After the skirt misadventure, TFQ and I decided to make a charger case. I was using a very elegant vegetable bag crammed full of tangled cords and that was the inspiration.
We used a SewCraftyJess tutorial for a jewelry case and modified it slightly.
Some of the modifications we made had to do with size.I also noticed that Jess, who did the tutorial, must have had a different type of vinyl (I used the leftovers from my clear bag project), because she did not need a roller foot or tissue paper. I need both of those at various times to force the vinyl through the machine. I don’t think this is problem/issue if you are using some of the flannel back oilcloth and keep the flannel side against the machine bed. For the purposes of this charger case, I couldn’t guarantee that I could have something between the vinyl and the machine bed at all times. This is when I put the tissue under the vinyl. Yes, the bits of tissue paper had to be picked out with tweezers, but that was the lesser of two evils (the first evil being me screaming and berating the vinyl, my machine, etc). I have some tweezers with very sharp points and long handles and they worked very well.
Also, as the layers built up (vinyl twice for top stitching, zipper, etc), the thread started to break, so I lengthened the stitch length and that worked better. I might use a larger thread than 50wt if I made another charger case.
I thought not stitching the back to the front would be a problem, but it seems not to be, though you could stitch all the way through the layers if you wanted.
The tie was a bit of a puzzle. I ended up machine sewing it to the center of the binding on one of the short ends. It seems to work fine. I might try velcro or a magnetic snap if I made this again. I used the technique for making the ties that I use for making bag handles (4x desired width, fold in half and press, fold outside edges to press line and press again, fold on original press line, stitch around entire outside edge). The ties would have had more style if I had made a point at the end.
I am pretty happy with how it came out, though I am thinking that aqua dots might have been a better choice for the inside. I wanted something light so I could see what chargers were where. All of these little tweaks are why I made things more than once – to see if my imagined tweaks would work better.
I, too, have an elegant vegetable bag for my various cords and chargers. This looks so pretty! I am put off by zippers…do you have an easy way to do them?
I haven’t done many zippers in my life. I just put on the zipper foot and sewed as close as I could to the teeth. No big drama. I sewed the ends of the zipper in when I went around the outside. I did hit a metal part of one zipper and break a needle, but readjusted and did it over without the needle breaking part.
This turned out really cool, I think I need to make one for myself, and maybe DH since he takes many chargers on his trips.
Great idea! You might use some upholstery fabric (if your machine can handle the layers) with his since he travels so much or interface the regular cotton. Even if you don’t travel, it is a pretty storage facility for cords and chargers.
I agree with you about the aqua dots – didn’t even think about all those white chargers — but it’s so cool to see this completed! I will definitely be making one. And then walking around my house to come up with ideas for other things that need to be stored in zippered vinyl cases…
Can’t wait to see what you come up with. Happy to help sew zippers or whatever. Let me know!