Stitched Headphone Bag

My latest little project has been making a small headphone bag for travelling.  Because it's going to be tucked into luggage and overnight carrier bags it's main criteria was for it to be padded for protection of the headphones but small enough to be compact and not take up any unnecessary space.  My client (daughter) just asked for a 'quick and simple' bag that "uses up some scraps Mum" / "don't go to any trouble Mum / "leave it up to you Mum".  She knows me far too well now that when faced with a stitching or sewing challenge it's a great opportunity to use my creativity.  And this time was no different.  

I had in mind the shape and style and a little bit of 'googling' helped with the design and how to go about assembling the bag particularly since it was going to include a simple padded and quilted lining. 

The fun part was searching for appropriate and complimentary fabrics and notions from my stash and a lovely design to embroider on the front and back of the bag. I opted for a simple backstitch in an 8 ply DMC ecru Cotton Perle and used bright pink sequins attached with french knots. 

A strip of heavy cotton lace was attached to the upper front mid-section and secured with sequins and french knot centres.  Identically sized pieces were cut of the lining fabric and wadding and then simply quilted.  The two front sections were sewn to the pink zip with a slight extension to the end of the zip allowed for the side seams.  Because I didn't want an exposed seam inside the bag, the next bit was a little fiddly.  It involved sewing the quilted lining (right sides together) around the perimeter and then inverting through the zip opening. The outer fabric was then sewn (right sides together) with an opening left to invert which was then neatly slip-stitched.  Because the headphones have a width to them, I also squared off the both bottom corners of the lining and outer fabric before inverting to accommodate this width.  

As the headphone set also included a small adapter I sewed a small elasticised pocket on the lower inside lining for its safe keeping and easy accessability.

As it's the first time I've made something like this, I'm quite proud of my efforts and have learnt a couple of new skills.  Also learnt from some mistakes too....  I hope it does the trick.

Ros

'Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential'. - Sir Winston Churchill

Quilted Case Rules

On a whim a couple of weeks ago I decided to sew a quilted case for my quilting rulers to protect the corners from damage and the possibility of them being accidentally broken or cracked.  It occurred to me that it would be a great way to use up left-over fabric scraps in my stash (of which I have plenty) and a resourceful way to de-clutter.  Cleaning out the pillow-case of scraps brought back wonderful memories of garments that had been made for my daughter when she was very young and even some of my own clothes along with crafts from more recent years so this project really became a collection of memories.  

Firstly I measured a layout of the size and shape that would be needed onto brown paper and then set about blending and sewing the fabrics so the plain and floral colours would be evenly distributed. This was painstakingly done row by row and also in accordance with how much fabric was available for each colour.  The length of each strip in each row was staggered for a brick-like effect.  

But, of course, once the strips were sewn together, the embroiderer in me realised that it could do with a 'bit' of texture and interest here and there which, of course then led to perhaps a 'bit of bling' here and there which then led to filling each plain coloured fabric strip with some form of embroidery and/or beading or sequins.  I'll admit it, I confess ... I was obsessed ... but you see once I had started and could see how beautiful it was looking with just simple embroidery stitches ... alas, I could not stop.

By incorporating simple embroidery stitches of chain, stem, lazy daisy, star, straight, feather, blanket and french knots together with brightly coloured sequins, bugle, seed and pearl beads, it created an incredibly interesting work of art.  Because there was so much bright colour in the fabrics, I decided to only use white stranded cotton and thicker crochet cotton for contrast.  You can see by the above photograph that the edges of the strips were all of a slightly different length but would be neatly cut to the measured size as seen in the photograph below after it had been quilted with contrast fabric and wadding.  I decided to just quilt along the seam of the long strips and not the shorter seams of each strip as I felt this gave enough of an effect without becoming too tedious.

Once this stage had been reached, the blue binding was sewn and slip-stitched into place across the longer top edge before then folding the entire case into shape.

Once this was done blue binding was then sewn and slip stitched into place from the lower folded section through all thickness of front and back, around the overflap and back down the other side.

 A couple of press studs were then hand stitched on the flap and front of the case to ensure the rulers don't move and/or slip out.

This is the back closed view...

and this is the back open view.  After completion, I decided to carefully add a few more sequins on the red section and another backstitched star with seed bead on the black strip as they were on the front flap and 'front and centre' of the project.

I absolutely loved working on this project.  Who would have thought that left-over scraps of fabric, a little imagination and simple embroidery could create something so useful.

Ros

'The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph' - Marvin Phillips