TRANSPORTER PSYCHOSIS : How to make a Hasselbald\Imacon dust cover at home (Phase I)

Have you ever walked home after a long day at a nice lab or school where they have all the money and budget to buy all the accessories you could never afford if you bought something yourself? well you probably would not be able to afford the principle item anyway so this wouldent really matter. but in my case, i bought an imacon some time ago and have a dust accumulation problem from time to time. so the answer was clear to me, dont buy a cover just make one! as this giude will show you it is quite simple and all you will need (aside from an imacon, to measure your cover on) is some fabric, some thread and a needle.
Phase 1 deals with the making of the cover, but not the flap opening for the feeder tray, this will be covered in phase 2, in the mean time this will work fine for all 646 users, just put the tray aside when the scanner is covered.
to start you need a good piece of material for the cover. i used a Sky like vinyl type of material (on sale for 10.99$ yard at Jo Anns fabrics in dedham) in black. this is similar to the material used in the OEM cover, but is heavier and nicer looking. any dust proof fabric will do, though i would recommend getting something that is also less prone to static build up, like some fleece or cotton fabrics. i also got an appropriate needle for this type of fabric, and a heavy duty upholstery thread.
the scanner is 27 inches tall and so i got a piece 60 inches long, i am not sure exactly what that means because i do not know how big an inch is yet but it was roughly square so i am guessing it was 60X60 inches but i am not sure. since the scanner has 4 panels in different shapes and sizes, though all are 17 inch tall i big piece makes the job real easy. i will explain how to cut and sow this cover. basically you mark and cut the right shape, then sow the cover inside out, and once its done you turn it outside in and viola - a handsome cover with invisible stitches!

step 1: start buy laying the fabric upside down so the inside side is showing. align the fabric and orient it on the scanner. it is important to figure out where the long side of the fabric is, as it is not always exactly square. after that you want to make sure the fabric is touching the floor on all sides, other wise you might end up with a cover that is lump sided. then i pulled out the corners of the loose fabric to begin and make the markings for cutting.

step 2: i used 4 small film clamps and pinched them on at one of each of the corners of the scanner. this way the fabric was more or less stretched around the scanner evenly and you can see where to mark the cutting lines.i followed the curve of the corner of the scanner from the top to the bottom on each side of each corner. that means that if we take the front right corner for example, i made two lines going down the fabric, one marks the cut line on the front panel side of the corner and the other marks the right side panel of the corner. this way you can cut the excess fabric easy. it is important to leave ALOT of slack, cutting the fabric to short will be a bummer and you can always cut off more, but you cant add anything so make sure you leave yourself a wide bough. repeat for all 4 corners (total 8 cut lines) then cut along the lines.
you should end up with a cross like piece of fabric.

step3: make the closer cuts. now that that the fabric is more or less in the right shape its time to make it fit. i used the same small film clamps again and clamped all 4 along on corner, connecting the two flaps of fabric. while holding the clamps tightly, i marked a new, more accurate cut line along the the same pattern as in step 2. you could do this in step 2 but you risk cutting off too much.

step 4: once i had the more accurate lines on, i made the second cut. this left me with about half a centimeter of excess fabric that will hold the stitches. after cutting the closer cuts, i put the clamps back to help my align the fabric while sewing. I made a few loops with the thread and needle, all the time holding on to the two flaps tightly to make sure they are still in position. repeat the process for all 4 corners. i found it is much easier to do when the fabric is on the scanner itself. you get a better feeling as to where the loops should fit. i used a basic loop knot. it is called a plain blanket stitch here. i spaced then about 1cm apart. i left the bottom 8 cm loose as that will help put the cover on the scanner. i also left the top 2 cm alone and started just below to allow a bit of flex in the top as the whole thing will be turned outside in.