Showing posts with label dust covers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dust covers. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Dust covers for the closet

After finishing my recent boxer short project using Butterick 5027 I was looking at the pattern, a real combo of options. I noticed that there was a pattern for a hanger cover included, and thought this might be a useful addition to my closet.


I made a few samples from some old sheets in my stash; the first one followed the pattern, but I added a 1" band between the front and back pieces to give it a little more width. This is designed to be a close fitting hanger cover, lined with batting, to hang your clothes over, possibly to avoid wire hanger marks? Well anyhow, it wasn't quite what I had in mind. I didn't use batting as I was just testing it. And then I made a number of changes. 

First try 

What I was really after was a dust cover to put over a hanger with something already hanging on it, to protect the shoulders and top of a garment from dust if it isn't worn often (those things at the edges of the closet). To do this, I realized I would have to enlarge the main pieces as well and widen the band connecting them. I tried one more, still not quite right, and then finally got it to sit correctly for what I wanted. 

Second try: not quite right yet!


I ended up tracing the pattern and adding 2" of length to either end of the main pieces, 1" to the height, and making the top band 2.5" wide. I sewed it all up using a 1/4" seam, leaving one edge of the band unsewn while I folded down the edges of the opening at the top and stitched that -- the trickiest part, messy no matter how you do it. Then finished up with the last seam. 


Because I was using sheets, on some of these I just used the deep sheet hem for the edges of the main pieces. Then I just made a quick hem on the bands before attaching them. This is a fiddly home decor project but it is something I need in my house and I am happy to have finally figured out a way to do it! I think I might make a couple more from the rest of the sheet that I used and then should have enough - just a couple for the more rarely worn items. I spent a lot of time in January making unusual (for me) projects! Onward to some garments in February.