Case Question

[tgardner]

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the wealth of knowledge on this site. It is great to see so many people come together. I have a question about cases, cell phone cases to be exact. I have been researching this topic and am wondering about something. In the 2 piece cases I have seen (a front and back sewed together) I am wondering how to add the thickness of the phone to the front piece. Are the front and back cut the same and sewed and molded or is the front piece cut larger than the back. If the front is larger than the back how is it assembled? I know this might be a dumb question but thanks for any help.

[TwinOaks]

Rule #1: No dumb questions!!! no wait, that's #2...#1 is keep hands/fingers out of the cutting path. ahem...

Some cases are molded around the phone- how much I can't really say because it depends on the leather being used. Some has more stretch than others. Other cases use a gusset for the sides, and have a single piece as the front, back, bottom and flap (if it has a flap). There's a pattern floating around here of a lateral phone case which is all a single piece of leather for the main case, with an additional piece for the belt loop.

For the molded types, the easiest way to size the upper piece is to use some heavy stock paper ( I use cardboard sometimes) and wrap the phone with it, leaving enough for stitching. Then mark the material, flatten it out, and cut along your marks. You now have a stencil to transfer to the leather. I've also gone the route of measuring a phone's dimensions, laying out the lines and cutting the pattern. Assembly was.....interesting. Molding is much easier, especially if you can find a block of wood/plastic the same shape and size as the phone.

Oooh! Idea! Ring's "blue-phones" for phone case makers!!!