Adventures in making the Cricut Expression Cover

Well-- I will learn to not say " I will post an update tomorrow" when "tomorrow" is on the weekend!

I DID manage to get some sewing in-- just didn't have time to post about it until today.

This is the only pic I took of Attempt #1 at making the dust cover. I basically cut a rectangle the dimensions of the width across the top of the machine and the length I measured from back to front (bottom of machine at back, over the top and back down to table on front). Then I cut 2 rectangles for the ends (width and height of the machine). I sewed it all together and attached elastic to the bottom. It basically looked like a long shower cap for the Cricut! It was not quite long enough  and a little short on the front-- so back to the drawing board.

I then began searching online for a guideline, instructions, Something to help. Found a few ideas... and this is the one I used. It had a good basic pattern and instructions. But this was not for the Expression, so I had to do a litte measuring and figuring.

I had more of the Brown material I had used on the "shower cap" so I started again. Cut out the large rectangle for the body and I actually had a pattern for the ends this time! This is a pic with the 3 peices sewn together and showing one end.  I then "tried it on" and it was still a little snug. The "width " measurement I took was across the bottom, but about 1.5 inches from the bottom the machine gets wider. I can easily fix that by adding a 2.5 inch strip of some yellow random dot material.

So I cut the cover with the rotary scissors... about 1/3 of the way from the left side and proceeded to add width.

This ALMOST fixed the problem...but I still needed some extra width at the 1.5inch from the bottom point. See it pulling?

Also, I wanted a snugger fit on the ends.  So... I decided this was just a learning experience anyway, so I started pinning and sewing!

The result is below.

I added a little vent to the contrasting strip ( it's like I did to some jeans way back in the day!)  I also cut down the heigth of the ends. I like the way the ends are nice and snug now... but still not happy with the need for a little more room at the widest point across the front.

Have my pattern making gear out and with what I've learned from making this one, the next one will be perfect! My plan is to make my OWN pattern and post a tutorial on the correct way to make a Cricut Dust Cover. I guess today has been a mini-tutorial on how I learned to make the Dust Cover.. LOL!

Another new thing this weekend is I signed up at artfire.com and opened a shop to sell fabric and handmade items. I will have the link tomorrow to my shop and some items in it.~~Meant to do the same thing on Etsy-- but they were down for maintenance-so will  do that one later.

Thanks for Stopping By and Happy Sewing!