You’ve heard me say it a million times around Man Sewing, having the perfect tool for the
job is key and taking care of those perfect tools is super important as well. So today
I’ve got a fantastic tutorial to make your very own sewing machine cover that’s a custom
fit. Let’s get started.
That’s right, I’m super excited to walk you through how I made a custom fit cover
for my Baby Lock Jane. And check it out, I even fooled the camera man this morning. He
thought it was a professionally made cover because it fits so well . And the reason it
fits so well is I actually started by measuring my machine and creating a printable so that
you can follow along. So please, before we get started just bounce into the description.
Print out your printable so you know what I’m talking about and you can follow along
as we get ready to start to measure our machine and prepare to use the chalk cloth which is
a great supply for this. Now the reason I used the chalk cloth is I wanted to have a
non porous material, something that wouldn’t let the dust inside the machine. It’s a
cover. My machine is always set up at home so I can just come right over, take that off
and get back to sewing. I forgot to point out while the cover is on, I even left a little
bit of extra room so my power cords were still connected. So it’s a very convenient cover.
If you’ll stick with me to the end of the video today, I’ll show you if you want to
put a handle hole in the top we can do that and even some really cool chalk pen markings
on the chalk cloth which is the other reason I chose this because you can draw all over
this stuff, it’s great. But let’s get back to those measurements. We’ve got a
little bit of work to do still today. I want you to measure your machine. This is a Baby
Lock Jane so if you’re using a Jane or a Juki or any of these kind of single, straight
stitch needles you can just follow my math. But if you’re not then what you’re going
to do if you’re going to measure your machine. Kind of use your finger to secure and get
a good grip and see what your number is. So I’m coming right down here. So this would
be a 17 inch machine on that measure there. And so therefore on the printable it says,
add one inch. And it’s only one inch. It’s not an inch to both sides. So if it was a
17 inch machine now my length is going to be 18 inches. And you’re going to want to
measure your length, your height and the width of the machine to prepare your panels. And
you’re going to build a total of five pieces to make the entire cover. So if you’re building
for like a Jane or a Juki or a Brother or some kind of machine like that that’s a
single stitch machine, my front and my back, my large pieces following my notes here were
17 ½ by 14 ½, ok? Now my side pieces that go up the sides here, those are 14 ½ by eight.
And then the top piece that comes in a long the top is going to be eight by 17 ½ . And
so there are all one, two, three, four, and five pieces and that’s all we need to build
the entire cover.
Now let’s go ahead and build the strip that goes all the way around first by joining that
top piece to their sides. We’re going to go right sides together right over here. And
at my sewing machine today I do have polyester thread in the top and in the bobbin. I did
that for structure and strength, polyester is a little bit stronger than cotton. But
I’m still just using a standard quarter inch seam allowance and my edge guide here.
My math was set to that number so that’s why I’m pointing it out that I had added
the seam allowance appropriately there. So we’re just going to stitch through that
side there. And then I’m going to bring over my other side onto my top piece here.
And this chalk cloth sounds really nice or sews really nice. My sharps size 80 needle
is a great choice for that as well, ok? Now I have my side, top, sides, ok?
Now the next thing we’re going to do and make sure because these were slight rectangles,
that you have everything in the proper orientation. We’re going to sew this piece on. We’re
going to go down, around and back up. So as I set it here I’m right sides together.
And now as I come to the machine I’m going to point out and I’m going to remember because
it’s really important for the second lap that we’re going to call this the band.
The band is on the feed dogs right now. And the second side I’m going to want that to
happen just the same. So here we go. I’m going to backstitch at the top to secure it.
And I’m going to sew heading down to that bottom corner. And the spool is going somewhere
else for a little while. We’ll see how that works out for the rest of this shoot. It should
be ok. It’s down there and gravity is working for me. This is real important here. What
we’re going to do is we’re going to sew all but up to that quarter of an inch right
where that side and the top met up. I can feel that seam in there. So right there is
going to be my pivot point. So I’m going to come in and I can feel it, boom. The needle
just hit right at that seam. Now I’m going to rotate the front panel around onto that
band. I’m going to give a little encouragement with this first few stitches. Make sure everything
goes smoothly. And we’re off and running. And we’ll do the same at the next corner.
The thread is still doing well by the way, down there on the floor, because it is. Ok,
I’m coming into that corner again. I’m waiting until I can feel that and then stopping
at the quarter of an inch mark. I’m going to pivot around. Whenever you have thick fabrics
like this we have a tendency to push or pull on our seams. Don’t do that. Just let the
machine do the work. We’ve got a little extra pressure here with my couple front fingers.
And I’m just going to let the feed dogs though engage and pull that through as I come
over that bulk. And we’re coming to the top and we’re going to backstitch there
again. And we have a really nice union where that, whoa, where that came out over there.
