The best thing about this project is that you can make it with stuff just lying around your house. The only thing I bought was the book for $2 at Goodwill. If it had a cool enough cover, I would have just left it as is, but I like the fabric on this one. I'll try and keep it to 12 easy steps with plenty of photos. If you have any questions or suggestions, drop me a line. So here we go...
Splityarn's Circular Needle Case Tutorial
Stuff you'll need:
The right book
Two scraps of material to cover the book
Some elastic
Iron on hem tape
Glue
Handy dandy office clippy thingers
1. Find the right book. Ideally kind of tall (this one is 8 x 10.5) and at least an inch thick. The thickness will give your needles a little room; you don't want them smashing together, for that would negate the need of a needle case. If the cover is interesting or it's a funny titled book, you could leave out the front cover part. I originally wanted a cheezy 1970's knitting book, but I couldn't find one I liked.
2. Dig through your stash to find some fabric you like but hasn't been allotted a project yet. My outer fabric is some kind of stretchy mystery stuff that I got out of a 'who will buy our scraps' bin at the Narcissist studio in Vancouver (super cute dresses by the way.) The inner fabric is just a random black fabric scrap from a previous project.
3. Cut the pages out of the book by slicing close to the binding. Cut out a piece of cereal box and glue it to the inside of the spine for a little extra stability. It should be just a little smaller than the spine itself so that you can still close the book with ease.
4. Cut the cover fabric about an inch and a half bigger than the size of the book. You'll need some to overlap into the inside. Smear some glue on the outside cover (a sponge brush works wonders) and press the fabric onto it smoothing out any wrinkles. Pay special attention to the spine, you want to make sure it's not so tight that you can't close the book. This is easily avoided by gluing with the book closed. I used Aleene's Tacky Glue, but you could use regular white glue or even contact cement (although that's a little excessive). You could use hot glue, but it leaves funny glue bumps under the fabric.
5. Mitre those corners like you're wrapping a present. I held the corners down with these handy dandy office clippy thingers (that's the technical term around here) until they were sort of dry.
6. Cut out the inner lining fabric so that it fits just inside the cover and leaves a cute little border of the outer cover fabric. Half an inch? Quarter of an inch? Your call.
7. When I'm working on a project like this I don't worry about professional edges all pressed and top stitched, I'm lazy. That's why I used iron on hem tape along the edges of the inner liner. If you don't have hem tape, you could just use fray stop or something, it just depends on how picky you are.
8. Dry fit the faux hemmed liner into the book and lay out your needles to figure out where you want the elastic to go. For my 16" circulars I used two strips of elastic down each side. For the 24" circulars I went with one strip down the middle. I used about 30" worth of elastic. It doesn't matter the thickness, just use whatever you have on hand.
9. With chalk or pins mark on the liner where to sew the elastic at the top and bottom and all along the elastic where you want your divisions to go. I marked out 1" spaces for the 16" side and 3/4" for the 24" side. Sew ‘em down. I don’t clip the threads between spaces until after. Like I said, I’m lazy.
10. When all your elastic is sewn down, do one last dry fit. Once you glue down that liner, you can’t make any changes, so make sure you get it right. You’ll notice that my 24” side elastic isn’t dead centre. This is why. Again, I’m not fussy and it still works fine, so it’s not a huge deal.
11. Glue down that inner liner and use the handy dandy office clippy thingers to hold it in place for a little while until the glue bonds.
12. Put all your needles in the case, take a bzillion pictures to post on your blog, fix yourself a margarita and flaunt your creativity to your pals! Just be sure to tell 'em you got the idea from me.
Oh - and if you don't want to make one? You can always buy one of the ones in my shop
Excellent tutorial! What a wonderful idea.
Posted by: Nathania | October 19, 2004 at 18:33
You are a crafty goddess. I do not sew (ever) so I bow to your craftiness.
Posted by: Steph | October 19, 2004 at 18:52
This is great! Thanks for sharing it with us.
Posted by: Nancy | October 19, 2004 at 23:12
Holy cow! That is a completely fantastic idear. Thanks!
Posted by: Adrian | October 20, 2004 at 08:49
Holy smokes! This is such a cool idea! Now I just have to decide what book I want to use.
Posted by: Lynette | October 20, 2004 at 11:59
What a great and easy tutorial! Thanks for sharing your great idea. :)
Posted by: ~Jo~ | October 22, 2004 at 18:51
Wow that's a really neat idea! I've got some fabric lying around for a totebag I was supposed to make, but my sewing machine took a dive so now I can use the fabric for this without having to sew anything!! ThangQ for the inspiration, i've plenty of books I will prolly never read again.. I will definitely post pics when it's done!
ThangQ again,
Tamara
Posted by: Tamara(laBean) | October 24, 2004 at 10:33
I just may have to make one of these! I've been trying to find time to make a needle roll for a long time now. This is a great idea for circs though, instead of trying to make a roll for them too.
Posted by: Natalie | October 27, 2004 at 12:46
Thank you for this awesome project! My circs are currently... well, kind of everywhere. :)
Posted by: alison | October 31, 2004 at 14:51
Been looking for something like this for ages-Someone told me to use CD cases but that didn't work. thanks for your great idea!
Posted by: Sarah | December 29, 2004 at 15:59
Neato idea! I have quite a fair bit of circulars so let's see what I can do :)
Posted by: Emy | March 08, 2005 at 03:38
This is cool :) I just can't bear to cut into any of my old books hehe, hopefully I can bring myself to slice up a thrift shop book this week :)
Posted by: meowy | May 14, 2005 at 20:44
Wonderful! Thank you so much for having this here, I must make one of these for all of my needles.
Posted by: Tammy | January 04, 2007 at 09:16
this is AWESOME! i can't wait to try this!
Posted by: Jen da Purse Ho | February 25, 2007 at 20:24
Wow! What a neat idea! I'm going to start looking for a book right now!
Jane
Posted by: Jane | May 28, 2007 at 16:53
This is the only cool circular needle case I can find! You rock!
Posted by: Lisa | June 07, 2007 at 08:45
You are so cool. This is such a good idea! It's a good idea for storing other stuff too. Instead of elastic you could put foam or styrofoam in with little recessed areas to store stuff. Like for an ipod, cut out the shape of the ipod and a channel for the cord etc. It would make an awesome jewelry holder too with pins in foam to hold everything down. Most anything small could be stored in the right hollowed out book. Thank you thank you and I have enjoyed all your other tutorials too.
Posted by: sonda | July 23, 2007 at 16:56
It is really really nice to see you post a tutorial for an item that you also sell. I have been looking everywhere to find out how to cover a journal and stumbled accross this quite by accident. I was searching for echino fabrics!!! thanks so much for sharing.
Posted by: Donna | July 24, 2007 at 03:14
Cool tutorial. Thanks! Close-ups of pics seem to be nonexistent, though. No biggie, just thought I'd mention. My brother makes his own books, but he's into sewing pages and all that. I wanted something simpler, and this will do the trick!
Posted by: Selune | September 04, 2007 at 03:25