Gadget Slip Case Tutorial for Father's Day

Here in the UK, next month is Father's Day (Sunday June 15th) so if you are stuck for present ideas I thought I'd share this little tutorial with you for these quick, simple but attractive gadget cases. 

The tutorial will work for most gadgets (iPads, Kindles, iPhones, tablets etc) - all you need are the dimensions!

You will see in my photos I cut fabric for a matching iPad and iPod set, but through the tutorial I will concentrate on just the iPad case to make it less confusing.

OK, so you will need to start..

2 contrasting cotton fabrics (both mine came from Hobbycraft)

craft felt for the lining (also from Hobbycraft!)

2.5in piece of  1/8in elastic in a matching colour

a matching button

scissors

needle and thread, or sewing machine.

1. Measure your gadget...then add 1in to the width and height. My iPad Air was 9.4in x 6.6in, so I measured my fabric 10.4in x 7.6in.

2. Measure and cut your fabric. You will need:

1 x full size fabric 1

1 x full size fabric 2

2 x craft fabric 1/4 in smaller (so for mine it was 9in x 6.2in)

Then for the front pocket you will need to cut 2 squares (one of each fabric) by your width measurement, so mine was 6.6in x 6.6in.

Here's all my fabric cut for both cases.

From now on we'll just concentrate on the iPad case, although the construction is exactly the same for both!

1. Place your two pocket pieces (one of each fabric) right sides together and stitch a 1/4in seam along the top edge.

2. Turn right sides out and press, then stitch along the top 1/4in from the edge to give a neat finish.

3. Now take your two larger pieces of fabric. Lay your plain fabric right side up, and lay your pocket you just constructed on top, pattern side up and flush with the bottom of your first piece, like so:

4. Then lay your last piece of fabric (patterned) on top, right side in, (taking care to ensure you have it the right way round and not upside down as I have in the past!) and pin round to secure.

5. Now stitch round the two sides and the bottom. Do not stitch the top, as I have also done in the past! 

Snip the corners, turn right side out, and press.

6. Take your two craft felt pieces, pin together, and stitch round 3 sides, taking care to ensure you leave a 2in gap in the bottom for turning later. Snip the corners as I have done here. 

7. Now comes the fun part! Place your outer cover inside your lining, right sides together, and pin, taking care to match up your seams. 

8. Measure from seam to seam, and mark the middle point of your lining. Make sure this is on the BACK of your case, and not the front (it will be the side with the pattern, not the plain!). You can just see my chalk mark in this photo. Make a loop with your piece of elastic, tuck it loop side in BETWEEN your two fabrics where your centre mark is, and pin carefully, leaving a little poking out as you can see here.

9. Sew round the case 1/4in from the top, going back and forward over the loop a few times to make sure it's really secure!

10. Now comes the REALLY fun part! Very gently and slowly tease the outer of your case through the gap you left in the bottom of the felt lining, taking care not to stretch it out! 

11. When it's all out, sew up the bottom of the lining and tuck it inside the case. Add your button, and press! 

Voila!

Hope you enjoy making these - if you have any questions feel free to ask! If you do make some, come back and post a link - I'd love to see them! 

Thanks for looking!

Lisa

xx

A jacket for Jamie

I've had this black and white check fabric sitting around for a while now. I just couldn't make up my mind what to make with it...a dress? Skirt? Bag?
I decided to look through my sewing books for inspiration, and suddenly came across a lovely pattern for a reversible jacket for Jamie in Sewing for Boys!
I had seen it in there before when using the book for other things, but had never made it....I thought it would be perfect for the fabric!
I teamed it with a beige ripstop, patch pockets, and some chunky self cover buttons...and voila!
A lightweight, reversible jacket for Spring!
He seems to like it...haha! (apparently the sunglasses were NOT optional!)

Thanks for looking!

Lisa

Shwin&Shwin 'Maxwell' Shirt - pattern test

Last week I was lucky enough to be chosen to test the new 'Maxwell' shirt pattern from Shwin&Shwin. I have never sewn a 'proper' shirt before (basically one with a collar lol!) so this would not only be a good test of the pattern, but a challenge for me too!

