Tutorial- Small Quilted Tote with Attached Lid

OK, Flickr Friends, quit yer whining, here it is!  I made a tutorial for the little green tote.  I'm wordy, so get over it.  ;) I'm going to assume you have some sewing experience and don't need your hand held the whole way, but I think I give enough instruction for you to muddle thru this.  If not, ask me, I'll try to answer you here in the comment section and if your question is REALLY valid, I'll correct the tute.  LOL

I recently made myself a little set of organizing totes to use when I am Mum-sitting.  One of the more popular pieces on Flickr is this little tote with a sliding lid, so I made another one and photographed the process and made this little tutorial.  Hopefully it'll provide you with enough info to make yourself one.  

Ingredients- fabric, 14" zipper (extra long for ease in installing) Insul-Bright or batting of choice, Dritz eyelets- at least 1/4", 1/4" cotton cording, and standard sewing equipment.

I started out with 2" squares and a few larger pieces that were the equivalent of 2 squares sewn together, 2" x 3.5".  I laid them out in a grid that was 5 squares high and 7 squares long, when sewn together it measures about 8" x 11".  You don't have to piece the fabric for this, you could use a solid piece, it would save a lot of time.  If you do piece it, alternate the way you press the seams, every other row and when you sew the rows together, press those seam open.  When that's done, square it up.  Make another piece that is 3 x 3 squares,(5.5" x 5.5") for the top and one row that is 8 squares (2" x 13") long for the brim on the lid, see the photo.

Note- on the 3 x 3 square, use a 3/8" seam allowance for a slightly smaller grid of blocks, this will look nicer.  See the green lid?  I did that there, but forgot to on the purple one.  See the difference?  I like the green one better. It doesn't affect the lid in any way, it's just aesthetic.  

 Sandwich these pieces with batting and your lining fabric.  I used Insul-Bright for my batting because it has a stiffness to it that I like, but you don't have to use that.  Quilt in rows about 3/8" apart  On the long brim piece, don't quilt too close to the ends because you'll need some excess fabric for seaming, see the photo.

Sew the right edge of the main piece to the left edge of the zipper, RST, fairly close to the teeth.  I use my walking foot for this, it works great.  Then trim away the excess and fold it back and top stitch, catching the edge of the zipper tape, this encases all your raw edges.  Then do the same for the other side, being sure to line up the main piece.  Trim, finger press it down on the right side and topstitch, again catching the zipper tape on the back.  

Sew a few stitches across the tops and the bottom so that you can't accidentally unzip the whole thing and end up with the zipper pull unattached later!  Careful stitching over the teeth, go slowly and don't break a needle or the thread.  See the photo.  Trim off the excess zipper, top and bottom.  Mark the center of the back. 

Turn it inside out, line up the center of the back with the middle of the zipper and sew 1/4" seam across the bottom.  (Careful again over the zipper!)  Cut a strip of fabric to match the lining 1.5" wide by 7" long.  Sew this on over that seam you just sewed, RST, then turn it over to the other side, press under the raw edge and sew it down with the machine, to cover all the raw edges.  Trim it off at the ends and apply Fray Check to the cut edges.  Let dry a bit and turn right side out.

(Wow, I got really close to the edge on that zipper tape!  Happy accident!)

Make your pattern piece for the top- draw a rectangle 5 1/8" long and 2 5/8" wide.  Using a 2.25" circle, round the edges and taper it up to the long sides.  This makes a nice oval.  It's easy to do, just sounds like a pain.  See the photos.

Lay this piece on your quilted 3 x 3 square, I like to set it diagonally.  Cut out your lid piece.  See the photos.

OK, are you still with me?  Good!

Cut 2 pieces of fabric for binding for the top edge of the little tote and the bottom edge of the lid brim.  Cut them 1.5" wide by 14" or so.  Sew on binding strip, RST, to the top of the tote piece using a 3/8" seam allowance, leaving about an inch hanging over on either end, then turn the short ends in (trim away excess first) and then fold over the long edges and hand-sew that inside seam down, making it nice and even. It's such a small project, hand-finishing doesn't take but a couple of minutes and it's so much nicer than a machine stitch.  :)

If you want something inside your tote to hold tools, you can add this now, like elastic or twill tape.  Or you can add it later, it doesn't matter, but without the lid attached, it's a bit easier to maneuver under the presser foot..  I'll add mine later once I decide what I'll use it for, I just pinned it for the photos.  Also, tie a small piece of rat-tail onto the zipper pull piece, to make it a lot easier to open the zipper later.  Trim and add a dot of Fray Check to the rat-tail.  (Ribbon, embroidery floss, etc, anything like that will work.) See the photos.

