I have mastered the box corner and it has changed my life.

What a great weekend this was. 

After finishing my end of second year OSCE (which I'm not sure what that even stands for - o-something standardized clinical examination?), and having a fun night out with a few of my favourite people, (but sans Mr. C - he had a climbing competition in the morning), I began a knitting needle case project for Ms. Cho.

Roll-up knitting needle case and fabric yarn basket:

I tried to take some pictures while I made the case, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I based the knitting needle case off of this one. 

Ms. Cho had picked out some darling fabrics for her knitting needle case. I started out by measuring/cutting:

• From main inner and outer fabric (green in this picture) - two 16"h x 15"w panels
• From big pocket material (pink polkadots) - 8.5"h x 15"w (I doubled it for strength, so made 2 of this shape)
• From small pocket material (purple polkadots) - 4"h x 15"w (again, I doubled it so for strength)
• I cut a piece of medium weight iron-on interfacing 16"h x 15"h

I decided to add a pocket on the far right side, and so measured out a small square for the pocket flap. I'm not sure what my measurements were (I have to get better at this measuring and keeping track for blog purposes!). I just kind of eyed it. I'd estimate a rectangle 4"x 2".

From the lavender double-sided bias tape pictured here, I covered the tops of both pocket panels.


I lined up the pink and purple (big and small pocket materials) to find out where the flap of the pocket should go. You can see what I mean below.
You need to sew the pocket flap on the big pocket material BEFORE you sew the big pocket to the main lining material. You can see here (it looks like the pink is attached to the green fabric, but it's only pinned in anticipation of the next step). You also need to affix one side of a velcro strip to the flap of the pocket.

Next, I sewed the large pocket to the inner main fabric on the sides and bottom.
I used the measurements from the link above to draw on the needle sleeves. 
The measurements I used were:
[2 1/2"] [2 1/2"] [1"] [1"] [1"] [1 1/2"] [1 1/2"] [1 1/2"] [2 1/2"]
(I feel like you can mix this up based on what needles you have and their widths.)
I drew lines on as straight as possible with my vanishing fabric marker and stitched them up:

I didn't take a picture of when I sewed the pockets over the pocket flap. This part was a bit complicated. But essentially, I sewed down to where the flap was and stopped, then flipped the flap up and started a new line of stitching below the pocket flap. (Sorry if that's confusing!)


At this point, I added the other side of the velcro strip on the right spot on the small pocket fabric.
Next, I added the smaller pocket and followed the lines of stitching from the larger pocket sleeves down through the purple fabric.


There were a few more steps I didn't take pictures of (give me a break, this is my first "tutorial"!).

After completing the main body of the case, I sewed a 1/2 yard of white ribbon to the center of the backing fabric (the 2nd piece of the green fabric featured here). I also ironed the interfacing onto the back piece for some more stability for the project. 


I took a small length of the main fabric and folded it over at the top of the case so that any needle ends can be tucked in and prevented from sliding out the top of the case. You can see what I'm talking about in the picture below. I joined this to the case with some more purple bias tape, which I put all the way around the case.

And, the knitting needle case was complete. 

 
Here's the completed project all rolled up. Really happy with how it turned out.
If these instructions are confusing (not surprising), please feel free to see the tutorial my project was loosely based on here.


So considering I make my sewing room into a sweat shop once I get on a roll, and being that I had extra fabric left over, I thought why not make a fabric nesting bag as well for the bestie to put her yarn in?


I found a great tutorial for fabric nesting baskets on Sew4Home.com.


And this my friends, is when I mastered (or at least did for the first time) box corners. Be. still. my. heart.


Wonderfully easy, and perfectly functional. 

Here's a picture of my first "boxing" of my corner. So much simpler than I'd ever imagined. 

I'll be terrible at any attempt at explaining this process, but don't hesitate to read the true experts' version at Sew4Home.

For this project, I used:

• Two exterior fabric panels measuring 12"h x 17"w
• Two pieces of medium-weight sew-in interfacing measuring the same as above
• Two interior lining panels (pink polkadots) measuring the same as above
• Two pieces of quilt batting with the same measurements as above
• Two pieces measuring 6"x2" of each of the handle fabrics you are using (so you need a total of 4 pieces - two of each side of the handle). Confused yet?
• One 35" l x 4"w of coordinating fabric for the top rim of the nesting basket

I really recommend you reading the tutorial from Sew4Home for these baskets because I'm a bit atrocious at explaining this process :S

Anyways, I ironed the interfacing to the wrong sides of each exterior material (the green in this example). I then joined them right sides in and sewed along the sides and bottom. Then did the magical box-corner trick, where you slightly pull the two sides apart, line up the long seams on the inside, form a triangle at the corner (mine measured 6" across). Sew this triangle, and cut it off. You can see what you end up with in the picture on the right.


Once the exterior was done, I repeated the process with the lining fabric, only using the quilt batting in the place of the interfacing.
Once you have that all done, nest the lining in the exterior, and stitch around the top to secure.

Use the long piece of fabric (35"x4") and iron it into a large version of a double sided bias tape. Sew to the top rim of the basket.

With the handle strips, sew them right sides together on three sides. Turn inside out, iron flat, sew closed and sew a seam all the way around them. Join them to the basket as seen in this photo.

 VOILA! 
If you're still with me, here's the completed projects :)

 Please don't hesitate to email if you have any questions about my super-confusing directions. As this is my first attempt at tutorial, I will try to improve!


A latte love,


C