All Covered Up

I have had great fun trying out my blending board and want to show it to friends, so the best way to transport it became something to be tackled.
The tines are damaging to skin 'rubbed up' the wrong way and they need to be protected from getting caught unawares and snagging fabrics. So after thinking about the best covering for the 'working' side of the board, and realising that leather would be too expensive, I have made a cover from something I had on hand.
I use this plastic coated fabric to cover my work bench when dyeing fibre and yarn and several printed patterns can be found at Dunelm.
I think that putting the board in and out of a complete bag could damage the tines and be a bit alkward so I decided to make a cover with open sides.
As you may be able to see from the pictures the fabric overlaps and fastens with velcro and I have cut hand holes, matching the board's, for easy carrying.
As it happens, the width of the fabric is just right, twice the length of the board plus sufficient for overlap.

 

I cut fabric twice the width of the board plus an inch for the seam.

I sewed a seam, right sides together, across the width of the folded fabric and up the length. Then trimmed the corners off the fabric before turning it rightside out. Once turned, I sewed the open end shut and sewed all the way around the cover half an inch from the edge. The sewn end became the front flap.

The cover runs from just below the hand hole on the wrong side of the board, around the board and over the front to the back. There is more overlap than needed but I didn't see the need to cut off the excess.

I sewed one part of the velcro near the edge of the flap, the other at the relevant place on the cover at the back of the board.

I marked the hand holes on the wrong side/inside of the cloth with a 'biro' pen. Then I sewed a rectangle around this shape about 3/16th away before cutting out the shape.

A friend from Beds Weavers Guild gave me some clear, zipable plastic bags and they are just right for my board, keel board, flicking tool, clamps and dowels. There is still room for some fibre which now, can't get caught on the tines of the board!

Having this board and seeing its use for blending and creating layers for felting, I bought felting needles and tool to hold them at the NEC last week - you can't go to a show like that without buying something! Now I am off to play!!!!!!