A Christmas Present For My Son

[Shenster]

I made this cell phone case for my son.

I began by making a model of his ipad, laminating sheets of poster board together for the depth, and cutting it to size. I designed the pattern on a CAD program and made a test case out of a sheet of flooring underlayment, which is perfect for making mock-ups. To align the Velcro, I ran nails through every other hole in the leather and through the holes punched in the Velcro to align the holes and then glued the Velcro to the leather before sewing. I used heavyweight polypropolene webbing for the belt loop, as leather will wear, whereas webbing is indestructible. Because you can't punch holes in webbing, as the cut edges of the holes would fray, I sewed the webbing to the leather with an awl, going through the holes I had punched in the leather, and on through the webbing.

Speaking of awls, here's how you can make a never-ending awl: Drill a hole straight through the bottom and top of the wooden handle, run the thread off of a spool through the holes, wrap it around the small spool on the awl two or three times, and then on through the needle.

[tankerman1967]

I love the look of the case. Good job...

Very fancy with the cad program just wish I could learn it.

I like the idea of the floor under-lament. That is a great idea, and would save me a lot of leather..lol

Again nice idea , yet another, With the sewing awl. I am going to try it .

Thanks for sharing

[Shenster]

Thank you, Tankerman........

Glad you like my cell phone case. It's not really earth-shattering, but there's not a lot you can do to make a functional cell phone case with a mega wow factor. Some fancy tooling and staining would have been nice, but then, my son would never wear it. Black is the only color he'll be seen with.

Yeah, the flooring underlayment is great for testing patterns. It is 1/8" thick, tough, durable, doesn't stretch, and is inexpensive. With it, you can make mistakes to your heart's content. For the holes on the sides of the pouch, there was no need to go through the effort of sewing them together. I just ran nails through the holes, aligning the two flaps of the sides and gluing them together. And then some tape just to make sure it all held together whilst I fiddled with it.

I used DraftSight to draw up my pattern. That program is a miracle! It is almost identical to AutoCAD and it's a FREE download! It is very user friendly and easy to learn.

I like your stuff, too, Tankies. As I commented on your post, it's nice to see someone coming up with their own tooling designs.

Edited December 20, 2014 by Shenster

[Tramps Leatherworking]

I like it --- sometimes this can be a tough crowd... As long as you like it, and it serves the purpose, nothing else is necessary...

[Shenster]

Thank you, Tramp.

A tough crowd? Well, as long as you and Tankers likes it, I'm happy.

Will my son like it? That is the question.

[Halitech]

Looks good and as long as he likes it, doesn't matter what anyone else thinks

but good idea on the never ending sewing awl, those small rolls just always seem to run out too fast

[Shenster]

Tell me about it! I used to use an awl extensively, and one day after installing about the 10th spool, I had a sudden forehead slapping moment.

[amh421]

Great idea on the "never ending" awl - do you mind if I share it with a few customers? We're an Osborne and Tandy dealer and I get a lot of customers that prefer the Speedy Stitcher simply because you can wind more thread on it's spool vs the small spools for the Osborne stitcher.... but then they say that hand-winding the thread onto the spool is a pain and it's so much easier to simply switch out the spool on the Osborne stitcher... lol I guess ya can't satisfy everyone I prefer an awl and 2 harness needles, so I don't have much experience using either stitcher, therefore I can't recommend anything from personal experience... but that's a smart idea.

[Shenster]

By all means, amh, share the never ending awl with the good people of Osborne - for royalties.

just kidding. The great thing about the never ending awl is that, after having spent so much time trying to make the thread on your spool last, being frugal with it, you can now use thread with free abandon! It's like, "Oh. I think this particular sewing will use about two feet. Well, I'll just go ahead and use four feet so that I'll have plenty of left over thread with which to tie a square knot."

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!