Mini Tutorial: How to Make a KitchenAid Mixer Cover

Last week, my sister in-law invited me to their home so I could teach her how to successfully bake a chiffon cake.  As she has a KitchenAid mixer, I wanted to show her how easy it was to beat the eggwhites stiff.  She bought her mixer early this year but has not done much with it really.  

I had always seen her mixer uncovered and her birthday is in a couple of days...so guess what I decided to make for her?

There's no mixer underneath.  The cover is so thick and sturdy, it holds its shape perfectly and stands up on its own.

My fabric has directional prints, so as you can see,  the design on the main body is upside down on this side.  I should have taken the photo from the other side!

This is one of those things I wish I could keep for myself, not only because the cover turned out very pretty, but mainly because of the amount of work I put into it.  First of all, I am not a quilter so I was quite impatient with the quilting part of the process.  And why on earth I did so many lines when I could have done less, I really don't know.  Another thing is that I have a fear of bias binding and I also don't quite enjoy hand sewing. I have in fact avoided having to deal with bias binding for the longest time.  Having said that though, it turned out there was nothing to fear after all.  (But I did prick my fingers a few times.)

What made the whole project easier was that I already had an existing pattern.  If you remember, I made a cover for my own KitchenAid mixer sometime ago.  The way I made that one is actually different (this new one is way better), but the fabric pieces are basically the same.

So, ok.  The title of this post suggests that I have a tutorial for this mixer cover.  I call it a mini tutorial because I did not take photos as I sewed.  This will not be as detailed as my other tutorials so some experience in sewing is quite vital.  I am afraid beginners might get lost somewhere. Basically, I will just be providing you with the pattern, the material requirements, and the general steps on how to make your own cover.  Please take note that my cover was made for a 5 quart KitchenAid ARTISAN mixer. 

MINI TUTORIAL: How to Make a KitchenAid Mixer Cover

Requirements:

1 meter quilting weight cotton fabric for outer cover (non-directional prints preferred)
1 meter quilting weight cotton fabric for lining **
1 meter sew-in cotton or polyester batting
quilt basting spray
about 5 meters double fold bias tape in coordinating colour
matching thread
other sewing essentials such as scissors, needles, ruler, marker, pins, sewing machine, etc.

** This cover is reversible.  If you want a change in look every now and then, choose a pretty lining fabric.

Procedure:

1. Download pattern for the front/back panel here.  With Page Scaling set to NONE, print out the pattern pages.  Cut out the pattern pieces just outside the thick black lines and glue together as instructed.

Please take note that since the patterns were drawn with thick marker, you may find slight discrepancies in the measurements.  Please countercheck with indicated measurements and adjust accordingly, if necessary.

After assembling the pattern pieces, you should have something like this:

This is the complete pattern for the front/back panels of the mixer cover.

2.  From main fabric, lining, and batting, cut the following:

    2 pieces each -  16"(L) by 11"(W) for the front and back panels
    1 piece each - 36"(L) by 16"(W) for the main body

3.  For the front, back and main body panels, sandwich batting between the lining (wrong side up) and the main fabric (right side up).  Following the manufacturer's instructions, use quilt basting spray to temporarily adhere layers together. 

4. Quilt panels as desired. (In my cover, the horizontal and vertical lines are about 1 1/4" apart.)

5.  Using the pattern piece as a guide, cut the front and back panels to size.  Trim the main body to 34 3/4" (L) by 15" (W).

6.  To assemble the cover:

Start with the front panel.  Find and mark the center of the curved top.  With lining sides together, match the center of one long edge of the main body panel with the center of the front panel.  Pin together starting from the top, then go down the sides.  Machine sew using a 1/4" seam allowance.

Do the same with the back panel.

7.  Apply bias tape to the front and back seams.  (I machine sewed the bias tape on one side and hand sewed the other side for a neat finish.)

8.  Finish off by applying bias tape along the bottom edges.

Was that understandable?  Frankly,  I am not used to writing a tutorial without loads of pictures to go with it, so I hope that was clear enough.  The structure of the mixer cover is really very simple.  Quilting and bias binding did complicate the whole thing just a bit.  You may opt not to quilt or maybe you can use stiff interfacing instead of batting.  It's up to you. 

Anyway you choose, hope these instructions will be of some help.  Happy sewing!  And happy baking too!