YTread Logo
YTread Logo

Make a Sewing Machine Pad with Jenny

Apr 09, 2020
Hello everyone, I'm Jenny from MSQC. And first of all I want to wish you a Merry Christmas! I hope you are having a wonderful day. We've done a lot of projects this year and most of the things quilters do, we do for others. So today I thought I'd fill your buckets a little and

make

a project just for you. When people come to retreats at our retreat center, I often admire the pads they have under their

sewing

machine

s with pockets to store their things. I think they are a great idea. So I came up with an easy way to

make

one so you can do something for yourself today.
make a sewing machine pad with jenny
So let me show you how to do it. Here it is, right here. And it's basically just a long piece of fabric. We folded a pocket in the front, tied everything and that's it. So to make this project, what you will need is two half-yard cuts of contrasting fabric. And I used Vintage Made Modern by Amy Barickman for RJR. And it's really fun because it's all these notions of

sewing

and things like that. It's really fun. And I thought it was perfect for a little pad under my sewing

machine

. And you need half a yard of each of them.
make a sewing machine pad with jenny

More Interesting Facts About,

make a sewing machine pad with jenny...

You will also need half a yard of batting. I also used this Steam a Seam for my binding and I can't wait to show you how it works because it's like a little gift. We love that one. So the first thing you will do about this is measure your sewing machine. You will need to know how wide you want this. And I, I, told them that I used half a yard because, as I measured my sewing machine, that was about what I needed. But be sure to measure your machine to know what width you want it and then purchase the corresponding amount of fabric.
make a sewing machine pad with jenny
So mine is a half yard and then what I did was I took my two half yard cuts and put them together with my batting in the middle. Basically, I'm opening this up completely. I'm putting this wrong side. Putting my batting in the middle, like this. and then I put my corresponding fabric on top. And then I'm going to go to my sewing machine and I'm just going to quilt it in a straight line. So I'm going to quilt everything, you know, for a long time. And the reason I did this, honestly, is because I'm not a pattern writer.
make a sewing machine pad with jenny
So I shoot from the hip and see what works for me. And that's how it worked. So I made my half yard cuts. I went ahead and just sewed lines of stitches on them. Now, if you look closely at my stitch lines here, you can see that they are not uniform, they are not perfectly straight. None of that will really matter. Because what we're going to do, once we have a piece like this, you're going to trim it down to the size you want. And mine is cropped, and it looks like I need to trim this edge here, so let me go ahead and trim it.
So I'm going to cut here where my batting excels. Because you want a nice, clean edge. And then I'm going to continue like this. And I still don't know how long I need this to last. And I'll show you, I'll show you how I do it. This is really a lesson in how my brain works. Now I have this here. We'll make sure it's straight. It looks pretty good. And then I'm going to turn it inside out to make a pocket. Now I'm going to look at my back. Sometimes your back wrinkles a little like that when you machine quilt it.
So I'm going to look at both ends to see what my best option is for doing this. And I think this will be it because this is the ending that I want to fold and make it into my pocket. So the first thing I'm going to do is straighten this edge and sew on some piping here. Let me make sure this is nice and clear. It looks like it has a little curve. Here we go. Okay, now I'm going to put a piece of binding here. And I have, I'm going to use this same gray because I'm going to fold the pocket.
The blue will show through and this will give it some contrast. So I'm going to sew this piece right over here, like this. Let's go to the sewing machine and do that. So what I'm doing here is just sewing down a quarter inch adding my 2 ½ inch binding strip to the end. Again, I'm using the same fabric, but when it is curved the other way it will have a contrasting look that we will love. Alright, that little piece of binding is on. And now let's move on to iron. And I'm going to move these things right here.
All my little pile of goodies. And we're going to use some of this Steam A Seam. Now I don't know if you've ever used this, but I love it. This is amazing. It is a small row of double-sided fusible tape. You're going to put it here like this and you're going to iron it. Two rolls come in a package. And we're going to iron this right here like this. And, oh, he just keeps it really tight. And if so, I use it for binding all the time. It keeps the tie down so you don't have to hold it with your fingers.
