Saturday, December 27, 2014

What's Black & White & Red All Over....Kitchen Aid Cover!

As I'm writing this it is August 25th and yes I was already working on Christmas presents in August!! 

I'm so happy with the way this turned out...I even shocked myself! 


A couple days before I wrote this post my mom had mentioned that she wanted a cover for her Kitchen Aid mixer. She even mentioned it would be a nice Christmas present. Enter Pinterest and then Joann Fabrics and I was off on a new adventure. I was trying to find some pattern that had grapes, apples and pears, but they didn't have one. All the patterns with grapes had wine bottles on them and I didn't think that would work so I found this cool old coffee pattern. I thought the burst of red made it fun! 


The first thing I did was cut the main body into 4 pieces. 2 - 7" x 8" and 2 - 17" x 12". If you use a fabric that doesn't have a pattern that's directional then you could just cut one big piece that's 17" x 23". 


I had to cut the big piece into two pieces so I could sew it together so both size would look right. 


See...now both sides will have the coffee signs the right way! 


After that you take one of the smaller pieces and place the long side of the smaller and larger sizes together with the right sides touching. Then pin around like the picture above shows. Take the other small pieces and pin it to the other side of the big piece. It's really hard to explain. Also I don't know about you, but when I read patterns they rarely make sense. I'm usually thinking it's going to be SO difficult, but then once you start doing it and you actually have the pieces of fabric in your hands it makes sense. 


Then I used the rest of the body fabric and cut them into 4 stripes that were 3" wide. Then you sew the ends of this fabric together right sides touching. You'll end up making a loop. You only want the loop to be 54" long so after you sew all 4 into a line measure until you get to 54" and then trim it and then sew the ends together to make a loop.


After making a look you'll have to press the fabric so the wrong sizes are touching...it should look like the picture above. Go ahead and set this aside for later. 


Now take that lovely accents color and cut it into 4 different pieces...2 - 4" x 7" & 2 - 4" x 17" pieces. 


Now sew one of the smaller pieces onto one of the larger pieces right sides face each other. Then sew the other small piece to the other end of the long one. After that sew the other long piece to the ends of the two short pieces. Now you have another loop. 


Take your main body pieces and sew the accent fabric onto the end with the right sides faces. 


The directions called for me to sew it like normal and then go back and do a zigzag stitch on the very edge. It's supposed to give it a bit more strength I guess. After that press the seam up towards the top of the cover. 


Then do a top stitch around on the right side securing the seam.


Now for that smaller loop we made earlier....do a zigzag stitch all around the edge to secure the fabric. The instructions that I followed showed me how to do a ruffle for the bottom, but my ruffle did not work out at all. 


So instead I just measured ever 4" and then pinned the fabric over making it look pleated. This worked out perfectly! 


Pin the pleated pieces to the bottom of the accent pieces and stitch it on. 


Press the seam towards the top of the cover and then do a normal top stitch around the outside like we did earlier after attaching the accent color. 


I know these instructions are about as clear as mud so if you'd like to make one yourself you can click here for the pattern I used. I think it turned out SO cute and I'm sure it looks great on my mom's Kitchen Aid Mixer! In all it took me about 2 hours, but of course that was spread out over half a day due to kids. The thought of actually sitting and finishing a sewing project start to finish sounds like a miracle, but I did finish this the same day I started it so that counts for something! 

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