Sunday, December 20, 2009

Not so De-Vinyl...

I got a lovely KitchenAid Mixer for my birthday (thanks Mom!) and after my aunt mentioned how dusty hers gets I thought I'd sew a cover for it...

There's a free tutorial for appliance covers from sewing.about.com
DISCLAIMER: The tutorial I followed is perfectly adequate, all failures associated with this project are from my own not-so-well-thought-out adaptations.

Like most KitchenAid owners, I think my appliance is beautiful and don't want to hide it away in shame, so I thought clear vinyl would be the solution. I changed the pattern to be 2 inches shorter, and then added 3 inches of cute fabric. (My model has a glass bowl which I think is slightly larger/wider)

Not completely terrible from a distance:


One of the problem areas up close:


The main problems are that the seams won't turn out properly, and the fabric along the bottom is not stiff enough to compete with the vinyl. I realize it could be much worse, I'm just still baffled by how bad this looks compared to my initial mental imagine of it. It's not so bad that it's not going to sit on my kitchen counter until I find a way to fix or replace it... but that's because I just moved and have too many other home sewing projects in my head that this one needs to stew for a while.

One or both of the following likely lead to my demise:
#1 - The vinyl I selected was probably too thick (16 gauge)
#2 - Sewing curves in vinyl is very challenging, and this pattern is two ovals being sewn to a rectangle. Women of the 1950s that sewed vinyl slip-covers for their living room furniture must have had crazy sewing skills (and unlimited patience).

To redeem my sewing confidence, I challenged myself to make a softie in an hour last night (challenge prompted by realizing that it was the Saturday before Xmas which meant the stores were all packed with shoppers, and I didn't have a gift to take to a First Birthday party that was going to start in 2 hours.) It ended up taking an hour and 20 minutes, but that's from the time I sat down at the computer to google a softie tutorial, and includes the time rummaging through my fabric bins deciding what to use. The green dots from the mixer cover also made it onto Lucy the Goosey, for which you can find a free tutorial from The Long Thread.

The one-year-old recipient grabbed and carried her by the beak immediately, so I figure that's enough of a compliment to get me back to my home-sewing projects.

3 comments:

  1. I don't understand why you think your cover looks so bad. I think you did a great job! I have a mixer that needs a cover, so thanks for the idea. Your red one with the glass bowl is awesome. I never thought I'd be admiring or envious of someone's mixer!

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  2. I've thought about making a cover for my Kitchen Aid as well, but I couldn't imagine it looking good. Yours looks really good! I love the way you jazzed it up with the polka dot strip. I had the same problems sewing curves on vinyl when I made some purses for Christmas. It was very hard to do! But really, in the pictures your cover looks great. I might even resurrect the idea using your tips!

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  3. I think it looks great! How about if you cut the pattern from vinyl as is (without cutting off 3 in.) and just sew the polka dot fabric edge on top of the vinyl. Also, maybe squaring off the top instead of cutting it oval? Or, maybe sew the seam on the outside and cover it with self made bias strips (like a quilt binding). Then you wouldn't have to worry about the seams laying flat. Hope this is understandable and helps some. I love your idea of the vinyl and polkadots!

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