On the long strip for the lid brim, trim it so it's straight and then stitch a stay-stitch along one long edge, 1/4" from the edge.  Using very sharp scissors, clip that seam allowance every 1/4" or so, just up to the stitched line, to ease in sewing to the oval.  See the photos.

 Now for the only tricky part to this whole project- because everyone's pattern piece could differ slightly and your seam allowance might be a little bigger or smaller than mine, I can't give you a definitive length for the brim piece. So, starting on one of the long sides of the oval, baste the brim piece to the oval.  I hand-baste this, I have much more control that way.  Those little notches you cut make this easier, but it's still pretty twitchy work.  Pins or clips might help.  

 Start basting near a curve, leaving a couple inches of the piece unsewn for now, 1/4" seam allowance.  Work your way all the way around until you get back to the long side- leave about 2.5" unstitched- and then see where your 2 short edges are going to meet.  You want the batting to butt against the other piece of batting, not overlap.  

 Trim away the excess batting but not the fabric.  Fold the fabric over the batting and press, to get a line for sewing on. Once you're confident it's all going to work out, sew that seam, trim and press open with your fingers.  Then you can trim the lining piece and sew it down by hand.  Then finish basting the brim to the lid.  Once that's all done and you're happy with it, you can machine sew over your basting line with a zipper foot.  See the photos.

 Apply the other piece of 1.5" x 14" binding piece to the brim, RST, and hand-finish it, turning the short edges under where they join and sewing a short seam.  This is a little fiddly, too, as you're working in a small space. 

 The inside- fairly bulky seam allowance.

Now the top is nearly done, it only needs 2 eyelets inserted!  Those are easy to do, follow the instructions on the package.  You can mark where to cut just by pushing hard on the metal piece, but I used a pen for the photos.  I had some Dritz Large Eyelets on hand, they are marked 1/4", so that's what I used after making sure that my covered cording would pass thru the hole. 

 Put them right near the outside edge, in the center of the lid, but leave at least 1/8" of space on the side because you'll have a fairly bulky seam allowance under there.  See the photos.  If you clipped thru quilting, a dot of Fray Check might be a good idea.

The last thing to do is to make the covered cord handle.  I used 1/4" Wright's Cotton Cording for this one, but the original one is slightly thicker, probably 5/16" cording.  I prefer the thicker, but make sure it'll go thru the eyelets!

Cut 20" of BIAS material, 2" wide.  Using 40" of cording, and starting in the middle, using a zipper foot, sew the material around the cording by stitching thru the material and the cording and then turning and running down the length of it.  Trim the excess off, and then pull the cording and shove the fabric up over the cording at the top.  See the photos.  Be sure you sew thru the cording when you start, to lock the fabric to the cord.  You'll be pulling pretty hard and don't want this to break away. PS- You have to have twice as much cording material than you actually need for the project for this to work.  See the photos.

 Tie a knot in one end, trim and apply Fray Check.

  Determine how long you want your handle, adding enough length for another knot.  Feed the cord thru the eyelets in the lid and tie the other knot, trim, Fray Check.  

 Using  a hidden stitch, sew the ends with the knots inside the little tote.  See the photos.

It's done!  It was pretty easy, wasn't it?  And you'll NEVER lose the lid to this little tote!

 Now I have another little matching set! And see my little pin holder?  I needed a flat pincushion for my sewing book. 

 You can make yourself one with a bit of cork and a piece of cardstock and some tacky glue!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  Sorry if it's too wordy or has too many photos, but I try to be thorough.  Have fun making little totes! Please don't make a pattern off of this tute and sell it as your own.  This was my original idea and pattern and I'd appreciate it if you'd link back to me if you do make this, give a little credit where it's due. Thanks!

Easy Tutorial for E-Reader Cover Using an Old Book

A while back I posted a mini-tute for making a hardback cover for an e-reader.  I am just now getting around to making myself a new cover, just so I'll have a change, and I went ahead and took photos of the process.  So this is a better tute with more photos and instructions. 

I went to a used bookstore and picked up this dog book.  I like these kinds of books, the cover is hard and slick and will stay clean and won't pick up pet hair.  I pulled out a fat quarter of some fun camping fabric that I won't mind looking at for an hour or two every day and assembled the rest of my "ingredients", which are very few and simple.

Scissors, rotary cutter, pinking shears, Exacto blade or razor blade,  thread, 1/4" or 3/8" black elastic, a clasp (or velcro), white glue (Tacky or Elmers) and something heavy for weight. 

 When you pick out a book, make sure it's big enough to accommodate your reader.  It needs to be a little bigger than the reader and also thick enough.  Skinny little books might be too thin.

 This book is plenty thick enough!

 Remove the pages by cutting thru the tape that holds it in.  Don't cut through the actual front or back of the book!

