I can see clearly now

I finished my eyeglass sleeve and after various challenges, I'm very pleased with the result.

Pattern: My own.
Materials: Bits of two fat quarters. Lightweight quilt batting. 25mm bias tape maker. All materials from Purl Patchwork.

My initial plan was to fold my long piece of quilted fabric together lengthwise and bind the side and top edges in bias tape. Unfortunately, this resulted in a really messy edge and I couldn't figure out how to miter the corners or make the bottom of the long edges look neat. I wound up with a chicken-and-the-egg problem where I would tuck one thing, creating a raw edge at one spot and then I'd instead tuck the other thing in creating the reverse of the initial problem. Hard to explain, but trust me, it was a mess.

My solution was to edge all the way around the piece while it was flat and then ladder stitch up the sides. This resulted in a very neat finish. My sleeve will be the perfect way to tote my reading glasses around the office!



This project was also a great chance to continue practicing my quilt binding technique without committing to a whole quilt. I again used the one-step technique in The Modern Quilt Workshop. This time it came out much neater than my double-pointed needle case. I learned from the ladies at Purl that I needed to pin the edging down every inch or so and I learned from my sewing machine that I should wait until the pin slid right up under the presser foot (but BEFORE it got up to the needle - no sewing over pins!!) to remove the pin, which resulted in the fabric staying where it was meant to be. There are definitely some imperfections, but I can see how the technique will keep improving.

I'm committing today to some stockinette and to dreaming up my next sewing project.