KitchenAid mixer cover

 A new cover for my KitchenAid mixer

I have decided to use the month of July to catch up on some sewing jobs that I have put off for a while.  This first one is the oldest.  I bought the fabric for this project about 6 years ago when I remodeled my kitchen.  I went from cobalt blue and white tiles to a lovely pale seafoam glass tile with white. Are you wondering what is under this cover yet?  What color is my mixer??  It is ice blue! Perfect with the tiles.  And, apparently when I bought my new refrigerator they gave me the free mixer!! I almost considered just leaving it without a cover, because it looks so good to me, but the bowl collects dust when not in use, so...

The kitchen remodel was a success story with the exception of the mixer cover (below), which now is beyond the ability to clean to get the stains out.  In order to commit to the project, I knew that I would need to rip the seams out so that I wouldn't be tempted to postpone the project again.  This is one of those projects that I knew I could do, but really did not want to spend any time on it. 

You can see the ugly stains on this thing, but it is amazing what you can overlook when you don't want to do a thing...

After ripping out all the seams, I drew a paper pattern and started thinking about the construction.  I knew that I would NOT be adding piping, but I wanted to consider both the shape of the thing, and the finishing along the bottom. This project has 2 hump shaped side pieces, 1 long center piece that wraps front to back (or in my case, 2 center pieces because my new fabric has a directional pattern), and 1 piece to use for the pocket. The original cover has a lovely scalloped shape on the bottom, which I did not want.  So, I squared it up a bit.

I got out my trusty compass and estimated the shape at the top.  The old fabric is spongy and smushy and hard to get an exact shape.  I made some measurements and drew some lines.  

Next, I assembled all the pieces and made quilt sandwiches, slightly bigger than the pattern.  The one above is for the front pocket.  I opted to use the same material for the front and back of the pocket.  Then, when you look inside the pocket, all the fabric you see is this lovely graphic floral.  The other pieces (the centers, and the sides) are sandwiched with batting and a plain white fabric that will be the inside of the cover. I was super lazy with the basting and just pinned it together.  Let the quilting begin! 

For such a lovely simple graphic fabric, I opted to follow the pattern lines.  This was fun and pleasing at first, but it got boring rather quickly, and what started as a one day project, morphed into 5 days.  Nuts!

Then each piece was cut to shape and, with right sides together, stitched. That part went fairly quickly, except for putting the pocket on backwards, ripping it out and trying again.  Also, I don't have a serger, so before stitching the pieces together, I used a zig-zag stitch to finish all the edges.  This fabric was a light weight upholstery linen, and I was worried it would come unraveled in what I expect to be frequent washings. 

It was all good, except that either my measurements were wrong, or I failed to consider the seam allowances going around the shape of those hump side pieces when attaching the center pieces, but the bottom of the cover came out very uneven.  The centers were too long, and the sides were too short.  My solution was just to trim it all up nice and even, and then use a tiny 1/2" facing that wraps to the inside to finish the bottom edges.  

Here's the final product!

And it looks good with my 'new' tile and solid white countertops! I am happy!