Phone/Tablet/E-Reader Case Instructions

Today I needed to make a case for my new phone and realised I didn't actually have any instructions for producing my favourite case.

So, instructions for a simple case for a phone / tablet / nook case / flat device of your choosing:

First, measure your phone and determine the length, breadth and depth of the device.

My phone is 5" long, 2.5" wide and .5" deep.

Materials:

Outer Fabric and Wadding: cut one piece which is (2x length + 2x depth + .5") x (width + depth + .5")
Lining Fabric: cut two pieces, each one  (length + depth + 1.5") x (width + depth + .5")

So for my phone this gave me outer & wadding pieces at 11.5" x 3.5" and two lining pieces at 7" x 3.5"

Construction:

All seams should be sewn at 1/4"

Start by layering the outer piece and the wadding together. Ensure the outer is right-side up.

Using a walking foot quilt the two pieces together - I chose to use straight lines 3/8" apart simply because this is the width of my walking foot.

Next, take one of the inner pieces and place it right-sides together on top of the quilted outer. Align one short end of the inner with a short end of the outer. Stitch together along the short end.

Repeat with the other inner piece (note that the inners will overlap in the middle, this is fine.

Press the seams.

Take the fabric piece and fold it in half, right sides together. Align the seams where the inner and outer join and pin.

Sew along the long sides, starting at the folded end. When you reach the open end pivot at the corner and stitch in a short way then secure.

Turn the case the right way out by turning it through the open end. Carefully fold under the raw edges and use a whip-stitch to close the opening.

Push the inner inside the outer. At the opening of the case the inner will naturally wrap around the thicker outer piece creating a contrast band of colour. If it doesn't want to stay in place you can carefully stitch in the ditch to secure the two pieces (you will need to do this by hand). Put phone in case and admire.

Christmas Dinosaurs

For Christmas Mum, Dad and Nicky asked for knitted dinosaurs and I was only too happy to oblige.

Nicky wanted a dinosaur to go with her new car and specifically requested this colour combination - I was initially dubious but actually rather like the resulting critter.

Dad had no specific requests so I decided to make him one I thought looked cool and settled on the Stegosaurus. He's red because it's dad's favourite colour and I thought the co-coordinating brown spikes worked rather nicely.

[Picture to follow]

Mum got her Dino a bit early, for her birthday in November, and requested a 'proper dinosaur with moving arms and legs'. So I made her this little fellow.

Mum at Sixtyish

In April 2012 I made dad a quilt for his 60th Birthday, I always intended to make Mum and accompanying quilt for her birthday that November but life got in the way and I never actually did.

So for Christmas this year I fixed that and here is Mum at Sixtyish:

This one turned out much more open than the one I did of dad, with far less blocks of colour. Partly it was because the photograph was from a bright sunny day (rather than an evening shot) and partly it was because I was trying to make better use of negative space (and get less of a communist propaganda feel to the whole thing!)

In a close up of the face you can see I used lots of tiny pieces of fabric, some of the very fine detail (left ear, some of the hair) is simply free hand stitching as I couldn't get the fabric slender enough without it fraying.

The quilt is backed with an old duvet cover and has a dowel for hanging

I added a little label because I'm trying to remember to do that more... I think I shall have to try sewing the next one but a marker pen does the job

And finally, Mum & Dad on the wall together. I was aiming to get them the same size and whilst the quilts are the same dimensions I appear to have used rather different scales for the portraits. Still, I think they look quite nice together.

 

Nook Case

About a week ago Rob bought a Nook e-reader (they were on sale for very silly prices) and yesterday he asked me if I would make him a case for it. This made me very happy so I dug out the sewing machine to get  to work - I make quite a few bits for myself but I take it as a great compliment that he likes my work enough to want something made for himself! It took me about an hour to make the case (including picking out the fabric etc) and he appears quite pleased with the result so I am satisfied with my evenings work.

Anyway, here is the Nook case; the outside is made out of recycled jeans denim and the lining is some grey Kona cotton from my stash.

 The front of the case is plain denim and I used some simple straight line quilting to attach the denim to a bit of cotton wadding so that the screen has a little extra protection from keys and other pointy things.

The back makes use of on the the back pockets from the jeans so that the charging cable can be stashed when travelling; we were careful to pick a pair of jeans without metal studs for this project!

The case is fairly snug so that the Nook won't fall out too easily but it's got enough slack to allow access to the pocket and removal of the device.

A Soup Bowl Holder

Lately I've been taking soup to work and heating it up in the microwave, every day I tentatively edge the bowl out of the microwave and wrap it in kitchen roll to get it back to my desk without burning my fingers.  Today there was no kitchen roll :(

I decided it was high time I did something about this sorry state of affairs so I present: A Microwavable Soup Bowl Holder featuring "Happy Alligators"

The bowl holder was embarrassingly easy to make given how long it's taken me to get around to making something.  It's simply two squares of fabric with darts in and some cotton wadding to make it heat-resistant.

I used a tutorial by Syzygy of Me and the whole thing was finished within an hour; if I get admiring looks from the other soup-eating ladies at work I may be tempted to treat their fingers too and make them each one of their own!

That little tab at the front is not in the pattern; I might have slightly sewn and cut one of the darts the wrong way around and needed something to cover up the gap... but if I hadn't mentioned it I bet you'd think it was an intentional "feature"!

I've read that it's important to stick to natural materials to avoid melting/setting on fire so I used 100% cotton fabric  thread and wadding - I tested the finished holder it in the microwave for 5 minutes and it showed no signs of sizzling so I don't think I will have any trouble.

Pocket Bear

Say Hello to Pocket Bear! 

For my birthday my godparents gave me some money to spend and I decided to invest in a few more knitting supplies.  I wanted to thank them so I decided to knit them a little gift and fell in love with this little fellow on Ravelry.  He's quite small but rather cute and I'm sure he will be very happy in his new home.

Pocket Bear on Ravelry

Fire & Ice Update

I had a very productive weekend and decided to make a start on my UFO's.  I decided to start with one of the earlier ones and dragged Fire & Ice out of the cupboard.  2 hours later I had finished assembling the quilt top and I can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to it! It looks a bit wavy because all the pieces are paper-backed and it got a bit scrunched up in the cupboard but I'm confident that once the papers are off it will lay flat!

I started by trimming all the blocks down and then assembled them into 4-block squares, then into three long rows and finally into one big quilt.  The next task is to remove all the papers from the back.  There are an awful lot of tiny little pieces and, to make it even more fun, most of them are printer paper stuck on with pritt-stick so its going to take a while to clear down.  Still, it's good telly-watching activity so I'm fairly hopeful that this will get done shortly - I managed to get about a third of it cleared off on Sunday night so I should get there before too long... then I just have to decide how to quilt this Beauty.