The First Finish of 2019

Technically, this finish should have been done in 2018...but it took a little longer than I thought it would to complete this project.  I also did not have a pattern, just an idea in my head that I wanted to try, which lengthened the amount to time I spent working on it.

My friend, Cathy, and her husband are avid campers so I decided to make a camper themed sewing machine cover for her for Christmas.  I finished off the last of the hand stitching today and wrapped it up for delivery this evening...at least she received it before the holidays were over!

I had seen a sewing machine cover that someone made on a blog--then entire sewing machine cover was a camper which gave me the idea for Cathy's gift.  I started by piecing a rectangular camper and then free hand cut it to the shape of a vintage camper. The camper was appliquéd by machine with a satin stitch in light green. (I used a stabilizer underneath to keep the stitching from bunching up the fabrics) The wheel is a black circle of wool with a grey wool circle blanket stitched on top of it.  The wheel was added at the very end as it partly overlaps the binding at the bottom of the cover.

The above picture shows the back --I added a licence plate from one of the shops on the July Shop Hop from a couple of years ago and signed it as my label when I was done.   The binding on the edges has not been added yet in this picture.

I quilted the cover with straight lines before assembling it into a 3D object using my walking foot and a light green thread. The backing fabric is some sewing fabric that was in my stash.  I took this picture today when I was hand sewing the binding along the bottom edge.

I also used binding to cover the seams so that there are no raw edges visible on the cover.

If I decide to make another sewing machine cover, I don't think it would take quite as long as this one did.  There was a bit of trial and error in the assembly and some unsewing during the process.  In the end, I'm pleased with how it turned out and Cathy likes it!  I spent over an hour tonight cleaning up my sewing room and putting projects into bags and bins to keep things organized.  I have a few projects with deadlines coming up so those will be my first priority as soon as I can find my sewing table again...  It always looks worse before it looks better.