Sewing kit tutorial and giveaway!!!

This is the cute "girlie" sewing kit that I made for you, to be won in a giveaway!

As promised, I will give you a tutorial for the sewing kit.

Cut your pieces as follows:

• exterior:  15" X 6"
• cotton batting:  16" X 7"
• inside panel pieces:  cut (2)  5 l/4" X 6" and (1) 5 l/2" X 6"
• pockets:  cut (1) 5 l/4" X 4" and (1) 3 l/2" X 6"
• scissor case:  (my scissors measure 4 l/2" long and 2" wide at the widest part of the handle)  The bottom of my scissors holder is l" wide plus l/4" on each side, equaling l l/2".  Make your triangle this size plus l/4" all the way around.  (reference to my polkadot fabric for the shape to draw your scissors holder)

• binding (turquoise):  cut (2) strips 2" X WOF(width of fabric)
• closure strap and thread strap (yellow):  

       cut (1) strip  1 1/2" X WOF 

• needle book:  cut your wool felt piece 4 l/2" X 2 3/4" 
• small piece of velcro:  l/2" X 3.8"

DIRECTIONS:

Quilt your exterior piece to the cotton batting.  Quilt as desired.  I quilted mine straight lines approximately l/2" apart.  You could quilt it in diagonal lines, or use stipple quilting, swirly lines all around.  To me it was really easy just to quilt straight lines.  I didn't adjust my machine at all to quilt, just adjusted the stitch to be slightly longer than normal to compensate for stitching through the thickness.

This is what my quilting looked like when I was finished.

Sew the binding to the two pockets, raw edges together.  Sew on the long edges and use a l/4" seam.

Fold the binding up and press so that you have a nice edge and can see clearly where the pocket and binding are joined.

   Fold the binding toward the back of the pocket, making sure that you fold the edge past the stitching line that you made when you sewed on the binding.  Pin well and sew "in the ditch" on the front.
Pictured is the binding and the stitching from the back.  Notice that the seam is caught in the stitching.

Place your bound pockets on the two side panel pieces lining up the bottom edges.  Make sure that you have the two panels that measure 5 l/4" X 6" (the middle panel is slightly larger, make sure you don't sew a pocket on to this panel).  Pin and baste the pockets onto the panels.

Now we will join the three panels together.  Sew them right sides together using a l/4" seam allowance and then press the seams open.  It should now look like this.

I divided the right pocket into two sections by marking the middle (top and bottom) and sewing down the middle from the top of the binding to the raw edge.  You can barely see the line that I stitched, but it's there!

To make the scissors case, iron the wide edge over l/4".  Then do the same to each side and then the bottom.  Finally, fold the top over l/4" again.  Topstitch the top edge of the scissors case where you folded over twice.

Fold your piece of wool felt in half and press so that you have a clear crease for a stitch line.  Now you are going to pin both the needle book (wool felt) and the scissors case onto the center panel. The scissors case needs to be l/2" from the top and l/8" from the left seam.  Place the folded edge of the needle book l/4" from the left seam and l/2" from the bottom edge.  
Sew down the crease line of the needle book and very close to the edge of the three sides of the scissors holder.  

 Press each end in l/4" and then refold the whole strip back up.
 DO NOT sew it yet.  
Cut 6 l/4" off this strip to make the thread strap(goes in the middle).
Only one short end needs to be folded in on the short strap but you need to fold in both short edges of the long piece so that all of the  edges will be encased.
Sew down each of the long sides and the ends to close up the straps.

Now sew down each of the long sides and the ends to close up the straps.

I'm sorry that this photo is so blurry.....
Pull apart your tiny piece of velcro and sew  the fuzzy piece onto the finished end of the short strap.  This is your thread holder.

Place the loopy piece of the velcro and place it along the left seam of the interior piece.  It needs to be 3/8" from the bottom edge.....( I accidentally sewed mine on the top edge.  When I realized my mistake, my kit was already sewn together.  I don't think it makes a huge difference, so I left it!

Sew the strap to the bottom (or top!) edge, keeping enough slack to hold two spools of skinny Gutterman spools of thread.  

Trim the exterior piece, by placing your ruler on top of the fabric and trimming off the excess cotton batting, flush to the edges.

Now it's time to attach the exterior and the interior along the seam lines on the interior.  Place your exterior piece face down on your table and then place your interior piece face up. 

Align the edges so that your corners and edges are all matched.
First, stitch down the two long seam lines, attaching the exterior and interior pieces together.  

Attach the binding on the outside, all the way around.  

Handsew the binding on the inside, just as you would a quilt.

Almost finished!!!

All you have left to sew is the tie.  Take your piece and mark 12" from one finished end.  Take your sewing kit and place it face up on your table.  Find the stitch line on the exterior that corresponds to the left seam line on the inside.  

Stitch your tie to the exterior but you want the stitches to be disguised by the seam on the inside.  

Find that seam on the exterior and mark the middle.  It will be 3" from the top and bottom and approximately 5" from the right edge when the piece is laying exterior side up on the table.  Match the two marks, the one on your tie and the one on your strap.  

Pin in place and sew on the inside to make sure the stitches are masked by the seam.

Now you are finished!!!

I promised a giveaway.....
To win this cute "girlie" sewing kit, all you have to do is "join this site" and become a Follower.  The place to join is located on the right side of this blog, underneath my button.  Then, leave me a comment.  I love comments ♥  If you have already a follower, then just tell me in your comment.
I will use the "random number generator" to choose a winner.
The comments close this Thursday, March 29 at 7:00 p.m. Pacific time.  I will announce the winner on Friday!

I sure hope you win!!!!