23 August 2011

I am so excited to share a quick and easy tutorial with y'all today! (And I do mean quick - after I shot the tutorial I did a time trial to see how fast I could make one without pausing to take photos of each step. Working at a normal, relaxed pace I completed the project in 9 minutes and 7 seconds. Told you it was quick!)

Quick but also super useful. You'll use this every day (if you use a flat iron or curling iron every day) and it's especially handy if you're traveling or going to the gym because you won't have to wait for your iron to cool before packing it away.

Y'all, I'm so pleased to share with you, my quick and easy Flat Iron Cover Tutorial!

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What you'll need:
11"x6" pieces of the following three fabrics: Insul-Bright, pretty cotton fabric (for outside), and plain cotton fabric (for inside)
{I used Sugar Pop Summer Flowers from Sew Fresh Fabrics for my main fabric}
You'll also need about 7" of 1/2" double fold bias tape - buy some or make your own
Coordinating thread
Tailor tape

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You'll also need a sewing machine. You know I'm rather attached to mine. :)

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Getting Started:
Using your tailor tape, measure the circumference of your flat iron (or curling iron) at the widest point. Also measure the length.
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Now, if you have a Chi, the work has been done for you. You can use my measurements. If not, I'll show you how I did my work so you can adjust yours accordingly.

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A few notes about my notes: after I made these notes, I adjusted the width of the cut to 6" instead of 5.5" and it's good that I did - I needed that extra wriggle room. Also, I suggested the use of home decor fabric on my notes - that's probably the very best (I made one about a year ago with home decor fabric and it's been great and kept the warm inside), but quilting weight fabric will work as well. The Insul-Bright is good stuff.

Now, cut your three pieces to the size you've determined. And we're on to the quilt sandwich!

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Lay your three fabric pieces in a stack, plain cotton first, then Insul-Bright, then your pretty fabric (right side facing up) and pin in place.

Now, quilt your cute little stack. Beginning on the right side, stitch several lines, each 1/2" from the next to make your quilt sandwich all one piece.
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You may need to square things up when you're finished if your pile shifted at all.

You're already halfway finished!

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Now take your piece of bias tape. Open it up and tuck one of the short ends of your quilted piece into the crease of the bias tape. Stitch the bias tape onto your quilted piece, close to the end. (You're only catching one side of the bt this time.)
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Now fold the bias tape up and over your quilted piece and stick it in place. (I like to stitch each side individually so I can be sure that nothing gets missed and the stitch that shows is a strait and sure one.)
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Seriously, almost done. Yay!

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Just fold your piece lengthwise, right sides together. Stich across the top and down the side, with a 1/4" seam allowance.

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Trim the excess off the corners, then turn it right side out (a dowel rod or pencil are both useful for this maneuver).
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And...

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It's all pretty and tidy AND functional!

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Just slip it on your hot flat iron and run! Hurrah!

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As with all of my tutorials, you are completely welcome to use this tutorial to make items for sale in your Etsy shop or at craft fairs and such. I'd love it if you would share a link back to your source (me!) and I always love to see what y'all make with my tutorials, so please share them here!

Have a lovely Tuesday, friends! What are y'all up to this week?

**Update** For a limited time I am selling flat iron cover kits in my Etsy shop. I am also taking custom orders for flat iron covers this week only. More details here.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the Brother NX800 machine mentioned above for free in exchange for a mention of the product in my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

11 comments:

Amanda said...

Will you be selling these on Etsy at all? I would love one but I have absolutely no idea how to sew though.

keight dukes said...

cant decide if i should be embarrassed or proud of how fast i made this, tweeted it and uploaded it in your flickr.

mmunford2000 said...

A few weeks ago I decided to make something like this to hold ipads or kindles for my kids' teachers. However, any quilted material (Vera Bradley-ish) is ugly and expensive. So my question is, how do you ensure such straight lines when machine quilting?

sandra said...

not that i want to be gross, but this would work great for sex toys, too.

Alyssa said...

Cute! Glad I have a Chi because I just don't do math! Did you make your bias tape, or buy it, and what size BT maker do you have?

Ashley said...

I'm making one ASAP! I'm also glad to not have to do the math! :)

Kristin said...

You are awesome. That is all :)

Unknown said...

That is so cute! And I am totally LOL at Sandra!!

Sarah-Anne said...

totally gonna make one of these for my cousin this Christmas!

Alaina Jalosky said...

This is exciting! I needed a last-minute "finisher" gift to put in my stash for my friend's birthday tonight. Found this tutorial, headed to joann's yesterday and bought a fat quarter and bias tape for $3! Now it's naptime, so I'm off to make this (and will probably (hopefully) have enough time to make chili for dinner before the babe wakes up!). I had eyed up some much more complicated versions (involving zippers...yikes) in the Walmart clearance section a few weeks ago and was trying to come up with a DIY version. This is perfect. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Great idea! :) thanks for the tips. Now I can make my Karmin G3 salon pro flat iron, look better