Some people sew and craft for artistic reasons. I have a drive to make stuff, but I want my creations to solve problems in my life. One of my recent annoyances was the glow from controls on a HEPA air purifier we purchased about a year ago. It put out enough light to be bothersome at night.
At first, my spouse and I tried to address the problem by covering the controls with a sock. Then someone would decide to wear the sock or it would fall off and we would be back where we started. After enough of this, I decided to sew my way out of this problem.
I found an upholstery sample from my stash that I did not have another use for. I measured the diameter of the glowing controls on the filter. I used a lid to create a circle pattern that was about an inch longer than the circle on the filter. I then cut two circles from the upholstery fabric and pinned a long ribbon from my stash onto the right side of one of the circles. (I admit I originally pinned it to the incorrect side and had to redo it, but the instructions here are correct). I then stitched the circles right sides together using a 1/2 inch seam allowance and leaving about an inch opening.
I mentally cycled through various options to secure the ribbon to the filter. At one point I was leaning toward using some sort of command hook. But after letting it percolate a bit, I figured out the easiest thing was to just tie the ribbon around the cord where it inserted into the machine. I applied fray check on the end of the ribbon to keep it from unraveling.
This simple and quick project took me an hour and solved the problem. The double-layer upholstery fabric is heavy enough that it stays in place even with the air flow of the filter and does not let the light through. The fact that it is secured to the machine means that we won't lose it. My spouse was impressed with my genius, which was an added bonus.
