Knitting Needle Roll

In a Flap....

With the non-stop knitting that's been going on recently, I have now acquired quite an array of different knitting needles and they could do with a proper home.So, I decided I could make it up to my neglected sewing machine whilst still advancing my latest obsession by making myself a knitting needle case.

Filled with confidence, I decided I could do this without a pattern using the same basic techniques as my Handmade Correspondence Case. On my last shopping visit to SeamStar, I bought some gorgeous owl fabric from Sprout Design, which I thought would be great for the cover. I used some red and white stars fabric for the lining and some spotted fabric for the pockets, both from stash.

As I already have a lovely case for my shorter needles from Injabulo, I decided just to make a very simple design for my long needles (12-14"). To make the inner part of the case, I ironed some interfacing onto the lining fabric (poorly, I have to say - I never seem to get it to stick properly all the way across the fabric). I then folded the top of the spotted pocket material over twice and then top stitched it to secure the raw edge and take it down to the right height. Next, I layered the pocket piece, the lining and some sew-in interfacing and then drew vertical lines with my Pym trick marker pen for the pockets. I varied the width of the pockets a bit, but didn't plan exactly. I then sewed through all the layers along the vertical lines to make the pockets.

To join the inner part of the case to the owl fabric cover, I simply put the right sides together and sewed all the way round, leaving a gap for turning. I wasn't sure how to attach the ribbon so you could secure the roll correctly, but my husband kindly nipped upstairs to check on the internet. It transpires that you need to attach a single piece of ribbon from the middle of the ribbon to the centre of one side. I then turned the case right side out and top stitched it all the way round, closing the gap.

Well, this seemed all very satisfactory until the next day when I decided to look at some other needle rolls online. You might argue it would have been more useful to do this before I started my own attempt, but hey. The key thing I noticed is that many of them had a flap over the top to stop the needles escaping when the roll was tipped. To be fair, some of them had no flap and I wasn't planning to tip the roll upside down on a regular basis, but now I felt that my little design was somehow lacking.

Anyway, having put a variety of needles in the case, it looked like I had room for a small flap after all. However, as the flap was quite narrow, I had to secure it down by handstitching the flap down at the edges of the case and then putting a few stitches  above each pocket. Now I can tip my needle roll up with impunity.

There may be some sort of lesson here, but I got there in the end...

Melx