Now that Rebecca's in 4th grade, she gets to play an instrument - the recorder. Actually, the one she has used to be my sister's and mine, I think. Rebecca loves that it was handed down and requested a holder for it, so I finally got around to making one this afternoon.
Because it's so darn easy to work with and provides a lot of padding (and because my stash is over a foot high), I chose to work with wool blend felt. I don't think this is going to get washed very often, and hopefully it will stand up to a bit of abuse.
I cut my initial felt much wider than I knew it needed to be, using the recorder itself to measure for length. I added some extra room at the top, about an inch, doubled the whole thing, and then left enough for a flap. I cut out one big long piece, then used the machine to sew up one side of the pocket (stopping where the flap begins). Again using the recorder to make sure it would fit, I measured over three inches and sewed up the other side. I used Fiskars' scallop fabric shears to trim all the edges as a finishing touch. I bought my shears years ago on clearance at Michael's, and now it looks like they don't make them any more... I'd better treat them even more preciously than I already do!
Two buttons and a length of twisted yarn makes an easy closure, and then I printed out a nice inital "R" I found with Google image search, cut it out of felt, and hand-stitched it towards the bottom. In hindsight, it would have been *much* easier to sew the inital and buttons on before stitching up the sides, but - whatever. That would have required me to think about it and I just kind of did this one by the seat of my pants. It worked anyway.
It really didn't take very long at all. And there is a *lot* of backstitching at the top of the pocket for reinforcement.
There you have it, a recorder, all cozy and protected.
I'm sure a nice, protective cozy would have made all the difference in my playing abilities years ago! Nice job, friend.
Posted by: LizAndrsn | Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 09:03 AM