A Quick and Practical Gift

Each year at our December meeting, the ladies in my quilt group bring little handmade treats for each other, things like credit card holders, key fobs, bowl cozies, handmade soap, etc.  So I am always looking for ideas for something I can make quickly, easily, and in multiples!

This year I watched a lot of YouTube videos and searched through a lot of books, but all the ideas I saw looked too time-consuming to make.  Finally, in a Quick and Easy Quilting magazine from 1994, I found the perfect idea — hanger covers! You can either use them directly on the hanger to provide padding for a garment, or you can put them over top of a fragile garment to protect it.  The designer, Linda Denner, described how to make a basic one from a fat quarter — but her genius idea was to dress it up with pieced scraps, which makes it perfect for quilters.

Basic hanger covers, made from fat quarters, featherweight interfacing, and vintage trims.

A larger piece of fabric makes a longer cover — this one has an insert of pieced squares.

Basically you trace around a hanger, making an outline one inch larger all around.  I found that a bottom dimension of 18 inches or a little more worked great, to make it fit the large clear plastic hangers.

The basic pattern, with the measurements that worked well for me. Now that I look at it, this piece is not symmetrical, but this is a very forgiving project; I’m sure I trimmed it before sewing. 🙂

When using quilting cotton, I hemmed each piece first, and also hemmed the top “neck”.  I added featherweight fusible interfacing.  Then I put the two sides, right sides together, stitched around with a quarter inch seam, and then did an overcast stitch.

Then I had the genius idea of using vintage napkins!  They have a lot of body and drape, so I did not use interfacing on them.

For smaller napkins, I cut them up the middle first and inserted some hemmed sections of pieced scraps.  I also had some larger napkins that I had practiced free motion quilting on, and those worked great.  (Linda’s tip was to make only one side quilted, because otherwise they can get way too bulky.)

Vintage napkin with pieced insertion.

Two vintage napkins combined, with a section of painted lace.

Large napkin with free motion quilting.

I had so much fun making these.  Each one took about half an hour — I probably could have done them faster if I had done them all alike, but I kept thinking of different combinations, and then I had to go find the item/scrap/trim I had in mind.

Also, I was slowed down because I was treating myself to a Hallmark Christmas movie marathon, and I sometimes got distracted trying to follow those complicated plots. HAHAHAHA.  Okay, maybe my attention was drawn by all the spectacular scenery, decorations, and Perfect Kisses.

The covers were very well received at our party.  Everybody got two, and I kept a few for myself!  I love being able to see those vintage linens in my closet every day instead of having them stuck away in drawers.

Category : Sewing
Tags : , , , ,