My Problem
On September 16th, I posted on my FRIDAY ! FREEBIES Facebook post, some free tutorials and patterns for making eye glass cases. Well, I made some. You can do about half a dozen in one session on a rainy afternoon. It was pretty easy and they are fun and give you instant gratification. Nice thing to do between those longer projects and a great way to use up scraps – you only need about 6″ X 7″ each of a cover fabric and a lining fabric. In addition, you need small piece of fusible batting.
Did I mention I had a penchant for buying reading glasses (no, not the $600 kind). Here you can see my problem. These all came with just some cheap plastic bags for covers.
Here is the final result and then some details about how to do it.
Four finished cases
First of all, what do you need?
Selection of Fabrics and Equipment
- Color coordinated fabrics for outside and lining
- fusible lightweight batting
- paper and pencil and rule to create pattern
- thread
- scissors
- sewing machine
- iron
Drawing the pattern
First step – create a pattern. I used the measurements from one of the tutorials and also looked at my existing eyeglass cases. I came up with the dimensions of 6 1/2″ around and 7″ long. This allows for a 1/4″ seam allowance. I added in a rounded top corner as an option. Notice that I marked the FOLD line. I then cut the pattern out to make it easier to use.
Place the pattern on the fold of the fabric and cut. I use the rotary cutter because I find it easier.
Cutting the fabric
I used the pattern to cut the outer fabric piece, the lining and the fusible batting.
Three identical pieces.
Next step…iron the glue side of the fusible web to the WRONG side of your outer fabric.
Iron on the batting. Be sure to get the right side or your iron will be a bigggg mess!
Pin the right sides of the outer fabric and lining together leaving a gap at the bottom for turning it inside out.
Sew 1/4″ fro the edge except for the opening. Be sure to reverse or fix or sewing in place at beginning and end.
After you’ve turned the item inside out, trim the corners and rounded corners and tuck in the open edges and iron.
Now you have several choices. You can choose to add a tab, add an ornamental tab, add no tab, and sew up to the top or almost up to the top. I’ll explain with illustrations below. Also, you can simply sewing the two sides together – no turning necessary, or sew right sides together and get a border edge.
I noticed that if I selected the last option, with all the extra seams, it made the final case smaller.
Here are some examples of the options referred to above.
Curved top. Sewn to edge of curve. Top stitched together on the outside – no turning inside out.
Here I decided to create a contrasting band on the top of the outside of the case. I cut off about an inch and then sewed on about 1 1/2″ band to allow for seam allowances.
I pressed the band up – see below. 
I created a short tab by folding the 1″ scrap and top stitching it. I then sewed it to the right side of the case. 
The case is now pinned. You can see the tab sticking out just a little near the yellow pin. 
I have to say, it was very difficult to turn this once I’d sewed it. I think if I was going to use the “turned” effect, I would make the original pattern at least 1/2″ wider. 
Finished product…glasses stick out just a tiny bit – I think it was the bulk of the seam allowances and if I did it again, I’d also lengthen the pattern a wee bit.
In another variation, I top-stitched a band on the outside fabric that matched the lining. Love this one. It has straight sides and no tab. I don’t think a tab is necessary but you might want to do one for fun. To apply the band, I simple cut a piece of a suitable size, ironed under a 1/2″ seam allowance and then top-stitched onto the black fabric which had already had the batting ironed on the reverse. This is finished by folding over and being top-stitched on the outside which allows a bit of the lining to show through around the edges.
Case on the right is lined with the handwriting fabric and has a band of that fabric on the outside of the case.
I also experimented with a trapunto effect with less success. However, this one has a novelty tab – simply a single piece from a fringe of butterflies. To create the trapunto effect, I ironed batting onto the reverse of the heart and then (attempted) to do a buttonhole stitch around the outside of the heart. The butterfly tab has some bias tape at it’s base and I was able to sew that inside the top-stitched outside seam.
Go wild and select the silliest or most colorful fabrics you can find. Use up your scraps. These cost almost nothing to make and will provide you with so much pleasure. Enjoy!
