A Cover for the Music Rolls....

Several years ago when I had the half bath repainted the painter would not re-attach the toilet paper holder.  He said, and he's right, too many things can go wrong.  He convinced me to get one of the stands similar to what he had at home.  Here's what I came home with:

It's really pretty slick and simple.  While I live alone and have long abandoned the over the top or up from the bottom idiosyncrasies, this stand accommodates everyone:  just turn the stand around and you're happy or perhaps unhappy.  Anyway, I'm experimenting with new paper and it does not come with any cover to protect the roll from dust, dog hair and just plain dirt that walks in.  This bath is next to the side door to the backyard and a few feet from the garage.  The dogs and I do a great job of ruining any cleaning job I do!  So here comes my little tutorial on keeping new TP rolls clean.

I chose fabric that never was made into place mats....what a change in thought!  This particular fabric is cotton but quite heavy with a cross weave.  It would make a great tablecloth for outdoors.  The next big choice is which fusible interfacing to use.  I have several from making a variety of hand bags and wallets.  There is stiff interfacing and then there is STIFF.  I opted for the latter.  If to do again stiff in lower case would be just fine.  I did not want this cover to slouch like worn knee socks ( yes, I wore them and was always pulling them up)

 After fusing the fabric I trimmed the interfacing peeking off the edges.  I also was hoping to leave the top selvedge as the finishing edge, as it was very nice selvedge. 

 This picture shows two things:  how stiff it was even after steam pressing the seam open and real air head thought #1:  The seam is basted, thinking I just plunk this zipper in one two three.  Lay it flat and sew up one side and down the other and the top tabs will be so even.  Dah!  It's so stiff I can't feed it through!  So the seam ripper video I watched a year or so came in handy.  You really need to watch this video to help "unsew" as one of the demonstrators said. 

After undoing the seam and standing on my head, since I had no instructions to speak French at for being unclear, you can see the zipper installed.  I used my old accounting problem solver technique:  "how should it be and what will it take to get there" approach.  The zipper was several inches longer than the  height needed, which worked out very well.  Keeping the zipper pull away from the needle did help while fighting the stiffness.  I chose not to line the inside, worrying about thickness.  For all the sewing I used my walking foot and by chance had a large micro needle in use.  The very sharp needle was very helpful.  The stitch length was 3.5.  I chose the larger stitch length in case I had to rip but instead it helped keep the feed smooth through the walking foot.  Also, the large basting type stitch was sure to keep me from having to rip it apart again!  Have I told you my grandmother was a Murphy!

I did add finishing to the top and bottom.  The standard binding for a quilt was used, only attaching it first to the inside and machine top stitching on the outside (no hand work).  My Janome 6500 is a great machine in the quilting family of machines.  I do miss it not having a swing arm.  I opted to not set up my small Brother machine which would have made the sewing of the binding so much easier.  It came out well enough for the first sample and for my use.

 Almost done! As you can see the top zipper tabs needed disguising.

 If you should attempt this project or a similar one, be sure to sew across the zipper bottom before trimming.

 The top stitching added a finishing touch but was also needed to flatten the stiff edges from the interfacing.  This feature was completed as each side of the zipper was sewn.

 Wrestling with the bear began when attaching the binding.  I'm not holding the left side up in the above picture.  It had a life of its own!  My stitching speed was about -10mph (negative).

 The finished project!

All in all after the fusing of the fabric, my impromptu project took just a couple hours.

How are you spending your summer's free time?  This project definitely kept me entertained while the Biblical floods came to West Michigan!


You may enjoy the tutorial from  Sew to Love It demonstrating the ladder stitch.  It's a nice method to know when enclosing the gap when doing a flip and turn project.