As I’m sure I’ve told you before, I have a lot of ideas – some are good, some aren’t so good, some are flawed, some are dreadful and, now and again, there might be a really good one, and it’s the lure of the occasional really good one that keeps me motivated to work on all of them!
My latest idea began as I was making a sewing case a couple of weeks ago. I like making sewing cases and make a number of different ones in different styles and fabrics, like this Tilda fabric one:
I love bringing in patchwork elements and using linen and embroidery too:
Then there’s English paper piecing, hand quilting:
And adding crochet details:
It’s also fun changing up and refining what’s in the case whether it’s changing the pockets, adding fasteners or accessories like this little thread card that I made with one of my MOO mini cards, a hole punch and a pair of really sharp scissors:
So, to get back to my ‘idea’, I was so enjoying making the latest Tilda case that I started thinking about whether I could scale up sewing cases and make something new. Then, when I put a picture of the Tilda case on my Facebook page and a fellow crocheter asked if I made crochet hook cases I thought, mmm, that might be just the thing!
I’ve looked at knitting needle and sewing cases before and have stopped short of making one because, quite honestly, apart from my set of double pointed needles that live in a roll out of the way simply because I don’t use them so much, I tend to store all my knitting needles and crochet hooks in pots so I can get to them as and when I want them, with minimum bother. Of course these pots of needles and hooks also get overrun at times with oddments of wool that I can’t bear to discard or put away tidily in my yarn boxes, but they’re still super accessible! 🙂 However, lots of other people obviously do use them, so I thought I’d have a go at designing something.
As usual with me, nothing can be straightforward, and perish the thought that anything I make should fulfil just one requirement – no of course not! My crochet hook case must also function as a sewing case and have safe storage for other ‘things’ – whatever they might be. So I brewed the idea for a few days and started to construct the case in my head, made a few sketches and then started refining the look of it, selecting fabric and features, interlining, closures and all that jazz. Finally, I got all my materials together and started cutting, lining and stitching, starting with the lining of the case, which would give me an opportunity to learn something new and add a lined zipped pocket:
This actually went a lot smoother than I’d expected, as did making the little slip pockets you can see in the background where all the hooks and other ‘tools’ were set to go. I also thought about how the case would look and operate once it was loaded up with ‘things’ so decided to add a couple of fabric spines to the lining and the outer of about half an inch width, so that the case would fold easily at two points, without becoming all misshapen when full, which some needle and hook cases I’d seen seemed to do. I selected a medium weight linen and cotton blend fabric for the outer in a pretty print and interlined it with some fusible fleece to add some protective squish. The lining is also a linen and cotton blend fabric in a toning lilac colour, but in a lighter weight. I lined this with a medium weight fusible vilene, to add structure.
I then added a little lined scissor keeper and some pure wool felt for pins and needles, which I embroidered into position with simple herringbone stitch in two shades of violet floss. I then stitched the lining and front together, lining up the two folding ‘spines’, which you can see in the lining in the picture below:
There is a thinner 3rd section to the case that folds over the end where the hooks sit:
I went through a number of closure options and again decided on something new that I thought would look nice but also be flexible enough to work if the case was empty of rammed full of kit – good old elastic! However, this is elastic that has plush fabric on one side and I also added a little star shaped shell button to it to decorate:
I’m really happy that it looks in reality exactly how it had in my head – always a plus! I think that, as a design, it isn’t quite right yet – it might be a bit big, maybe trying to do too much, and the closure could maybe work better – I may need to brew it up for a bit longer, but all in all, not one of my worst ideas 🙂
4 Comments
It’s brilliant Debbie, no one can say that you don’t put maximum thought into your makes, it’s really lovely, well done!
V x
Thank you Viv! 😀 xx
lovely idea, I’ve seen them somewhere but yours are spectacular, I love the fabric and the design.
Thanks Karen – they’re a teeny bit addictive 😉