Making a Custom Serger Cover

poweredbyquilting

6 years ago

I bought my Juki serger at the Original Sewing Expo last November, and I decided that I wanted to make a custom dust cover for the machine. I made the cover without a formal pattern, and I think it turned out pretty well.

Here is the following process I used to make my custom serger cover. Please note that sergers come in all different shapes and sizes and my dimensions are prior to trimming down to fit my specific serger. I also used a 1/2" seam allowance for all of my stitching.

Materials Needed:

Approximately 1 yard of Outer Fabric
Approximately 1 yard of Muslin
Approximately 18"x 90" of batting

I figured my cover should have an overall quilted piece that covers front to back with two side pieces. In order to figure out the dimensions of the side pieces, the above diagram is how I measured my serger. Note: the measurements I came up with are ROUGH and rounded up. My thought was if it turns out too big, you could always trim it down during construction.

I did not actually measure the diagonal, I figured I could cut the diagonal when I trimmed the side pieces. I sketched out the side pieces on my graph paper and added 1" to each of the dimensions to account for a 1/2" seam allowance I planned on using. I did a little math to add up the edges and the total was just over 44". I decided that I would not add any length to the width of fabric panel that I created because I was oversizing anyway.

The next step is to quilt the panels. I cut my panels to quilt slightly larger so I had space to trim it down after quilting. My quilting was a straight line quilting on the short sides approximately 1.5" apart. I set aside the piece I made that was width of fabric.

For the quilted panels, remember that these are mirrored. I folded the quilted panel in half with the right sides of the fabric facing outwards to cut mirror image pieces of the side panels. Once I have these cut to my rough dimensions, I physically put it next to my serger to fine tune my sizing. I ended up taking off about 1.5" from the bottom and 0.5" from the top.

With right sides together, sew one panel to the width of fabric panel that covers the serger from front to back. Take the cover back to the serger and trim the width to the desired fit of the cover. Now, sew the other panel to the cover. The last step is to put the cover over your machine and trim the length to the desired fit. Ta Da!

I was thinking that I should add some binding to the edge and maybe add lining to the cover, but the obvious answer came to me… I can serger the ends!!!! I sergered the inside seams and the outer edge of the cover to finish it off!

Have you ever made custom items without a pattern? How did it turn out for you?

Join me again on Friday for Friday Foto Fun and on Sunday for the #365DayOfArtPBQChallenge! Link up and share your progress on your own projects!