long side to long side, right sides together, take it to the machine, line it up against that quarter inch guide, make sure those points are lined up, go dad, stay stuck again, beautiful, press it. down line up your next piece, short side against long side, right sides together and we're going to bring it down here and so our quarter inch seam allowance here we go, we're going to press it down so that once you have the pattern down for the first three strips, everything else is let's join it, you guys already have it down, it's the exact same step, let's fold the way down and it's very repetitive, but it's super fun to do and you guys, this is Club Havana, this is my new fabric collection for Riley Blake and it is not. it's fun flowers, pinecones, dots, so let's start with the rest of this project so we can finish it and then I can show you how to finish the

sunglasses

case

and in no time you will have your completed herringbone pattern on the front of the sunglasses case. your sunglasses, so now the next step is to just square it up, we're going to turn it over and trim all the ends of the little strips of fabric.

I'm going to use my ruler here to get a nice straight edge because sometimes the batting tends to stretch a little bit when you're sewing, so I want to make sure those edges are nice and straight, here we go. I can see it's a little stretched here in the corner, so that's okay. We're going to make it nice and straight and the last side perfect, so now that you see what the front of your sunglasses case is going to look like, now it's time to quilt the back and then build everything up. It will be super easy to do now that If you have the front piece squared away, you won't need it for a while, so it's okay to set it aside and now we're going to work on the back piece, so let's bring in your second piece of batting and your piece backup.

I'm going to layer them like this and quilt them however I want, so what I did on mine is, since I have this nice geometric pattern on the back of my fabric, I'm just using the center of this geometric pattern to line some up. Very

simple

quilting lines, very modern, but that's the style of this case, but if you want something a little more traditional, you can do a different quilting method, you can do a meandering path, you do whatever you want, so you just want make the back look nice. and quilting, so if you were using the quarter inch foot width guide like I did for piecing, now it's time to go back to your standard presser foot for quilting, this is what I've done here, like this I'm going to make my diagonal.

Quilting here, I'm just lining it up against the center of this geometric pattern, that's the beauty of these geometric patterns because you don't really have to measure anything, it's already measured for you so you see it easy. You probably have. I noticed that I'm not breaking my stitches at the end of each line. I'm just walking along the edge. I'm sewing very, very close, like not even sixteenths of an inch from the edge and this helps keep the piece anchored and also prevents it from distorting, so your pizza will now be completely cushioned and ready to put on the front if you have a sewing business and have some kind of label or something you like to add to your pieces.

It's the right time to add it here because the seams will be hidden inside the lining so the next step you want to do is to put the front and back right sides together like this if you want to pin them or hold them down so they don't move you can do that. I've gotten to the point where I don't really place or cut anything because these pieces don't really move much and we're going to sew a quarter inch along the edge. leaving the top open, so you want to make sure you do this right where the top point of your herringbone is at the opening, not the other way around, I mean, unless you prefer it the other way around, but that's how it works as a herringbone of fish. so ladies put the right sides together and we're going to sew it along the edges so I don't have to use my quarter inch wide guide foot again.

I'm going to sew this step with my regular presser foot, but I have this. nice quarter inch mark on the bobbin case cover and I'm going to line up the edge of my sunglasses case with that mark right there, turn in the corners like I always did, turn again making sure your edges are nice and aligned. I backstitch at the end to make sure my stitches are secure and the next thing I do is trim those corners so that when you turn them right side out there won't be a lot of bulk in the corners, so let's trim them as close to the corner as possible. seam without trimming the perfect seam and now we just turn this right side out.

I like to use a turning tool like that, I should add that this is the biggest turning tool I designed for a Riley Blake and it's great because I can hold the edge like this and pull it out perfect and then I can insert it back in and push those corners in outside so that they are nice and square. The next step is quite easy. To construct the lining just like we did before taking the last two pieces of fabric, lay them out right sides together and we're going to sew along the outside edge with that quarter inch seam allowance except on one side on each side he will leave. about a two to three inch opening because that's where we're going to turn it, we can't turn it from the top because we're going to sew it along the top later so we need an opening to turn it so sew it with the allowance quarter inch seam along three sides, trim the corners, leave it wrong side out like this and then I'll show you how to put it all together.

Stitch again at the beginning and at the end so that it reinforces the Opening and this is where I'm going to leave my space, so I'm going to sew a couple of stitches back and forth and then cut the thread. This does not have to be an exact measurement. Just eyeball it, so I'm thinking two. two and a half inches of a space right there that is about right and then continue sewing and then you can sew all the way to the top, remembering to leave the top edge open and remember to also topstitch right at this opening because otherwise those stitches might come undone. and topstitch the top so that this is your lining.

