Sewing Machine Cover Tutorial
Saturday, July 5, 2008 9:23
AKA Pimp My Machine 
I recently took my Brother in for a service and was berated for the large amount of dust inside of her, of course there was a dust cover in the box when I bought it, but it just isn’t pretty, and I’d far rather be looking at my machine that a big pvc covered blob sitting on my desk. So, after feeling suitably guilty for not looking after her, I decided to treat my sewing machine to a makeover and make up a shiny new dust cover to fit in with the rest of my craft room. This is another simple project and an excellent way to try out box corners for the first time.
Tutorial is behind the jump —>
You will need:
- Half a yard of outer fabric (this superb fabric is from the “Sew Fancy” range by Loralie Designs)
- Half a yard of your lining fabric (just plain white homespun for me)
- Novelty yarn/ribbon/ric rac (totally optional, but I wanted to tie it in with my inspiration board)
Measure and cut your fabric, I can’t give you exact measurements because all machines will be different. You want to measure from the midway point at each side, around the front and then to the midway point on the other side, add a little more for a seam allowance and this is your width and for my Brother XL-2230 it was 50cm(20 inches). Then measure the midway point at the top to your desk, 
for me this was 35cm(14 inches)if you want to leave your machine threaded then you’ll have to add extra to cover that. Cut two rectangles from your lining and two more from your outer fabric – it’s better to have too much fabric so you can shave some off when you’ve worked out the fit, than not have enough and have the cover too tight!
Place your fabric right sides together and sew the three sides so you’re left with an opening at the bottom, slip it over your machine to test the fit, if it fits well that’s fab, if it’s a little loose then just take the seams in a bit more.
We’re going to do box corners, they’re my favourite way of doing corners as it means I don’t have to think about lining up corners or battling with sewing in 3D. As great as they are they’re awkward to explain, so if you have trouble understanding this let me know and I’ll see what I can do to reword it in a way that might be more understandable. Whilst your fabric is over your machine pin where you would like the corners to come in, it’s just a rough idea at the point so it doesn’t have to be perfect, flatten the corners of your cover so that you can feel the seams matching through the sides and shove your pin in where you would sew.
Pull it off, flatten the corners so that they’re neat and the seams match perfectly, mark your sewing line with a ruler making note of how far away from the point it is. Do exactly the same on the opposing side keeping the distance between the point at the sewing line exactly the same. Pin it so the bottom fabric doesn’t shift and sew on your marked line, don’t cut off the excess yet!
Check the fit again to make sure your corners are okay, if everything looks good then go ahead and trim the excess off, if not, see what needs to be done – are the corners too tight? Then just unpick and move the sewing line closer to the point, are the corners too loose? move the sewing line further away from the point – no unpicking needed
Do exactly the same with your outer pieces, I’d recommend doing your lining first just so that any mistakes will be hidden inside the cover! Here is a close up of the finished box corner you can see the seams matched up and the corner formed. This technique is one I always use for bag bottoms, particularly large ones, it’s easy once you get the hang of it and the less seams you have the less weak points there are, not important here, but great when you’re lugging about everything but the kitchen sink in your bag.
Place your outer fabric inside your lining, right sides together. Pin the seams first and then the rest of the fabric. Stitch around leaving a couple of inches for turning. Turn right way out, push your lining inside the outer and topstitch all the way around making sure to catch the fabric to close your turning gap. Don’t forget to gaze in awe at my fat pregnant fingers.
And you’re all done, super easy and your sewing machine is now totally pimping. I added some novelty yarn to tie it in with the rest of my craft room, ricrac or some really funky craft ribbon would look great as well.
ETA: It’s just clicked for me (nine hours after I published this post!) that because of the lining this cover is completely reversible as well, so you could use two pretty fabrics and change up the look occasionally as you wanted 
If you made this (or I’ve completely lost you with my instructions!) let me know, feedback is always appreciated.
This tutorial is for personal use only, please do not sell the finished items.
