NOT a wonky eyeglass case

Well, I don't post at all for a gazillion years and now, I can't get off the damn thing!

One of the first posts I did was a wonky eyeglass case that I made for my mother. That must have been about a year ago. One of the biggest problems I had with it was putting it together. I thought that the normal procedure would be to make the inside of the case, sewing two rectangles of fabric together, then making the outside of the case, sew two rectangles of fabric together and then spend 42 hours trying to join the inside to the outside through that very narrow opening! How frustrating that was and what a mess I ended up with. So, before I attempted another eyeglass case for my mother, I had to figure out how to make it neater.

Well, along came the world of biscornus!!! WOW!! I made my first one and was immediately addicted! I have 5 completed and have 2 more to put together.

In making the biscornu, I got a brilliant idea on how I might make my next eyeglass case! I will join the outside together like I put a biscornu together! I will backstitch over 2 threads along my outside border and then join the front and back together by slipping my needle into the backstitches. There is a picture somewhere down below on how I did this, but there are absolutely tons of great videos and posts already on the net on how to make biscornus, so I dont' need to spend too much time on doing it again.

So, instead of making the inside of the case and then making the outside and trying to put the two together, what I will do is, stitch the one side of the inside to the front of the case, and the same with other other side, sew one side of the inside to the back of the eyeglass case. I will then complete the inside, and then complete the outside.

So first I took my eyeglass case front and back. I have cross stitched traditional Ukrainian cross stitch designs on both. The lettering on the back is in Cyrillic and spells my mothers name, Anna.

I took two rectangles of fusible Pellon interfacing and ironed it onto the BACK of my stitching, just inside the black backstitching line. I did this instead of trying to attach quilt batting to the case.
I then chose a bright yellow cotton for the inside of the case, cut two rectangles larger than my eyeglass case and put the right side of the yellow fabric to the right side of the white front of the case. I sewed the cotton to the eyeglass case front along the line that will become the top or opening of the eyeglass case. I have a photo here of the right sides being placed together.

In the next photo, you can see where I have stitched one side of the yellow inside fabric to one side of the white outside of the case. I did the same with the other side (does that sound as confusing as I think it does?). In the photo below, at the bottom, the yellowish fabric is shown where I have sewed it to the top of the back of the eyeglass case. The white outside case back is under the yellow fabric and can't be seen. Above it, in the photo, you can see the white front of the eyeglass case and the yellow inside has been sewn aong the top, and then the yellow fabric is turned to the left. Where the two are sewn together, that will form the opening of the eyeglass case.
I then put the front and back of the eyeglass case together, right sides together, which means that the two sides of the inside yellow cotton are now right sides together. I sew the yellow section together in a rectangle shape so that it is slightly smaller than the eyeglass case. (of course I measure the eyeglass case and draw out a sewing line on my yellow fabric which forms my sewing line. I trimmed the edges after sewing and zigzagged stitched to make sure it didn't fray.

I turned my eyeglass case to the outside and you can see that there is a clean seam at the opening of my eyeglass case. The inside of my case is now complete and I no longer have to worry about it.
I trim the excess fabric away from the white outside of my case, zigzag to prevent fraying, and then begin sewing my front of the eyeglass case to the back, using the same method to put biscornu together. The needle is put under one backstitch from the back of the case and then under one backstitch from the front of the case and then gently pull and go on to the next backstitch.

As you can see below, the seam above was completed making a ver neat join all the way around the eyeglass case.

The back is very neat.



And the front is neat and the glasses fit into the case quite easily.

So, just to summarize, as you look at the photo above, I took two squares of yellow cotton (the inside of my case), and sewed it to the white outside of my case along the top of both the front and the back of the outside of my eyeglass case (the white fabric). When I did this, I ended up with 2 pieces of fabric. One piece was the white front with the yellow inside of the case sewn to it at what will form the opening of the case, and the second is the white back of the eyeglass case which had the yellow sewn to it, again at the top of the case. I then sewed the 3 remaining sides of the yellow cotton, trimmed, zigzagged and then turned the case so that white side was on the outside. I now had to finish the outside of the case.

I then trimmed the outside of the case to within 1/4 to 1/5 of an inch from the outside backstitching line, zigzagged and then stitched the outside front to the outside back, using the biscornu joining method, picking up one backstitch stitch from the front and one from the back.

I am quite pleased with this case that is ready for my Mom for Christmas!

If you think these instructions are clear as mud, well, I applaude all consistent bloggers out there who create on a regular basis with wonderful photos and clear and concise explanations as this sure isn't as easy at it looks!

To all of you, Merry Christmas and I wish you many wonderful hours of stitching and sewing in the New Year!