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Date Started

April 29, 2010

Date Finished

April 29, 2010

 

I was about to go on a trip and had just gotten an iPad. I wanted a decent cover but could only find those dumb neoprene envelopes in the stores...because I want to take my iPad in and out of a wetsuit sock each time I want to use it.

Quick! To Joann's, she'll have what I need:

  • some cotton quilting fabric
  • a package of heavy iron-on interfacing
  • sew on velcro and I am ready to rock
  • narrow knit elastic band

I prepare my fabric and notions:

  • cut a 36 x 11.5 strip of the cotton for the case.
  • cut 2 4x 8 strips for the "pockets"
  • cut a pairs of velcro, about 6 in length
  • cut 2 11 x 11 pieces of heavy iron-on interfacing.

I don't cut the elastic, instead I leave it in the spool.


I fold the case in half and use that to position my velcro. The whole case will be sewn two-ply like a pillow case, so I can sew everything to the "inside" of the case to hide stitches. In cutting the case, I have folded it to see how the 18 of fabric will wrap the iPad with the pattern. My print has a giraffe that I want in the center. So once I figure out where the fold will be, I cut my 36x11.5 case.

I iron in the fold to make it easy to keep track of. I lay it out and attach one piece of velcro about 2 in from the left edge and the other about 2 in from the fold. They are both on the same side, because when you fold the fabric, one will be on the inside and the other on the outside.

Next I start with the pockets. I fold the 8x4 strips in half to get a 8x2 strip. Think of this folded piece like a hotdog bun and the elastic is a hotdog. I want to sew the edge of the elastic into one of the 2 sides and pull it down the length of the pocket, letting it rest in the folde like the dog in the bun. I sew down the 2 side to keep that end in place. Now I pull the elastic so that it is stretched. Once I get a feel for how stretchy the elastic is, I pull the pocket in a little, so that when I sew down the other 2 side there will be less than 8 of elastic in. I shorted the elastic almost a whole inch. This gave me a snug pocket top that was like the edge of a fitted sheet.

I repeated with the other pocket. I folded the pockets again so that they were now 1x8. i am going to sew the sides to the inside of the case and the back edge to the case too. This will make little snuggy pockets for you to fit your iPad top and bottom in. Before I sewed them in, I made a 2 button whole in the bottom of the middle for the power jack. I made small round button hole 1.5 from the left on the top for the headphone jack.

I then used my ipad as a guide to see where everything shuold line up and sewed the pockets in.

Then I folded the case back on itself and sewed up the top and bottom, but left the edge open. I then turned the whole thing right-side-own to have the case. I shoved one piece of heavy interfacing all the way down into the case, about 3 to 4 from the edge. You want the part with the velcro to be free from the interface so it can wrap around the edge to stick to the other piece of velcro. Then I iron it in place. I shove the next piece in and leave about a 1 gap so it can wrap at the spine like a book. Iron it in. then I fold the loose edge back into itself, iron them edges inside and do a top stitch shut.