Spectacles Case - Rest those tired eyeglasses!

Posted by Kashmira

A few weeks ago Sis told me about a quilt guild she's a member of that will be hosting a quilt show in March. We planned to make a few products and put them up in a little stall! We sat down and came up with a list of things that might be a good idea to make and sell at the festival. One of the products is this soft and handy eyeglasses case. Plus it has a little felt spectacles shaped applique to clearly specify what the case is for :)

I was thinking about this project and since it is related in a way to reading, an image of my Grandma sitting by the window reading her daily Marathi newspaper came to mind. So I immediately decided to go with a black and white color scheme. Here's what I used:

1) One piece of cotton fabric 8.5" * 7.5" for the outside

2) One piece of cotton fabric 8.5" * 7.5" for lining

3) One piece of medium weight batting 8.5" * 7.5"

4) One piece of coordinating felt 6" * 2"

5) A 1" piece of velcro

First I started by drawing a glasses shaped pattern on a piece of card paper 6" * 2". Then I folded the felt in half along the long edge, traced the pattern and cut it out.

Next I placed the batting and two cotton piece on top of each other (the order does not matter at this point). I folded the sandwich in half along the short edge and used a small glass to mark a curve on the corners and cut it out.

Next I placed the eyeglasses pattern on the outer fabric piece and stitched it in place using a short length straight stitch. (The shorter the stitch length, the smoother the curve!)

Then I placed the batting on work surface and put the lining fabric on it right side up. I stitched the velcro pieces an inch from the top and an inch and half from the center on either side.

Next I placed the prepared lining on work surface right side up and put the appliqued outer fabric over it wrong side up and pinned them together. The next step is to sew the two together along the curve. Usually I eyeball (haha) these things, but this needs to be done as evenly along the curve as possible, so using a ruler I marked 3 lines 1/4" from the edge on all 3 lower sides. Now it was easy to just join up the curves at the 2 intersections.

I sewed along the marked outline leaving a 3 inch gap at the top, clipped corners and cut notches along the curves.

Then turned the case inside out, turned the upper open edges inward, pressed the case flat and top stitched along the upper edge to close the gap.

Then I just folded the case in half, joined up the two curves nicely and sewed close to the outer edge to complete the glasses case!

A pair of glasses can sit nice and snug inside the soft case while the little velcro at the top prevents them from accidentally slipping out! And so on with the rest of the fabric I chose to make this bunch of glasses cases ready for the quilt guild. 

I do hope they catch someone's eye at the festival!