I was very impressed...the pattern was easy to assemble (it comes in downloadable PDF format) - instructions were very clear, the pictures and diagrams easy to follow, and the shirt is adorable! What more could you ask for?

Here's how ours turned out...I've had lots of compliments on it, and will definitely be making him more before the summer gets here...although this week it feels like it's already arrived ha ha!

Thanks for looking!

Lisa

xxx

Design by Jamie!

I made this Imke before we went away...I've only just got round to posting it! 

Now, the story behind this one...I was looking on EBay for some fabric for Jamie to make him a fleece hoody, and found some gorgeous 'kid' fabrics - robots, cars, trains, bright colours...

I saved them in my watch list, and decided to let him pick.

So, he looked....and picked a plain, dark brown stretch corduroy that had been in my watch list for another project! lol! No amount of persuasion would get him to change his mind...so I ordered it!

When it arrived, I decided to let him go the whole way and choose everything...the style, the applique wording and fabric - even down to the colours of thread!

So this is what he came up with...I think the boy has some serious designing in his future, it looks great - definitely not bad for a soon-to-be-4 year old!

The orange and blue zig zag stitching...they had to be on top of each other, not side by side...

The pocket on the sleeve...

The 'DUDE' applique...

and a couple of pics of the finished item!

Thanks for looking! 

Lisa xxx

Oddly shaped balls.....

Well, if you're a rugby fan, like me, you can not have failed to notice that the Rugby World Cup is under way in New Zealand!

Now this is very exciting for me...I've been a fan since I don't know when, and now my little dude is getting into it too, which makes me a very happy Mummy indeed! It's not surprising though, really - last World Cup, he was in here - I gave birth one month and one day after this was taken ha ha! 

 He's been walking round the flat ordering 'Crouch! Touch! Pause! ENGAGE!', and was shouting 'Come ON England!' and 'Go Johnny!' - he makes me very proud lol!

So yesterday morning, I decided he needed an England shirt of his own.  

So I found a picture of the England Rose (not hard - it's my wallpaper on my pc!), and traced it onto paper with pencil. I made sure I did the lines quite dark, as I then turned it upside down onto the back of some fusible interfacing, and using the schoolkids trick, rubbed all over the back with the end of a pencil so the design was transferred to the back of the interfacing. This way, the applique pieces would form the image the right way round.

I then cut them all out, and then ironed them onto the jersey scraps, and cut them out. Then Istuck them onto the shirt with washable glue stick to hold them in place - there were too many pieces that pins weren't practical.

Please excuse this photo as it was taken with my phone cam lol! You can see the traced image on the left..this is all the pieces glued onto the shirt.

Then the last thing to do was to stitch them on....I handstitched it all as I think it would have been too fiddly for my machine skills!

And here's the little guy in his new shirt....he seems to like it!

Thanks for looking...and 

COME ON ENGLAND!!!!

Lisa

xxxx

Retro Long Shorts...

Jamie needed some new 3/4 length trousers (or long shorts, jams, whichever you prefer!) so I decided to have a go with this old pattern (it has copyright 1972 on it lol!) I have for some long trousers and just change it up! Aren't they awesome? I really am considering making the whole outfit, waistcoat and all ha ha! 

I used an old shirt of Russ's for the fabric, and added white bias tape trim on the front pocket (the front panel was cut from the front of the shirt, so I didn't even need to make a pocket - it was already on the front of the shirt lol!) and as tabs on the bottom cuffs, just as a contrast accent.

He seems to like them!

Thanks for looking!

Lisa

xxx

Woohoo! I got picked!

Yes, Shwin&Shwin have been having a Boys Tee week, and asked people to post photos in their Boys Tee Flickr group......

Well, they did their Boys Tee Week Roundup today - and picked one of mine! Eek! I was so excited when I saw it in my Google Reader feed this morning!

It was this Striped Top with 'J' Applique, remember? It's always been one of my favourites of his...I think when he grows out of it I'll have to make a bigger one lol!

Thank you so much to them - their Flickr Group and great tutorials they've had all week have certainly been an inspiration! 

Thanks for looking!

