It was so easy to make, and easy for you to copy if you have any double-sided pre-quilted fabric. (If you don't, don't worry, I'll give you an alternative.) It would also make an ideal stocking present for anyone who likes to sew. If you'd like to find out more, read on.
First let me tell you what my essentials are, for my portable sewing kit.- my ancient needle-case full of a variety of needle sizes. That's the red Dutch doll item in the picture. I made that at primary school when I must have been about 7, hence the wonky stitches. But it's served me well ever since - and that's an awful lot of years. Perhaps I need to do a tutorial on how to make a needle case like this!
- a stitch unripper
- a needle threader
- a small pair of sharp scissors
- a few safety pins in different sizes
- a small number of dress-making pins in a magnetic container
- a tape measure
- a few different colours of thread, either wound onto card, or on tiny spools like these. (If you don't have any tiny spools, you could wind some thread on a sewing machine bobbin.) Including black, white ,grey and beige as well as some colours means you're equipped for most eventualities
Sometimes I need other things depending on the sort of emergency or other need that I'm dealing with. Larger things like my left-handed dress-making scissors won't fit in my sewing case, but I can usually fit a small length or ribbon or elastic if needed.
1. Dimensions
The reason I'm telling you at length what's in my case, is because you'll need to judge on the basis of what you need, exactly how big to make your case. I'll give you the dimensions of mine further down, but I measured, pretty much, by laying out the main contents on top of the folded material, like this:
I was using ready -made double-sided quilting, which has the advantage that it's already padded, affording some protection to the sharp things inside. My piece measured in total:
- Length 5.75"+5.75"+4.25" (for the flap) = 15.75"
- And the width was 6.75".
These measurements all included minimal hem/seam allowances of 1/8"-1/4".
By the time I had turned in all the hems and seams, the finished measurement is c 6 1/8" wide, and the closed case is 5 7/8" high.
If you need to make something larger or smaller, take a piece of ready quilted fabric and lay out (as in the picture above) some of the key things you want to fit in the finished case. Allow a good half inch to 1" width in addition for seams, and the bulk of the contents, and that will give you the width. For the length, again add half an inch to 1" enough to where the contents spread out to, and multiply by 2.75 (so you have a back, a front, and a flap).
2. Finishing edges
On mine, I was fortunate that one short edge turned out to be the selvedge, so I just turned the edge over to the inside and tacked it down. You could do this by machine but It isn't a lot of hand-sewing, which is what I did.
I then folded it up (right sides together) to where I wanted the top of the opening, and marked where it would come on the side. Before I sewed it, though, I wanted to finish the edges of the flap.
You'll find if you slightly unpick the quilting round the edges of ready-made quilting, you can turn the edges under to make a neat edge, so that's what I did round the three sides of what would be the flap. You could do this after sewing the side seams of the bag together, but I found it easier to do it first.
3. Sewing side seams
Then fold it back right sides together as before and pin and sew the sides.
Now you are almost done! Turn it the right way out. I over-sewed the sides. You don't have to but I think it looks neater.
4. Add fastenings
All that remains now is to sew on some bits of Velcro, or you could add a button and loop or two. I preferred the Velcro, because that allows a bit more flexibility when i over-stuff it! I put two pieces one each side near the opening, and one in the middle nearer the edge of the flap.
And you're done!
Alternative to ready-quilted fabric
Now, if you planned to make several of these, perhaps as gifts, I think it is worth sourcing double sided ready-quilted fabric - it's useful for so many things. But it does seem harder to get now. I've had to resort to searching the internet as well as my local stores. You can finish the edges as described above, or look at some of the ideas in this post and this one.
But without ready -quilted material, what can you do? The challenges are, to make the case thick enough to protect the contents, some of which may be sharp; and to avoid having a lining fabric that will catch. I considered using fleece as the inside layer, but that wouldn't be good with needles and scissors inside that could get caught. So I think what I would do would be to use a close woven cotton or linen, and make a sandwich of three layers: cotton, fleece or thin batting, cotton. (But don't make the middle layer too thick, you still want it to bend.) Make the middle layer a bit shorter and not as wide as the two cotton layers so you have thinner fabric for your seam allowances. You want to be able to just catch it in in your seam. Put one layer of the cotton wrong side facing to the fleece or batting, and the other cotton layer back to back with the first. Sew round the whole thing bar about 2-3" on one side to turn it out. If using batting, see this post for more tips on sewing layers like this. Then turn it the right way out, tuck in the seam allowance at the gap, trim back more of the filling fabric if necessary, and oversew the edges, including the gap. I would sew a small number of lines across in either direction so you have effectively made your own ready quilted fabric.
If you feel this is a bridge too far for a simple project, you could just stitch it across where the two folds will be, to hold it all in place.
Then you can go straight to point 3 above.
Perhaps this is no longer a super-quick project! But it will make just as nice a sewing case.
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