Re-purpose: Shirt to Knitting Case

Now that exam season is over for the year, it's time to do something a bit more creative!  A fair bit of dust had accumulated on my sewing machine since the last time I had chance to do any sewing...

Today's project is fairly simple: my friend requested I make a knitting needle case from her husband's old shirt.

The shirt is made from a really good, sturdy cotton - so it's perfect for this project.  I even decided not to use any interfacing, because the fabric seemed robust enough on its own.

I began by drawing out my ideas.  Ashley requested the case be something simple - she didn't want individual slots for each pair of needles, and she wanted something small and relatively portable.

I decided to make two separate pockets, because my own needles vary in length and I thought this might make sorting them easier.

Next I measured the length of the needles, removed 3cm so that Ashley would be able to see and choose needle sizes easily, and then added a 1cm seam allowance to each side.

Goodness me, measuring and cutting is so easy with checked fabric!!  There's every chance everything I make from now on will have stripes

Then came the fun bit: sewing!

I started by hemming the top of each piece.  Then I sewed the two smaller pieces together along the bottom and both sides.  Next, I sewed this joined together piece with the final long piece.  Super easy!

One thing I wish I'd thought of is making sure that the wrong sides of the fabric weren't showing.  I only did a single hem so it looks a little bit untidy from the inside.  But it will definitely do the job and hopefully Ashley will like it and get plenty of use from it!

I absolutely love recycling things that no longer serve a purpose, and remaking them into something new and functional!  The great thing about this project is that there's still plenty of fabric left over.  I might make a matching project bag as a surprise :)

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I hope you enjoyed this post.  I do apologise for the quality of the pictures!  I had hoped to make a step-by-step tutorial, but the picture quality on my phone is shocking!!  I'm definitely making charging batteries for my camera a priority!!