Another Case for an iPod Touch

As expected, my younger daughter got an iPod Touch too, and of course she needed a case before we went on vacation. I made her a case similar to her sister's case, with a few modifications now that the first one has been in service for a bit.

I used some alligator-grain embossed leather from Tandy. It was about the same thickness as the black leather I used for the other case, so this time I glued a layer of the black onto the front piece for extra stiffness. This time I also sewed the loop side of the Velcro onto the pocket before putting the case together.

As before, I stitched around the main screen opening.

For the previous case, the front and back pieces were about the same width. This time I want the seam to be more to the front of the iPod, so I made the front piece narrower and the back piece wider. The seam at the bottom of the picture is where the pocket is sewed to the back piece.

Here is the pocket sewed to the back. The pocket opening is in the center of the picture.

Next I sewed the back to the front.

I did the strap the same way I did it on the previous case, with fleece binding, plastic twine, and a buckle. I opened the binding, sewed one side to the front of the case, then closed the binding over the case edge and sewed the back of the binding on (through all the layers including the front part of the binding).

Like before, I trimmed the flaps to fit once the case was all sewed together.

I made the pocket a bit bigger this time so it would be easier to put the headset in.

It's a little easier to see the flap construction on the patterned brown leather.

Another "quick" project (though it still took me several hours). Done!

A Touching Case for an iPod Touch

The latest project was a pretty quick one: a carrier for an Apple iPod Touch for my daughter. I had a deadline, since she was about to go off on a school trip and wanted to bring it with her. It needed a shoulder strap that would go across the chest so it would be easy to access but hard to lose.

I started by making a pattern/prototype of paper towel and Scotch tape (some of my favorite prototyping supplies).

I got some Wrights extra-wide (half inch wide) double-fold fleece binding for the strap so the strap would be soft against the skin. I reinforced it with the type of cheap plastic twine people use to tie purchases to car racks at IKEA. This piece actually came from my local Tandy store, where it had been used to tie up one of my large pieces of leather so I could get it home in my car! Yeah, I almost never throw anything away...

Here is the twine being stitched into the binding. That's a "walking foot" on the machine, which helps when sewing through multiple layers.

I cut out a few scraps of the soft black leather left over from my Sonotube-and-leatherTV chair. I used my sewing machine and heavy polyester thread to stitch a reinforcing outline for the iPod screen and the menu button as well as for the power cord and headset holes.

The crescent of stitching on the left was just for testing. It will be cut off later. Here is the right side of the leather:

I wanted a pocket for the case to hold the iPod headset when it wasn't being used, so I sewed a pocket piece onto the back and stitched the back to the front:

I cut out the rectangle for the screen and the slot at the bottom for the cord.

I sewed the sides of the case together using the machine, and then I sewed the fleece binding strap onto the sides of the case. Once the pieces were all together, I adjusted the fit and cut off the excess leather from the cover flap and the center tab (top of the front piece).

I had been planning to attach snaps to the tab and cover to hold the case closed, but after I had put the case together, I thought of using hook-and-loop fasteners (Velcro) instead. My daughter liked that idea. Since I had already sewed the pocket on, I stitched a strip of the loop part onto the pocket by hand. I used my sewing machine to sew the hook parts onto the center tab and the end of the cover.

The center tab (right at the top of the iPod) in the picture above fits through a slot in the back of the case and then holds the headset pocket closed. Note that I did not cut out a hole for the menu button at the bottom of the iPod. The stitching there is just to provide a tactile indication of the button location, since the leather is soft and thin enough to allow the button to be pressed right through the leather.


The cover flap folds completely down over the front of the iPod and up around the bottom of the back, covering the hole for the cords and fastening to the Velcro on the pocket back.


