Tutorial Tuesday for all you hookers out there

And by hookers, I am of course referring to those of you who CROCHET!

Stand up and testify: “I, Melissa D, am a hooker”. I say it with pride. My grandma taught me how to crochet when I was 7 years old. The first thing I ever made was a pot holder and it can’t hold a candle to the one my grandmother made that day (I have both).  When she passed on I inherited all of her crochet hooks, plus all the hooks from a dear friend of hers.  Now those hooks in addition to the ones I already had…well it was like my hook collection had followed the Lord’s Command “be fruitful and multiply”.

I have been storing them in this cute little vase, but it isn’t so convenient when I’m traveling, so I decided to whip myself up a pretty carrying case!

Learn how to make it after the jump!

What you need:

• Two fat quarters in pretty coordinating colors, I used “Luca” by Alexander Henry, and a coordinating pink.
• Fabric for binding
• Ribbon for tying – two pieces – 16.5 inches ea

Not Pictured:

• Sewing machine
• pins
• Measuring tape
• Fabric marker or pencil
• 6.5×6.5 inch cutting ruler
• Batting – cut to 8 by 18 inches
• pretty thread for quilting
• binder clips
• needle and thread for hand sewing

Step One: Cut your fabric

Two pieces – 8×18 inches each

1 piece – 9 by 18 of coordinating fabric – you will fold this piece in half

Step 2: Fold the coordinating piece in half – Iron.  Then make a sandwich out of all your layers. The layers should look like this:

Main fabric facing table, batting, main fabric facing up, coordinating fabric with fold at the top

One small fabric sandwich

Step 3: Pin all the layers together, sew around the outside using a 1/8 inch seam allowance

Step 4:  Bust out your measuring tape, fabric pen/pencil, and cutting ruler. Time to measure. My first line was 1.25 inch from the left edge – for some reason my grandma had a size N hook (BIG!). The rest were all 1 inch apart.

Step 5: Starting from the bottom and going up sew on your lines.  I used my handy dandy Janome Clear View Quilting Foot and Guide Set.  See a review at the Janome Sew4Home blog.

All I have to do is follow my line with the guide!

Folly the Yellow Brick Road, Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Step 6: Cut out your binding and sew it on.

Steps 1-6 take less than an hour.

Step 7: is when it starts taking a little time…Hand sew your binding down and sew on your ribbon ties.

You have now finished your hook holder!

Lay out your hooks

Tuck them all away

Roll it up!

Tie it with a bow!

If hooking isn’t really your thing and you are more of knitter, check out my tutorial on how to make a knitting needle case!