Lisa

xxx

Kung Fu Panda, Thomas, and Swing Birds.....

As we're off to Pandamonium in the Park on Saturday, I told Jamie I was going to make him a new shirt to wear and he said he wanted a Kung Fu Panda one lol!

So, one modified Imke hoody later - here it is! 

I added a custom curved yoke...and Panda ears.

He loves it.

I also made another Thomas back pack - this time in red - for my friend Jane's little man. I think it looks great in this colour!

and finally, a self drafted camera strap cover with a lens cover pocket...I actually need to make myself one of these now lol!

So all in all a productive day here at SMM Towers lol!

Thanks for looking

Lisa

xxx

Hot hot hot!

Wow, the weather has been glorious here for ever.....long may it continue lol!

I haven't got a lot of sewing done, but thought I'd share what I have made.....

I needed to make up a Romance bag for the tutorial I'm doing to go with the pattern pieces I've already put up, so this is what I came up with! It's the Big Romance pattern....and a phone case I self drafted to go with it!

then, as my lovely man bought me the 'Sewing Clothes Kids Love' book, I thought I should get some more use out of it other than just the Feliz! I decided to have a go at the Imke hooded top for Jamie. I upcycled it from two of his Daddy's tshirts - the stripey one had a huge logo/pattern on it that would have been cut through and looked odd if I had left it, so I self drafted a square yoke for the shirt that eliminated the problem nicely!

Jamie likes it, and I'm pleased with how it turned out, so that's good - I'll definitely make it again.

and finally.....yes, it's been in the 80 degree range here....but sometimes, a boy just needs to make fairy cakes.

So we did.

I love to bake with Jamie - he's so enthusiastic, and gets so annoyed every time we have to actually COOK them before we can eat them - he's so funny!

Thanks for looking

Lisa

xxx

What I've been up to!

Other than being engrossed in my Cath Kidston book, I mean......

I self drafted a new bag pattern - the Daydreamer! 

Ta-dah!

It was inspired by a friend of mine asking me to make her a deeper handbag for her to take on holiday - and this is what I came up with! I'm glad to say she was very happy with it.

And another bag.....this one for my little guy! He's been crazing me for ages to make him a bag - he keeps seeing me make all these others, bless him - so I decided now was the time. We're off to Colne Valley Railway's Day Out With Thomas on Saturday, so I decided it would be good for him to have a Thomas backpack to put his drink, snacks and goodies in while we are there.

I used the toddler backpack pattern from Indietutes which is fab! I downsized it a bit from the actual pdf as I think it would have been too big - but this size is perfect for him!

He liked it so much he sat clutching it all the way through lunch - and has been planning what to put in it all afternoon lol!

Thomas the Tank Engine PJ Pants!

I made these for my little Thomas fiend today...PJ pants! Needless to say after I got them on him, I couldn't get them off again - and he's currently all tucked up in bed with them on - good job I prewashed the fabric, eh? lol!

I traced them from a pair of pants I already made him as I love the fit of them - you can see them here: 

summer pants

Please excuse the pictures - he was so excited with them I couldn't get him to stay still for five minutes! 

His attempt at a 'pose'...

and a rare still moment - no idea what he was looking at, but it seems it was fascinating lol!

Thanks for looking!

xxx

Stripe 'J' applique top - competition entry!

Tomorrow is the final deadline for the 'I am Momma Hear me Roar' 'Let's Hear it for the Boys' competition .

Typically for me, I only found out about it yesterday, but thought it might be fun to have a go at entering...so I did!

I used the last of the stripe jersey that I made my stripe tee with - I'll just make sure we don't wear them both on the same day lol!

I thought it looked a bit plain for him as it was, so I jazzed it up a bit with a red jersey 'j' applique (cut from an old tee that was too small for him) - he said 'Mummy, that's a 'J' for Jamie! Is it for me?' Bless him!

No pattern, as per....lol!

Posing shot....

There's a shadow on my feet, Mummy!

Look at those eyes....they let him get away with murder! (ok, I know this shot has nothing to do with the top, but....I'm his Mummy and I love him! lol!)

Thank you for looking, I can't wait to see the other entries - how exciting!

xxx