I cut up a recycled white plastic pill bottle to get a fairly stiff plastic rectangle, then I put some notches on it to make a "bobbin" for winding the headset around. The bobbin and headset fit nicely into the pocket on the back. Here you can also see the Velcro loop piece sewn onto the pocket:

Here is the finished case. My daughter wears it with the screen facing her body so it's easier to read the iPod without removing the case. I added a plastic buckle (left over from previous experiments with making tie-dyed dog collars!) to the strap so it would be adjustable and easy to take off.

The case seems to be a hit: my daughter has been wearing it around the house ever since I gave it to her, and her younger sister has already put in her request for one of her own!

And just to be complete, here's a completely gratuitous picture of Lacey. She wasn't interested in wearing the iPod case since my daughter wouldn't share the headset...

Polyester and Cotton

I recently got a question on my review of the Tulip tie-dye kit as to why everyone recommends 100% cotton items for tie-dyeing.

The reason for the 100% rule (down to 80% cotton usually works fine too) is that polyester fibers are, when you get right down to it, plastic. Think about the polyester fleece now made from recycled soda bottles (such as that in Patagonia products), and you have the idea. The Procion dyes used in the Tulip kits (as well as Dharma and Jaquard) wash right off of plastic (gloves, table covers, etc.). So that's what happens with your shirts. If you look closely at the cotton/poly, you should be able to see white fibers after washing the excess dye out. That's the polyester.

Here are some examples. The following picture shows a rag I use to clean up my dye spills (thus the mottled colors). It's a piece of thermal underwear that is a cotton/poly blend.


Here is a closeup of the same piece. The white threads are the polyester. The cotton has taken the dye.


It's almost impossible to find pure cotton socks, since synthetics such as polyester and nylon help the socks wear much better. Also, any elastic used in the socks will be non-cotton itself and probably covered in polyester or nylon. The trick is to find socks that hide the polyester or other synthetics as well as possible. Usually you will have to try dyeing a pair to see how they work, since it's impossible to tell the difference when the socks are still white.

This sock shows a lot of synthetic content in the foot, but less in the folded-down cuff. If you like the heathery mismatched look, it's fine.


This sock dyes quite well. The foot is only a little heathery, and the outside of the slouch cuff hardly shows white at all.


Here is the closeup. Note that the elastic around the cuff is fairly well hidden on the inside. You can see the white flecks in the foot area.


Here are two turtlenecks I dyed. The one on the left is 100% cotton, and the one on the right is 60%cotton/40%polyester. The turquoise and navy shades are supposed to be the same in both shirts.


You can't quite see the white threads here because they are so fine and well interspersed with the cotton, but it's definitely the polyester making this shirt so faded looking.


This is where the turtleneck attaches to the poly-blend shirt. The turtleneck is a somewhat different blend from the shirt body, and it contains 10% spandex. It is also a different weight and knit from the body. Note that the two different blues are the different fabrics' reaction to the same dye color. There is no way I could have intentionally dyed these different shades with such a clean line between them!


The following is the 100% cotton shirt. Note that in both this and the previous shirts, the stitching is pure white. It's polyester. For most shirts, nobody would notice, or if they did, they would think that it's intentional contrast stitching. However, this is why Dharma notes on almost all of their garment blanks whether they are stitched with polyester thread (they often say "Not cotton thread"). For some garments, visible white stitching would be an unwelcome surprise.


Dyeing Polyester

Dyeing polyester requires different types of colorants, since most fabric dyes just wash off the fiber. Dharma offers one type of dye for polyester but it requires hot water, and it usually needs to be simmered on the stove. Since I'm more of a natural fiber fan, and I'm too lazy to use anything other than the cold-water Procion dyes, I haven't tried it myself.

Respect the Blends

Keep in mind that you can get interesting effects using the cotton/poly blend fabrics, such as the patterned effect on the thermal underwear knit. I've seen tops in stores recently where the fabric is knit in stripes or patterns of cotton followed by polyester blend, providing a very cool arrangement of strong and pale colors. Also, if you like pale pastels, blended fabrics give you an easy way to do it.