 Cut gently.

 Cut both sides, remove the pages and then trim up what's left so it's tidy. 

 Before trimming, below-

 After trimming, below-

 Measure to find how wide and long to cut the piece of fabric that will reinforce this naked area and cover up all those raw edges.  3" x 8" is enough for this book.

Pink the top and bottom edges.

You will need a piece of fabric that is wide enough to hold your e-reader and cover that back cover of the book.  Then add 1/2" to that for seam allowances.  Measure the inside length of the book and double that and add an inch or two so you'll have extra fabric to fiddle with.  Now you know how big a piece of fabric to cut.  And cut a piece for the inside cover on the left.

My pieces are about 5" x 8", 3" x 8" and 5.5" x 18" (but 19" would have been easier if I had had enough fabric.)

 Brush on white glue and glue down the middle piece. Get it nice and flat and into all the creases so it won't pull up later when you're bending your book a lot.

 You can brush on more glue on the edges to ensure that they stay down.  If you do this to the pinked edges, be aware that they will dry a little rough and crunchy. 

 For the pocket panel, with right sides together and the fold at the bottom, sew up each side using a 1/4" seam.  Leave the top open.  Turn and press. 

 Because my panel was a little short and because the bottom of the pocket panel is left loose, I decided to add this extra piece here so I wouldn't have to look at raw book later.  It's applied just like the center piece, I brushed on white glue with my old sprung brush.

 Fold up about 1/2" - 3/4" at the bottom to make the pocket that will hold your e-reader.  The fold is the top of the pocket.  Try it on for size. Once you're comfortable with your pocket, pin it in place.

 See the pocket?

 Move the pins and try it on again.  If your panel is a lot wider, adjust where you will stitch in order to make the pocket tight enough but not too tight.

 Now it's time to add a piece of elastic to hold the top of the e-reader in place.  This will keep it from slipping out of the pocket when you're holding it or carrying it around.

 Place the elastic where you want it and pin it.  Then sew one side with the elastic wrapped around to the back to hide the raw edge.  Sew from the folded pocket up to the top, thru both layers of elastic. On the other side, just baste the pocket into place. 

Then put the e-reader back in and pull the elastic across.  Find where you want it and mark it.  Then determine how tight you want the elastic.  I like it to hold it, but I don't want it stretched really tight because then it's hard to keep the fabric glued down into the book.  Snug is all you should need, but you do it the way you feel best.  Then sew the other edge just like you did the first edge.

Try it in the book for size, then fold down the excess raw edged material at the open top, to the back.  Press.  Sew a large X thru both thicknesses and reinforce your pocket and elastic stitching, too.  Also sew across the top to hold that excess to the back.  Trim it off if necessary. (I didn't edge stitch the top too closely because I wanted a little room to slide an opened paperclip into that space.)

 Now you can glue this panel into place.  Apply white glue to the book and be sure to get a good amount down, especially where the elastic is.  BUT!  Don't glue the pocket down.  It needs to stay free so the e-reader can slide in and out easily, for charging, downloading, etc. Because this part is loose and you can see under there, that is why I added that other piece of fabric, I wanted to cover that part of the book up.  It finishes it off nicely, no raw book showing.

 I put a piece of cardboard down over the panel (except for that bottom inch or so where the pocket is) and weighted it down with birdseed and rocks.  (That was exciting, the bag holding the rocks broke right then and 400 little shiny pebbles went everywhere, CRAP!)  I also glued down the fabric inside the left cover.

 I left that to dry overnight.  Now it's time to finish it up!  Another piece of elastic for the closure and a breakaway cat collar buckle.  You could make your strap from ribbon, fabric, velcro, a snap, whatever.  I have these buckles that I use to make our cats collars and they come in really handy. Click that link for more info on getting the same hardware.

 I made the strap just like a collar - it's adjustable in case the elastic ever starts to get weak.  I punched 2 small holes thru the back of the book with a small nail and a hammer and then sewed the elastic in place with just a couple of stitches.  See the stitches just below the center of the X?  It just needs to be strong enough so you don't lose the strap.

This is how it looks with the e-reader in place.  My stylus rides inside on the spine and I have a bent paperclip in the top seam allowance that is my reset pin if ever I need it.  My power button is inside the pocket at the very bottom edge but I can feel it and press it thru the fabric to turn it on and off.

 And all closed up.  Look, puppy has a big collar!  :)

It's a really easy project- if you didn't have to wait for glue to dry, you could do this in 2 hours or less, I'm sure.  And you'd have a nice hard cover for your e-reader, one that the cats can walk across and not cause you to flip out.  I hope that this tute was helpful.  Have fun at the used bookstores, finding just the right book for your e-reader!