I was thinking one day with a cup of tea in my hand, of what other items I could make with my fabric remnants, apart from pincushions! (I always like making those!) and came up with the bright idea of making a few more sunglasses holders. Last year I did actually make a Lovehearts sunglasses holder. I ordered a beautiful 2 metres of this fabric and made myself a skirt with it and with what was left over, I also made my first sunglasses holder. Not buying more of this fabric was a mistake as it went out of stock and I can’t find it anywhere else!
Anyway, back to making sunglasses holders! I really enjoy making these as they are not too tricky to make and you can have a lovely finished result quite quickly. They also look quirky and stand out a mile from the plastic boring solid colour ones!
Firstly you need some lovely fabric for the outside, a lining fabric and also a fairly thick wadding which will sandwich the 2 fabrics together and also give the case more stability and better padding. If you can obtain fusible wadding then all the better, but if not, don’t worry!
I use a rectangular template which measures approx. 19 x 10 cm. You will need to slightly curve one corner to given a rounded more professional appearance too. However, if you have super fashionable large sunglasses, you will need to re-measure and make yourself a larger template. Similary, if you wish to make a case for a child’s glasses, then you will need a smaller template.
Firstly, cut out your outer fabric, lining and wadding. You should end up with a fabric sandwich of 3 layers; the lining fabric right way up on the bottom, the wadding in the middle and finally the outside fabric wrong side down on top.
Pin all layers together, leaving a couple of inches gap in the middle of one of the sides. (You can see this indicated by the 2 large pins at the bottom of the picture). You will need this gap as the fabric needs to be turned out). Machine stitch all the way round (minus the gap!). Cut off any excess wadding and clip the corners. Then turn out so the right side of the fabric is now visible. Iron all the square layers to make it easier and flatter to sew.
The next step is to handsew the gap that you turned the fabric in from. Once you have finished that, proceed to sew a topstitch all the way around again with the outer fabric facing you.
When that is complete, fold the square in half and start stitching the open side about 2 inches from the curved top, leaving enough room to put your sunglasses easily in and out. Sew to the end.
You shoukd have a lovely sunglasses case just like mine, which are available to purchase in my Etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/510562797/sunglasses-fabric-holders?ref=shop_home_active_1
Enjoy!
Lizzy's Homemade 