This is actually a fairly easy project, based on this genius tutorial by Portia Lawrie at the Makery. I changed it just a bit.
For my version I used a fat quarter of Japanese cotton as my backing, just folding it in half to get the size I wanted ( the fatter rather than skinny fold). I fused on some medium weight interfacing to one half of it to give it a bit more body, and then stitched around the outer edges and turned it right side out. After pressing it again I topstitched the edges, closing up the turning gap that way.
I cut 4 strips of cream felt at 1.5" to make the needle pockets, dividing them into 4 sections with stitching. I added one 1.75" strip of grey felt at the bottom and made 3 pockets in it.
The grey section is for the packet that I am currently using, and since I have 3 machines I made 3 pockets. I am going to add an initial to each one to help differentiate between my Janome, Kenmore, & Featherweight.
The cream pockets are for all the needle packets that I have or am likely to use soon. As I use one, the little container goes down into the grey section, and when I am done, the container goes back up into a cream storage pocket and if the needle is still usable it gets stuck into the front of the appropriate needle pocket for later use.
I think this system will help me keep much better track of my machine needles without having to resort to a magnifying glass to see the marks on a needle.
Do you have a good system for this? I have always found organization difficult so am glad to find something that feels easy to manage!
