needle case | Mr X Stitch

Stash Busting needle case We have all got more time on our hands at the moment, or at least we should have! So our Jo has been kind enough to make us some special editions of her Craft Rocks column to get us all thinking! Read on.... If you’re anything like me you have accumulated a lot of needles. You get them free in kits, you buy them, you get given them… my pin cushion has so many sticking out of it that it should come with a health and safety warning. So I thought I’d make myself a little needle case from my fabric stash. I love this geometric fabric, but I had very little left. How big did a needle case need to be? I had no idea. Just knew I wanted to make something quite small I could fold and put in a drawer. I love all things geometric so I fell in love with this fabric As I looked around trying to find some card to make a pattern from I spotted this Christmas card and thought, yep, perfect. So I used it as my template, hee hee. It was seven inches along each side. This proves my crafty theory - never throw anything sparkly that catches your eye out! Sparkly! Not sure if I should be saying it's never too early or never too late... I plundered through my fabric stash and found some complimentary blue fabric, some wadding and some felt. I cut the geometric fabric, the blue fabric and the wadding out using the Christmas card as a template. I then cut the felt out one inch smaller all around as this was going to be the central part I pierced the needles into. I then cut a length of the blue fabric which was about 36cm long and an inch wide. The only theory behind that calculation was that I only had 36cm of the fabric left :-) Stash busted and ready to sew up! The first thing I did was to centre the felt square on the right side of the blue fabric. I then pinned it down, drew a line down the centre and sewed along the line to secure the felt in place. It was only secured down the centre so I could lift the rest to get the needles into it. The felt sewn onto the interior of the needle case Then I folded the blue strip in half and ironed it. Then I opened it up and folded both sides towards the central line and ironed it again. Then I folded it in half again to form the tie for the case. You don’t have to add a tie, I just thought it would be nice. I sewed it all together on the top side of the fabric to seal it. How the tie was folded before sewing it Now this is the bit where I always have to make a nice cup of tea and have a good think about what order everything goes in before I sew it together. When I first started sewing I always got things in the wrong order. My head just goes blank. So my order was geometric and blue fabrics right sides together with the wadding on top and the tie was sandwiched in between the geometric and blue fabric. So I didn’t have to worry about getting the tie in place inside the fabric bundle I left it sticking out at the sides. Where the long side sticks out is where I’ll leave the fabric parcel unsealed so I can turn it the right way around. The fabric bundle all piled up ready to sew with the tie hanging out both sides Once it was sewn I cut off the little tab of the tie I’d left sticking out. Cutting the end of the tie off Then I cut the corner off the fabric parcel to make the corners sharper when it is turned the right way around. Always being careful not to cut the sewn lines. Cutting the corners off when inside out helps make the corners sharp Then I turned it the right way round and sewed up the gap by hand. And here it is with a few of my many many many needles inserted. The interior finished with a few needles in place (and many more to come...) And here it is all tied up looking lovely and colourful. Considering I didn't have a plan when I started this (aside from wanting a needle case), I think it is a great looking storage tool and was a good way to use up some scraps of fabric too. The finished colourful stash busting needle case Do you have any good storage tips you can share with me? I'd love to hear them. Cost - freeeeeeeeeeee, it's a scrap buster! Best song for this project: Pump Up the Volume (Put the Needle on the Record) by MARRS (see what I did there...) Best cake for this project: Battenberg (looks like an edible quilt)