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Tutorial Tuesday: Sewing Machine Cover Tutorial « Not Nigella says:
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Carol says:
July 29th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I just finished making a sewing machine cover using this tutorial. GREAT!!!! Easy to understand, and the results are fantastic! I used material to coordinate with the rest of my craft room. THANKS!
Fern says:
July 29th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Glad you enjoyed it Carol, if you have a flickr account feel free to post the finished cover in our Craft Blog group! http://flickr.com/groups/craftblog/
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LorY says:
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:07 am
I finally got around to making this project. So easy to do. I am a new sewer and this one project I did not ruin. Thanks for your great tutorial. Hope to try more of them.
LorY
apaola says:
August 7th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
ciao ciao
I’ have see your blog…and… very very beautiful..
very beautiful job and tutorial and photo!!!
Ireturn to you blog..
ciao
ciao
anna paola Tuscany- italy
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Catherine says:
August 28th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Loved it!! As you suggested, I made mine reverseable–used same fabric that you did on one side and Sew Fancy tape measures fabric on the other. I made mine about 4 inches taller than my machine and folded the inside to the outside like a cuff so the inside fabric acts as an accent. Also, when I have my extention table on, and can pull the cuff down and cover the whole machine. Your directions were outstanding and clear. Great job!!!
Phylis Sibley says:
November 11th, 2008 at 3:41 am
I also just finished my sewing machine cover. It looks great. Thanks for the help…This tutorial was a real big help.
Caley says:
November 18th, 2008 at 1:00 am
Thank you for the brilliant tutorial. The fabric is a great touch! I’ve included this in our round-up of the best sewing machine cover tutorials here:
http://www.favecrafts.com/Sewing/7-Sewing-Machine-Cover-Tutorials-How-to-Sewing-Machine-Cover
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Katie says:
January 21st, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Great tutorial! I am a new sewer (just got a machine for Christmas) and made a really sweet little cover with your directions. Thanks for posting this!
I’ll post pictures of it on my blog in a few days if you want to see: http://tryingnewoldthings.blogspot.com/
amy says:
February 1st, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Hi! I just finished making this for my machine. It looks great; thanks for the tutorial!
Sherezada says:
February 16th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Thanks for sharing such a great tutorial! I finally made one, and I have to say this was incredibly easy to follow for my very first non-supervised sewing project. If you want to see, I shared it on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zhaddi/3283497395/ . Not perfect, by any means, but better than I would’ve been able to make without your instructions!
Theresa Rein says:
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:04 am
I love this pattern. Was talking to my husband about needing a new cover & he’s the one that found this. The box corners were so easy. My new cover looks awesome. Thanks
Anne says:
March 26th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I am looking for an already made sewing machine cover, can anyone help?
Anne
Linda Bott says:
May 10th, 2009 at 5:51 am
love the fabric for your cover…where did you get it?
Mjet says:
May 13th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Very nice tutorial! Here’s my result…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/myet/3527086571/
Thanks!
rachel says:
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:10 pm
I’m a brand new sewer and just finished a cute cover thanks to you. I added a little loop ribbon on the top so I can pull if off dramatically in one fell swoop when I have a big sewing urge. Thank you!!
S. Vaka says:
September 5th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Hello! My name is S. Vaka and I’m a columnist for HandmadeNews.org. I thought you’d like to know that I mentioned your Sewing Machine Cover Tutorial in an article I wrote on handmade organization. You can see the article here: http://www.handmadenews.org/article/index.php?id=3559 If you like it, feel free to share it with your friends and give it a green thumb!
sandrar says:
September 11th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
AngelMira says:
November 8th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Very nice! I’d love to replace my silly plastic sewing machine cover! Thank you for sharing!
Arisah says:
December 6th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Awesome tutorial! I just got a sewing machine last week and (thanks to your wonderful tutorial) my first project turned out beautifully!!
stitchmama says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Thanks so much for this tutorial! It’s easy to follow and fabulous. I just started sewing and finished a nice little cover up in half an hour. Am posting a photo of it on my blog.