Tutorial: Flat Iron/Curling Iron Travel Case

My flat iron is hands down the best thing that’s happened to my hair. I don’t travel without it! It seems like like straightening my hair is one of the last things I do and then I can’t pack the flat iron or I wrap it in a towel to avoid burning my clothes. Enter the flat iron travel case! This baby means I can straighten my hair then immediately pack it up for storage or for traveling.

For this project I used an upholstery weight fabric and a silver quilted ironing board fabric cover. I found the ironing board fabric at my local JoAnns. My flat iron is a CHI 1″ ceramic so that’s what I’ve based all my measurements on. The trickiest part of this project is measuring correctly.

Here are the measuring guidelines I used:
1. Length: Measure the length of your flat or curling iron not including the cord then add an extra 1/2″. The CHI is 10 1/4″ so once I add the extra 1/2″ I’m using 10 3/4″.
2. Pocket width: Measure the diameter around the widest part of your flat or curling iron and add 2″. CHI diameter at the widest point is 5″. Add 2″ and my pocket is 7″.
3. Flap width: Use half of the measurement of your pocket for the flap. That’s 3 1/2″ for me.
4. Total width: Add together the pocket plus the flap (7″ + 3 1/2″ = 10 1/2″) then subtract 1/2″ (10 1/2″ – 1/2″ = 10″).

Now you’re going to match up right sides of the flap and the pocket and stitch them together. I found that the fabric fed more smoothly with the batting side of the quilted fabric facing up.

Open it up and place it on top of your remaining piece of fabric with wrong sides together and pin. Stitch a seam down the flap 1/8″ from the seam between the two fabrics.

Once the mesh was cut I did a loose stitch all around the piece to hold it together. Just to reduce the possibility of hitting the mesh with the sewing machine needle, I started sewing at the X and went almost all the way around, slid the mesh into the opening then finished stitching the rest of the way back to the X.

Now you’re going to add bias tape all the way around and it’ll look like you’ve made a hot pad. That means you’re almost done!

Now fold your pocket over. Stitch three seams, one just to the side off the bias tape and two seams on the bias tape. You really only need one seam, but the three seams help stabilize the area where you’ll be wrapping the cord around.

At this stage I added the strap. It may be easier for you to add it while you’re stitching on the bias tape. As is, I had to seam rip a half inch opening, inserted the strap, folded it over, then stitched it down. You can click the image below to enlarge it to see exactly what I did. You’ll also see that I stitched a decorative button and a snap onto the strap. I used a strap that was 8 1/2″ long, and tucked 3/8″ under the bias tape and folded the end with the button over 3/8″ to reinforce it. In case your flat/curling iron has a longer or shorter cord than mine, you may want to put it in the pocket and wrap the cord around the flap then measure how long your strap needs to be rather than using my measurements.

Here’s a close up of the button/snap area:

And you’re finished! Ready to travel or organize!

PS. Click on any of the photos for a larger view!