At long last I have made a cover for my overlocker, but not without errors and frustration on my part.
Firstly I freehand quilted the fabric I was going to use.
I had difficulty keeping the stitches even but am quite happy with the result. Practise will make me better at this skill.
I had drafted a simple pattern for the cover, just two sides and a strip for over the top. My mistake was that I should have done the strip in two pieces because I have ended up with the picture on the fabric being upside down on the front of the cover
and the right way up on the back.
I could have had it the other way round if I had attached the first side correctly but as I had overlocked the seam before I noticed my mistake I couldn’t undo the seam. I was angry with myself for having made such a basic mistake.
If I had made the strip over the top in two pieces, with a seam on the top, I could have had the picture of the fabric the correct way up on both the front and the back.
I could always store the machine on my bench with the back of the cover facing the front, that way the picture on the fabric is the right way up.
Oh well, I will know next time, not that I am likely to be making another overlocker cover.
On a positive note, I was happy with the piping that I used on the cover. I had no piping cord but my husband suggested I use some nylon rope he had in the shed. It proved to be just right as it gave the cover some stiffness.
Gippsland Granny 
I love it! The fabric is cool – love the Knitting Jenny!
I thought the fabric was appropriate for the purpose.
It looks lovely to me but what’s an overlocker?
An overlocker is used to lock the edges of fabric to prevent them from fraying. On a sewing machine you would do this by going down each edge of the seam with a zig-zag stitch and so it would take you three runs in total to do a seam. With an overlocker you just run down the seam once. It sews the seam, cuts the allowance and overlocks the cut edge. It is a fantastic gadget. My children gave me mine for my sixtieth birthday. It was the best present ever.
Ah, I see, it sounds like the perfect present for you. 🙂