I spy with my little i... this week's i-pad cover tutorial

I would really like an ipad, but unfortunately due to the redundancy last year, it is not going to happen for a while yet, but it does not stop me from being ready with a cover for it when I get it.  So this week we are going to make an ipad cover, a Kindle cover or even work in miniature for an i-phone (measurements for these are at the end of the tutorial) and we are going to use fabric from Moda's 30s playtime collection which is just yummy.

Model i-pad is lent by Miss Weston 's technical consultancy :)

 

So let's get cracking, irons and ironing boards at the ready and off we go, you will need:
An outer fabric, an inner fabric and wadding measuring 24" (L) x 13" (W)
Sewing machine
Thread
Pins
Scissors and tape measure or rotary cutting wheel, mat and ruler
Iron and Ironing board
Button (decorative or self covering)
Chopstick
Snap Fasteners (Big ones!) or Velcro
Water Soluble Pen
Decorative buttons or fabric scraps

First iron your fabrics and cut out identical pieces from the inner and outer fabric and from the wadding.

We are going to quilt the wadding (you will probably have some left over from the tea cosy or needle roll), if you are lucky enough to have a machine like mine you may have some quilting stitches on your machine... I used a Serpentine stitch which gave me the curvy stitch.  Another option is straight lines, using a water soluble pen place a dot every two inches around the edge draw a diamond pattern linking these dots and sew along the lines.


Do this with just the outer fabric and the wadding, the polka dot fabric really helped me as I used the dots as a guide for my Serpentine stitch.

Now once you have quilted your fabric, it will shrink, the more you quilt, the more it shrinks in size, so check that you still have enough fabric to play with, in case you need to adjust your seam allowance.  


As usual we are using 5/8" seam allowance, pin the outer fabric to the inner fabric and sew them together. Then trim down your inner fabric to match the outer fabric, it will be about a 1/4".

Fold the quilted section over and measure 9" from this seam and lightly press it.  At this point you might decide to applique a design onto the cover, or sew a pattern in buttons, if you choose to do this do it on the front fabric between the fold you have just pressed and the seam.  I suggest that it looks better on right hand side facing you, in fact I am sure that I read it in a survey in a magazine at the hairdressers, so it must be true!


Now you are going to read this through thoroughly and then do it... cos if you are like me, you will run off on your own and get it wrong.  As my mother would say, "I had a little girl/boy like you before, so I know that I am right!"  


Sew up both sides of the quilted section up to the seam between the inner and outer fabrics, ignore the flap.


Measure 9" from seam on the inner fabric, sew up just one side to the seam.  Then on the other side, sew up two inches, leave an opening of four inches and then sew up to the seam.

You should now have two pieces of fabric flapping in the breeze, this is good, pin them together, find the centre point and mark it 5/8" in.  Mark a spot an inch above the seam (marked as A and B on the pic) on each side, draw a line from seam on the left hand side to the first point then a diagonal across to the centre point, another diagonal to the point on the right hand side and then onto the seam.

Sew along the line, the trim the excess fabric and cut the corners to remove the bulk of the fabric for when we turn this.  Your cover will now look like a Y shape.

Using the four inch hole, start pulling the fabric through the hole.  On the seam of the inner fabric, where the hole is, fold it through and iron it into place, sew a seam as close to the edge of the fabric as you can.  Tuck the inner into the outer sleeve and iron into place

Slip your ipad into place and let it drop to the bottom of your cover, this push the lining into place.


It is now decision time, how do you want to fasten your cover... this cover is a girly cover but you have a couple of other options, eg a buttonhole in the triangular flap and a large attractive button.  Or maybe you and your machine do not do buttonholes, you can cheat use another method, sew the button onto the top of the flap and put velcro on the inside of the flap and on the front of your cover.  I went with using the Days of Wine and Roses flower and sewing that onto the front flap and then sewed a large snap fastener onto the case to close it.

Now if you want to make it for a Kindle you will need a piece of fabric 19" (L) x 7.5" (W)
when you fold it will be 7.75".  The formula I am using is 2.5 x L +1.5 (seam allowance) x W +1.5 (seam allowance) +.5 (quilting shrinkage).


And for a phone 14" (L) x 5" (W), when you fold it you will need it to be 4.75" from the seam

Finally, this is my notebook and my sketches so that you can see how my addled brain works out how to make these patterns up... usually I do this at my local coffee shop or at three in the  morning in my bed but I reckon I forget to update the book at that time!


Right, you know what comes next, hop on over to Wendy's fabulous Handmade Monday to see what the gang have been up to this week.


PS - The good news is that this cover has already been snaffled up by a chum who fell in love with it when she saw it :)