I'm going to trim the corners inside the seam allowance, we're going to leave this piece wrong side out and insert the outside piece in so they're essentially right sides together once they're on. When fully in use, use your fingers to push it all the way in until the openings are aligned at the top. Sometimes it may be easier to flatten the outer piece like this, bend it. I also like to trim the tails of my threads this step because I don't want them to get stuck in the next step, so I'm almost there, let's see, I have so many tails of thread, let's trim this, but it looks nice and clean, there come on. to trim these two and this one here we go so that my outside edges are lined up on the opening here and you also want to line up those side seams so that my side seam is right here when I line it with the side seam on the outside piece and then I make sure that that the other one is lined up as well and I use my fingers to press them open and here's a little trick on the easiest way to sew this opening, you don't want to sew it since it's very small because Literally, this has about a three inch opening, you're not going to be able to put it on the machine this way, so I like to sew it from the inside like this, so essentially what I'm going to do is put my presser foot right on top of it. the seam press it down with my presser foot, we'll sew it with a quarter inch seam allowance just like that and rotate it, make sure to keep your fingers out of the way too and that way it's easier to place it here without a lot of maneuvering, so let's topstitch that edge at the beginning.

I also like to sew this step very slowly because I want to make sure the seam is perfectly straight and I also don't want to sew over my fingers and when you have your fingers so close to your project like this, it's very easy to do, trust me, so just do it. Slow and steady, rotating your piece carefully once you approach the second side seam, use your fingers to tidy up. to open them like this, there we go and another reason to sew slowly in this step is that you don't want to catch the other side of the piece while you sew, so you have to use one hand to push it out. of the way and this hand to hold the other end in place and you want to lift the presser foot back beautiful yeah, we're almost done, we're approaching the other end where we start sewing once they overlap, then you can sew again a few times just to make sure that the seam is nice and reinforced so I got to the beginning of my stitches and I'm just going to overlap them about a half inch and then I'm going to sew back really nice and this seam is finished again I like to clean up all the tailsof my threads just to make sure nothing gets stuck in there.

Wonderful, so we're going to use the opening of our liner to turn the entire case outwards, so at this point I just like to use my fingers to grab the inside of the case and pull it through the opening like this, it pulls very easily and at this point we're going to look at the lining and the outer piece like this, so what? What I like to do is clean out all of my thread tails as well because I don't want them to get stuck in the seam for the next step and in fact, this looks pretty neat, there's not a little cut from a wonderful day, so we have our lining on our outer piece and the next step is to just close this opening, so if you're really picky you can come here and do some little stitches to hand, but to tell the truth, no one will see the lining.

I'll show you one of my finished ones, your sunglasses will go there, the seams are completely tucked in there, no one will ever see them, so what I do is I just bring them in and press the seam allowance inward with my finger, like this. about a quarter of an inch and I take it to the sewing machine and I just sew it very close to the edge about a sixteenth of an inch and it will end up nicely like this, you won't have an opening anymore, so I'm very close to the edge so that it will be closed without too much sewing, there it is, so now we're going to trim the tails of my thread as you can see.

I just saw it about 1/16 inch from the edge and no one will see these dots, it's just one of my many wonderful time saving measures, so now all we have to do is insert the liner back into the main case of sunglasses, that's how I like to wear them. Use the same turning tool you used before or you can simply use a household toothpick. This is one of my favorite tools. I keep several of these in my sewing room. I use the blunt and to fill the liner completely. until I feel like it's all the way to the end, it's very easy and then once I know the lining is all the way to the end, I use the pointer and make sure the corners of the lining are completely tucked into the corners of the outer piece which you can feel around to make sure your toothpick touches that corner, there it is, so if you want you can sew this edge, but I find that there are some with so many thicknesses because you're sewing, oh my gosh, four. layers of fabric four layers of batting.

I mean, you're sewing a lot, so sometimes I find that the seam doesn't end up being as straight as I'd like, so what I do is I just use my fingers to make sure the edge is perfectly aligned and then I just press it down. and I leave it like that so you get a nice clean finish on the top of your sunglasses case. It's beautiful, so we're done. It's cute, it's adorable, and as you saw, this project is so quick and easy that you can knock out a bunch in one afternoon. You can use some for teacher gifts, stocking stuffers, whatever you want, so my work here is done and for more. inspiring projects like this, check out the other videos on this side, you might even find something of mine.