My poor naked Bernina: Helpless against dust and animal puke.

As you recall, I found an unpleasant surprise when I recently used my Bernina. In order to protect her from further acts of desecration, I have embarked upon a project to make a Bernina Cozy.

I’m making this way more complicated than it need be, but, like everything else, this is an excuse to try something different.

First, I measured the machine. I want my cozy to cover the machine while it’s set up and ready to go, so that all I need to do is dramatically lift off my cozy to reveal a machine with the table on, the pedal plugged in, and even the thread standing at attention. So, I measured front to back, top to bottom and side to side while all of this was assembled. Then I added two inches to each measurement. Part of that is for seam allowance, and the rest is for ease – loose fitting clothes for comfort.

Then I forgot the measurements. But that’s okay, because I won’t really need them for a while.

I want my cozy to be a random quilty type pattern, using some border pattern fabric that I picked up off the bargain table on a whim and never used. I’ve paired it with some natural cotton.

I cut the border fabric in various widths, at a length of about 22″, so I wouldn’t have to move my quilting ruler to cut it. The fussy cut stripes are measured so that the motif I want to use is bordered by about 3/8″ fabric on either side, to leave room for a 1/4″ seam allowance and some breathing room.

If you fussy cut fabric, be sure to leave a quarter inch for your seam allowance, plus some "breathing room" for your eyes and to make up for sewing boo boos!

After cutting the strips of designs, I cut the strips into various length pieces – 2.5″, 3.5″, 4″, 5″, and 5.5″. That’s what I got out of each strip.

I sewed the 5.5″ pieces to a muslin strip that was 1″ wide, and another strip that was 1.5″ wide. Then I cut them apart and pressed the seams open. Now all these pieces are 7″ wide. This is important, because I want all the other pieces to come out 7″ wide as well.

If you label your fabric piles with tape or post-its, you can save yourself some tedious mental math and remeasuring later on. The design fabric is 5.5" wide, with a 1" and a 1.5" strip on opposite sides. (Total = 8") This makes for a 7" wide finished block. Now I know that I need the strips for my other size blocks to total 8" before sewing!

It’s also important to me that I placed uneven strips on the sides of the feature fabric. This will make the design seem more random.

That’s as far as I got today, since Bernina had a tiff for about an hour. She kept sucking my thread into the bobbin and making a big mess. In the end, it was my fault (bad threading), and I had to apologize. We’ve made up.

More on this project later!