I cut it out. And now you only find the piece of paper, the edge of the paper. And you are going to achieve it. Just take it out like this. And now you have this amazing little piece of fuse so you can iron it onto your fabric and it will stay. So now I'm going to turn my binding here to the front. And I'm just going to fold the binding over so it covers the stitch line and press it down. And this, in fact, you can wash it a couple of times. Although I think if I were going to wash my quilt a lot, I would probably tend to machine sew it.
But it has really amazing staying power. So if you need a quilt, tie it up quickly. I mean this is a great thing to use. So now I just fixed this here. I'm going to let it cool for a while. Trim these small threads. And my binding is done. We're not even, you know, we're probably not going to wash a sewing machine pad much, so this is going to stay here really, super nice. It's pretty amazing. I love this Steam a Seam. So, what we are going to do is for you to decide to what extent you want to have your pocket.
So one of the fun things about making a pattern for your sewing machine is that it will be completely personalized to you. Let's fold this. I decided I wanted mine to be about six inches deep. And then I folded mine just to see. I'll put a little ruler on it to see how close I get it here. I'm 5 ¾ pretty good. There are six around here. Six here. Here we go. So I'm going to put a pin right there, like this. And then I'm going to make some decisions about pockets. Now I always lose my scissors. So here's my, you know, I'm always running around trying to find my scissors.
So I decided I wanted a three inch pocket here. You have to remember that you have a seam allowance here and put in a pocket. So I have a pocket sewn here. And I, you can see, I reached one of the seams of my, of my quilting. And it's actually four inches from the edge. And then my scissors fit in there. And when that hangs in front of my sewing machine, because your sewing machine is going to sit like that. And this is going to hang, the pocket is going to hang in your lap so you can put your seam ripper, everything you need there, in front of you, is there for you to use.
Therefore, you must decide the width you want for your pockets. I left this other piece open because I don't, you know, when you have little pockets in there, it's hard to get your hands in. And you can make a thin one for a pen and the pen would stay on top. But you know I'm always, I'm, I'm kind of a messy creator, so I have to throw all that stuff in there. So now what you're going to do is measure how long you want it. And then, how long do you want it? And this again depends on the height of your table, the width of your sewing machine, where your sewing machine sits on the table.
So this one looks like it probably needs it a little bit more than this, so I'm going to trim this amount, about this amount. And I'll measure it to make sure I get the same thing on all sides. So it's about four inches. So I'm going to come over here and trim this off about four inches. Just like this. And that's one of the things I love about this is that it's completely custom. Now I have four inches. And now the only thing left to do is once you have the pockets in and you cut it to size, now you're going to put it together, everything.
And you're going to use Steam a Seam and it will be very fast. So yeah, oops, I already lost my scissors. Oh, they're in this pocket. Alright, so what I do to start this binding because normally we start the binding in the middle of a row so we can finish it nice, but we have edges here. We're not going to get to the bottom of it. So what I'm going to do is I already have the binding strip cut. It is a 2 ½ inch strip. I have sewn two of them together. I'm going to fold this little edge right here.
And I'm just going to fold it like this, about a quarter of an inch to give it a finished edge. And then I'm going to start binding right along the edge here. And then I'm going to be able to convert this. This, once you start this, will also close the pocket so we don't even have to sew it. So we'll start along this edge, line it up at the bottom, and sew it down. Alright again, I'm almost to the bottom, so I'm going to cut this off about half an inch longer. Cut it right away. And then I'm going to fold that final little piece.
Press it with your fingers and position it so that it is the same length as the side of my mat. Make sure you put it there. And I'm going to topstitch this one a little bit. Now let's add our Steam to Seam here. And we'll be able to just press that. And thus, our whole matter will be finished. So you have this little notebook. And let me show you how they work because they are quite useful. You're just going to grab your sewing machine like this. You're going to slide your mat underneath like this. And then you have this pocket hanging in front of you that can hold all the things you need.
You can, again, I love that you can customize this and make it your own. I saw one that had a pin cushion, a square pin cushion, and a little piece of Velcro to attach it to the rug. Another where the pincushion was shaped like a roll. There are so many great ideas out there. As quilters we do many things to help other people. And we hope this fills your bucket a little. And we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the MSQC sewing machine mat.

If you have any copyright issue, please Contact