BERNINA Corporate Blog -
The year 2024 has been a fabulous one, and what better way to round it out than by choosing to sew a gift set for someone special this holiday season.
Free pattern: The Sofiona Cloudberry Collection makes a practical and beautiful gift set this holiday season.
Using the newly-released BERNINA 990 for inspiration, I chose shades of purple and blue to create a practical and pretty makeup remover gift set. This free pattern includes a face wipe/makeup pad pattern, a wash bag pattern, and a cute and practical wee basket to hold all of your wipes.
Materials Needed:
- Sewing Machine BERNINA 590
- Sewing machine feet: Reverse Pattern Foot 1D, zipper foot
- Printer or projector for the PDF pattern
- Cutting mat, rotary cutter, sewing ruler, sewing clips, chalk for marking
- Fabrics:
- Medium-weight wovens like quilting cotton
- terry fabric for pads, or the loops side of French terry, soft flannel, or you can cut up a terry towel
- mesh for the wash bag
- Notions: 9″ zipper, coordinating thread, bias binding
- Pattern: Free download from Sofiona Patterns: *Cloudberry Collection: Makeup remover gift set.
- *Please note: To access the pattern for free, a newsletter subscription is required. Click here to subscribe to Sofiona Patterns to receive the free pattern.
Sew a Gift Set Basket:
Preparing the Basket Pieces
Fuse the interfacing to basket fabrics. You will need main and lining pieces. Follow the instructions as per the manufacturer. I like to block-fuse interfacing before I cut out when the pattern pieces have a lot of cuts, like this basket pattern. I used SF 101 and fused it with a damp press cloth and the iron at wool/steam setting, pressing firmly for 15 seconds. Cut out fabric using the pattern. Be sure to transfer all of the markings with chalk.
*TIP: Use a hole punch to punch out the dot markings. Then you can easily transfer to the cut pieces.
Punch holes in your pattern pieces for the pattern markings and use chalk to mark onto your fabric.
Sew the Basket
Fold the main basket piece in half, align the open edges and sew from the dot to the top of each edge. Repeat for other sides except for the side with the snap markings. Repeat for the basket lining.
Stitch each basket side.
Slip the lining basket into the main basket, with the right strides together. Sew with a ⅜” seam allowance, starting with the open edges. Leave a small opening to turn it. Turn the basket right side out and topstitch around the top edge. Make sure that you close the opening as you topstitch. I use a stitch length of 3.5 to topstitch and move my needle all the way over to the right to align the edge of the fabric with the edge of my presser foot.
To secure the opening flaps, I used my BERNINA 590 special stitch # 1108. This star shape gives me “magic of the season vibes. I used the “pattern end” button to only sew one of the star shapes. I always practice stitches before attempting it on my work in progress, just to make sure it is going to work.
Special stitch #1108.
Always test specialty stitches before using them on your project.
Sew the Laundry Bag:
Materials for laundry bag.
Cut out the top front and back pieces from cotton woven fabric. Cut the bottom from mesh or woven fabric. I used mesh because I have lots in my stash, and it works well for laundry purposes. I used wash-away tape to hold the zipper in place to eliminate any stretching of the mesh while sewing.
Topstitch the zipper in place.
Take the zipper and place the wrong side onto the top front bag piece. Sew with a ¼” seam allowance. Topstitch the zipper in place. Repeat the steps with the bottom front mesh piece. I topstitched twice to ensure that the mesh holds in place.
Place the front and back bag pieces together, wrong sides together. Take bias binding and align it with one edge of the bag.
Pin or clip binding in place before sewing.
Begin sewing 1” from the end of the binding and sew around all sides with a ⅜” seam allowance. Fold the binding at each corner as you sew. When you reach the starting point fold the edges of the binding over and overlap. Sew bias closed.
Take a 5” piece of double-fold bias. Topstitch closed along the open long edge to close it. Fold to create a loop. Baste the loop to the bag at one of the top corners of the bag.
Add a small piece of binding to create a hanging loop.
Wrap the bias to the back and pin or clip into place. Topstitch into place by stitching in the ditch from the right side. Fold the hanging loop up and topstitch into place.
Stitch in the ditch to finish the binding.
Sew the Makeup Remover Pads:
Fold finger pocket pieces in half and press. Lay each finger pocket onto the fifth side of the main fabric and pin. Place the terry fabric right side down over the finger pocket piece. Sew around the hexagon, leaving one side open to turn with ¼” seam allowance.
Cut out the pieces for the makeup remover pads.
Stitch wrong sides together.
Turn each pad right side out and topstitch to close the opening.
Trim corners and turn each pad right side out. Tuck raw edges in and topstitch around the pad, ensuring it catches the open edge to close it.
*TIP: I use the knee lift to turn at each corner when sewing the hexagons. I have my machine set so that the needle is always down when I lift my foot off the presser foot, and I use the heel needle lift feature of my foot pedal. Those are two of my favourite features of my BERNINA 590 sewing machine.
You have now been able to sew a gift set for someone special. I loved my little set so much that I ended up sewing a second one just for me. It will look so sweet in my bathroom, and the wash bag will make it easy to launder the little pads so they don’t get lost in the washing machine. The most fun of all was choosing fabrics and trims to coordinate. What fabrics will you choose to sew a gift set?
Happy stitching!
Heather @ManitoulinThreads🧵✂
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