And again I just want to point out the key to making everything fit well is to make sure
that this band stays on the feed dogs for the second time sewing around as well. So
that means that I’m going to take this just like it is and I start to bring it over to
the machine to remind myself. I”m going to bring my rectangle for the front in and
make sure it is in the correct orientation. And then it’s going to be right sides together
on this first corner down here. So the other way to say this I’m kind of starting on
the same side that I finished on. And that’s going to help those corners be the same math
at the corners. I’m going to backstitch to lock that in. There’s a little more bulk
at this point so I’m going to take a little bit shorter runs of stitching until I get
all the material up on the table for myself here. Ok as we’re coming out of caffeinated
mode I just wanted to point out that I did use those same strategies in the corners.
And now as I come around down here at the bottom that final locking back stitch. I have
the cover itself completely set up.
Now what we want to do, it won’t unravel but I still want a really nice finished edge.
So I’m going to go ahead and take a second and come through here and snip any loose threads
I have. And then I’m just going to do a single fold where I roll this up and bring
it on over to the sewing machine. So one of the things I want to look at when I do this
is I want that same distance all the way around. So I”m going to now use my edge guide just
the same. And I”m going to start in kind of one of the longer runs. I’m not starting
right in a corner. I never do as a matter of fact. I start near the corner where I can
hide my start and stop. But I try not to start ever right in the corner because often it’s
a little extra bulky there on this kind of a job. And now what I’ve got is I’ve got
the fabric folded over. I have my edge guide lining it up. I”m basically about a quarter
of an inch over. I”m going to take a couple of stitches to lock this in. And I’m just
going to now do a nice, basically a hem around the bottom of this. And this is really for
esthetics. We don’t need the construction here. But technically the math was built in
when we measured by adding that extra inch. Now I’m going to point out as I’m starting
to come towards my corner at the bottom, let me fold this so you can kind of see what’s
happening. You have all of the three layers that came over here. So what I want to try
to do is I want to fold this into the interior. And as I roll this up I’m going to fold
at the hem both of the seams into the short side panel. And if that sounds like a lot
of words listen to it in replay. Give yourself a decaf recap and listen to it, it will make
sense. But there’s that one corner folding into the short edge and I’m folding the
other one opposite direction. And that’s just for uniformity. One of the things I love
in lego and in sewing is doing the same thing on both sides of the project. And we’re
just going to bring this around. And let me just finish this corner here. But instead
of finishing out the entire top stitch I promised you I would show you a couple of other little
details so what I’m going to do real quick is just slide this out of the way because
some of you may want a wonderful cover for transporting to classrooms but then you’re
going to need a handle cut out.
So one of the things I did do here is I made a handle in the top piece. So again you would
figure out all of the math of the five pieces you need. This is the top piece, the piece
that goes over here. And then if your handle is centered you’re going to find your center
point both laterally and vertically, center point. And then I basically measured an inch
on either side keeping a concept of how long my handle would be. And then let me actually
just show you by cutting this actually. It might make life a little bit easier. When
I go to cut this out I did cut the exterior here. And of course you could use your ruler
to keep your hands safe. I”m going to cut here and here, basically right on the lines
to remove that center piece for where the handle would be. But I also want to point
out I’m going to give myself about a half of an inch worth of cut diagonally at each
corner this way. So that while I’m stitching this just like with that bottom hem, it’s
just going to be a single fold, I can roll this back out of the way. And now you can
see here the way it fits. And that would make a wonderful handle opening in the top.
But as a reminder I used the chalk cloth, one to keep the dust out and two because you
can draw on it. That’s right we also have these fantastic markers you can use. So here’s
a fun example of me doing the Man Sewing sewing machine on here. Now it is technically a chalk
which means it’s dry and it’s permanent. That’s why I love it. So I can put it on
the machine. I can decorate the machine cover I should say. And it works cool on glass and
all that kind of stuff. Put my decorations on there. But if I made a mistake, excuse
me if this is rude. I can get it wet and wipe it away. I can redo it. I can basically erase
with a wet rag and come back to it and remark it. But it’s still dry enough that it won’t
really wipe away as a cover. So I could write myself notes like, power tool, please spend
time with me on the cover of my fantastic custom cover there on my sewing machine. So
anyway I know I got a little goofy at the end. But one of the things I love so much
in creating these projects every week for all of us is thinking of the things that I
need in my life. I need in my sewing room and then making it a little bit more fun and
entertaining like drawing on it at the end. So I hope you enjoyed that. And I would love
to hear from you what you’re going to write on the outside of your chalk cloth sewing
machine cover. We’ll see you next time at Man Sewing.
Oh, hey are you still in here. I thought you would have been checking out some of those
other great videos. You know we’ve got a link there, over there. And hey don’t forget
to subscribe. Make sure you never miss a minute of the action. We’ll catch you next time,
at Man Sewing.