Sewing Machine Cover

Pic taken in the summer, love the view of sunflowers

My Bernina 1230 is in a cabinet in front of a large picture window facing west.  This is a very welcoming place to sit and sew for hours, but it is not a great place to leave a sewing machine for extended periods of time. Every afternoon, the sun shines directly into the window before dipping behind my neighbor's roof line. I do have curtains on my windows and these are usually pulled partway closed to protect my machine from direct sun, but in the winter I like to keep the curtains open so that we can soak up some heat in the short hours before darkness falls. Along with the sun exposure, my machine has to put up with more than its fair share of cat hair. This window provides the perfect place for napping cats and there is at least one cat luxuriating in the sun on any given day.  They drape themselves around the machine, sprawl on the cutting board, and test gravity by pushing things just over the edge of the table. Then when they are fully recharged or they hear someone making dinner, off they go, lickety-split. There are telltale signs that you have been visited by a cat though. Someone has munched on the plant leaves, your pattern pieces have been filed/wedged on the floor between the cabinet and the wall, and wisps of cat hair settles on any and every surface.  I'd like to minimize the amount of that cat hair that gets to settle on/in my machine.
A couple days ago I mentioned to T that I should make a few machine covers. That was me verbally putting it on my to do list. Later that day though, T sent me the link to a Threads article from 2011 for a tutorial on making a sewing machine cover. That was pretty sweet of you, T, thank you. After reading through the tutorial and deciding it was something I could tackle, I started looking for fabric. My first choice came from a remnant that I got when my sister-in-law had me check on some free bags of fabric she saw listed online. They were in my neighborhood and, of course, I drove over to claim the bags immediately. It was mostly upholstery remnants and I didn't find much that I needed to keep, but this particular piece had farm animals on it and I couldn't pass that up.

It was hard to cut through any animal, I wanted them all on my cover

I took measurements of my machine and then using the tutorial, I measured and cut the 5 rectangles that went into making this cover. Instead of one continuous piece for the main cover, I cut it in half and put a seam across the top. This way, the animals would drape right-side-up on the front and back sides of the cover. I opted not to put in a handle opening now.  Maybe it will get added later, but this machine doesn't get out of its cabinet, so I don't see the need for a handle yet. Rectangles are easy to cut and I was ready to start sewing in short order.

The pocket that spans the front of the cover got finished with black seam binding out of the leftovers bin.  

It is upside down from the back, but right side up when finished

The tutorial included rounded end covers, but I stayed with the rectangles.  The corners aren't perfectly square, but that's not a problem on a sewing machine cover.  There was enough sew binding left over to finish the bottom edge of the cover as well.

Finished cover

Here's the cover in action. The pocket offers a good view of a pig, chick, and sheep, but I don't know what, if anything, will be stored in there. Cover number one is done, now let's find some more fabric for the others and make sure all of the ladies are well dressed.