Bargello sunglasses case DIY

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I remember doing this craft when I was young and I fell in LOOOOOVE with it – so when I saw Bargello on social media the other day, I raced to my local Michaels store to get all the supplies (inexpensively I might add)! I remember making a kleenex box holder for my grandma when I was younger…..buuuuuut I knew that as a glasses family, we needed some new and summery glasses/sunglasses holders! OBVI! The pattern below is for the Bargello sunglasses case! YAYYYYY!

MATERIALS:

Plastic gridded canvas (sometimes called plastic tapestry canvas)
Either Worsted weight yarn OR tapestry wool
A blunt darning needle
Some scissors
Your pattern of choice (for the design – create one on graph paper or do something simple like stripes)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut your plastic canvas to the size desired.
To make a glasses case to fit most kids or adult size glasses, cut 2 pieces approx. 3.75” wide x 7.5-8” in length.

TIP: Be sure *NOT* to cut in the “middle” of the squares….you will want a finished edge so be sure that you adjust your sizing if needed so that you have clean edges on all 4 sides.

2. Decide on your design – either sketch this out on some graph paper or a scratch paper or find a design that inspires you! 🙂 Count your squares and then get to work planning out what color goes where in your design! 🙂

I chose to start at the bottom and then work my way up – work in chunks and count as you go because it’s SOOOO easy to get off kilter.

3. It’s time to get STITCHING! 🙂

The basic idea is that you will stitch your bargello by threading your needle, coming up from the back of your material, pulling tight, and then going back down from the front “covering” however many squares you need to to make your pattern come to life (most of the time, I did sets of 3 stitches….ie, come up one hole, count 1,2,3 holes and then go down in the 3rd hole) 🙂

Remember: there are NO KNOTS in bargello, so here is how to start and end a new yarn color on any bargello project 🙂

TO START A NEW COLOR:

Begin by threading your needle and draining you needle up through the bottom of the mesh in your desired spot.
Pull the yarn through *almost* to the end but leave a tail that is at least 1 inch long
On the back of the mesh, position the yarn tail in the direction of where you will be stitching so that when you begin stitching, the back of your work is stitching right overtop of your yarn tail to hold everything in place.
Don’t be afraid to pull tight so that everything is nice and taught and won’t come undone as you are anchoring your new color.

TO END A COLOR:

When you get to the end of your area that you are stitching, you will want to anchor your color by weaving in the yarn in the opposite direction of where you just stitched (under the backside of the stitches on the back of the fabric).
I chose to go backwards and then forwards and then cut the yarn flush to the backside of the stitched material.
Then continue on to the next color by starting a new one 🙂

4. Once your 2 canvas pieces are completely covered with your design, you will begin to put your glasses case together by stitching together and finishing the edges.

Cut a LOOOOONG piece of your edging color of yarn and put your 2 mesh pieces wrong sides together lining up the edges flush to one another. Start at the top corner, anchoring your yarn, and then begin to loop over and around the sides going through both holes doing a whip stitch. This will attach both of your pieces of your glasses case together.

Whip stitch together all the way around the 3 sides to attach them together, but when you get to the top of the opposite corner, don’t cut the yarn – instead you will “open” the opening of the 4th side (ie, not stitch them together like the other 3 sides) and stitch them individually (in a circle) so that you have a finished edge at the opening.