How to Make Easy Padded Cases for Your Good Chinaware

When you're a klutz, you have to have "good" china, because otherwise you aren't able to keep enough unchipped for the holidays. And there's no way I want to add to my stress of the by taking out dusty plates, bowls, and cups to use.

For years, I wrapped it all in plastic grocery bags. Wrapping and unwrapping was nuisance cubed, to say nothing of umpty-ump bags to hide away.

Finally, I broke down and bought round zippered cases for the plates. But that left the odd-shaped things - the platters, the gravy boat, the serving bowls - still in their grocery bags.

Then I was visited by a brainstorm. I went to the thrift store and bought a comforter, washed it, and was ready to make my own cases.

Here's a warning: do as I say, not as I did. Do NOT buy a big, thick comforter. You want a quilt, something that will pad your china without being so fat and full of fluff as to make things extra difficult in the cutting and sewing. I picked a dark green comforter because my other china cases were dark green. Wrestling with that fat thing convinced me I should have settled for something thinner that didn't match.

However, onward and upward! The bought cases were round, but quare cases keep the dust off just as well, and are easier to make.

For each item you want a case for, you measure a square or rectangle twice as big on your quilt. Measure along the edges, so the finished edges of your quilt can be the openings of your cases.

Since I chose such a darned fluffy comforter, I had to sew inside the cutting lines before I made the final cuts; otherwise, all the stuffing would have jumped out. If I had been sensible, and waited for a thinner quilt with closer lines of quilting - oh, well.

Fold the rectangle in half and sew up the bottom and one side, leaving open the side made of the finished edge of the quilt. You now have a nice bag.

For the closure, I used my favorite stuff in the world, next to ice cream - Velcro! You can sew the Velcro on either before or after you do the seams. It's probably easier to do it first, but I was feeling my way and did it afterwards. You just zigzag the hook side to one edge and the loop side to the other edge of your opening.

While I was making the cases, I cut out a few squares of the comforter and zigzagged circles on them, then cut outside the stitching. This gave me padded circles to put between the vegetable bowls.

The cups had a cardboard box they fit in; I made a large case that held the entire box. The gravy boat got a small case of its own.

You can see from the pictures that this was all done in a very rough-and-ready fashion. If I'm honest, there are two reasons for this: (1) I can't sew, and (2) I don't care.

What I do care about is that when the holidays come, and all I have to do is bring the china down from the upstairs closet, all packed, sorted, cushioned, and clean.