Vintage bird needle case tutorial

So here is the tutorial for the vintage bird needle case. It is an easy and quick project inspired by my In love needle case (click here for the free download) but it has been simplified to fewer steps. And you can rock up this lovely needle cases in a whim... and they are really useful too!

What will you need? (for each needle case)

• Template for the birds images (print at 100%). You can download it for free here.
• Two 10 x 6.5 inches pieces of fabric. I used plain cream cotton, they will be the back and front of the needle case.
• A 6.5 x 8 inches piece of fabric for the pocket and a little extra to make the bird.
• A 10 x 6.5 inches (or a little big bigger if desired) batting piece.
• A 9 x 5.5 inches piece of fleece.
• Any double sided iron-on interfacing 
• Sewing machine and notions

Step 1 - Print your template and transfer your shapes to the paper side of the iron-on interfacing. Iron the glue side to the back of the fabric and cut out the bird shape following your transferred template. 

Step 2 - Take the paper off the interfacing and iron the bird shape into one of the pieces of the plain fabric. To make sure it is in the right place, fold the piece in two and centre it on the right half of the fabric. Make sure you take into account a 1/4 inch seam allowance on the three rough edges of the fabric.

Step 3 - Pin the fabric to the batting (no backing fabric) and quilt as desired. If you rather have a backing piece of fabric, use a scrap of fabric as it won't show in the final design. I did free motion and straight line quilting and all look adorable.

Step 4 - Place the quilted piece right side up.Then fold the pocket fabric wrong sides together and place on top of the quilted fabric aligning sides and bottom rough edges together. If desired you could run a line of decorative stitches along the fold of the pocket fabric.

Finally place the remaining piece of fabric wrong side up.Pin in place and trim the excess of batting/fabric all around.

Step 5 - Sew along the four edges leaving a gap on the top for turning inside out.

Step 6 - Turn inside out, making sure the pocket is in the inside of the case and iron in place. Iron the opening seam allowance in. Run a line of stitches all around the border of the needle case, to set the fabric in place and close the opening, I did mine at an 1/8 inch from the border.

Step 7 -  Fold the piece of fleece in half to mark the middle. Place centered in the needlecase (inside section)  , pin in place and stitch following the middle line marked previously.

And voilà you needle case is done! And how lovely it looks in the inside with my sewing notions... My vintage needle case (I use to store my yarn needles) looks especially pretty on this fabric.  Hope you enjoy making them!