A Minor Foray Into "Fabric Land" Part 1 of 2

Assembling the pieces of my needle-case project...

...using a vintage table runner for the fabric.

Adding velcro prior to sewing the two parts together...

...this way, it won't show on the exterior of the finished case.

Pinning the layers together prior to stitching.

The finished case front...

...and back...

...and opened up, holding needles.

Another one, but larger this time (and rounded off on all four corners)...

...to hold even more needles!

Because I've been using my sewing machine a bit more lately...

...to fashion fabric linings and leather straps for my felted bags...

...I recently purchased a large quantity of needles.

In order to keep the 'regulars' from the 'denims' and the 'leathers'...

...I decided to fashion a fabric case for them.

Luckily for me, I found that Laura had already posted a terrific tutorial on this project...

...and for once, I didn't have to 'reinvent the wheel'! :)

My only 'amendments' to her instructions are as follows:

I didn't leave any 'ease' in the elastic as I was sewing it on...

...(finding that it held better this way)...

 ...and I used velcro instead of snaps as a fastener...

...sewing it to each piece of fabric prior to sewing them together.

(Please make sure to check the position of each piece prior to sewing...

...since one needs to be at the top, and one at the bottom!)

Next time: a make-up bag made from old jeans...

...and a quite new kind of fabric!

"Sampler" Needle-Case

Felted needle-case with beads...

...sari silk waste and sari silk ribbon.

With the ribbon closure tied...front side...

...and back side.

Green felt pages (left-overs from my 'couture jacket')...

...sewn in with bead accents.

While I was in Michigan for the Creative Felt Gathering...

...I took a little time on our 'free afternoon' just to play around with wool.

One of my fellow students had a lovely felted needle-case with her...

...and I thought that it would be a quick and fun project to try!

There were also several felting techniques that I'd been dying to attempt...

...so I decided to incorporate them all into one case, like an old-fashioned 'sampler'!! :)

My friend, Kim often felts ribbon or lace into her felt...

...and then uses it as a tie closure.

My friend, Nicola uses beads, threaded onto a narrow piece of roving...

...to felt beads into a project without sewing.

And my friend, Pam, who was, luckily, also present at the CFG...

...stitches beads to the 'fold lines' of her finished needle cases...

...to prettily hold the pages in place.

I cut a small foam resist and covered it with layers of wool roving...

...then added strips of sari silk, holding them in place with wisps of wool.

(If you wet the strips of silk first, it helps to flatten them out for proper placement.)

I found a needle that would fit, easily, through the holes in my beads...

...then threaded it with a thin strand of wool roving, and pulled beads onto the fiber.

I laid these out onto the project surface, along with some sari silk waste...

...and began felting.

I treated this project like a  mini-bookcover...

...but cut a slit, instead of an oval, in order to remove the resist.

I cut pages of finished felt to fit the case...

...and attached them with bead accents placed on the inside and outside of the case.

As it was a 'sampler', I wasn't too concerned with design or element placement this time...

...but it did give me a good idea about how to use these techniques in the future!