Android Cell Phone Case

So, recently I had my phone replaced by Verizon since its autofocus was never operational. Rather than getting another invisiShield, which eventually started peeling at the corners on my last Droid, I decided I'd make myself a little cloth case to put it in while inside my purse to keep it from getting scratched.

I used plain black cotton for the outside and a green cotton I had left over from my 23andMe quilt I'm working on for the lining. Inside I have some 100% cotton batting to help absorb moisture if it does get in, and a layer of jacket nylon to help it from getting in in the first place.

I definitely struggled with this one a bit. First I tried appliqueing on an Android logo using a blanket stitch, but the extra texture on the edge made it so it didn't have a graphic enough look to it. So I took that off and tried appliqueing using an invisible stitch, but that resulted in some slight puckering on the edge that I couldn't get to go away that led to the same problem of unclean edges. Finally I tried to just embroider the outline of the logo. This turned out more difficult than I anticipated to try to get straight lines and even stitches, but I deemed it good enough and moved on since I needed the case sooner rather than later.

This is also my first time trying to attempt binding anything. Again I struggled, this fighting to get the edges to be even, and my corners are far from perfect. It still amazes me how much easier it is to get straight lines by hand instead of with the machine, which is what I used for this. I certainly gained an appreciation for my fellow craft bloggers - they all make it look so easy!

But in the end it worked well enough - and my phone is nice and snug in its new home. (At least until I try again.)

A better view of the Android Logo:

A shot of the inside:

What it looks like closed:

If nothing else it was a learning process. :P

Kelsey

Thanks Kim!

I'd just like to give a big thank you to Kim over at Kim's Crafty Apple. Over the past few months she has been hosting an awesome online quilting competition, called Project Quilting. Not only was it great to get to see everyone's entries and to have fun with the challenges, she constantly was giving away great prizes, both to the winners and via random drawings.

Today I won my second drawing from her: Project Quilting: Random Prize #10.

Woot! Thank you Kim!

Kelsey

Homemade Baby Changing Pad

After 3 hours at Joann's trying to find the right fabric, I came home last night a wee bit too tired to get started on the canopy for the baby's crib, so I decided to work on another of my awaiting projects and made a changing pad for Paul.

I bought some jacket nylon on clearance and used some left over foam from a seat cushion I made some months ago to make a wipeable pad:

I first split the foam in half so it'd be thinner. I didn't want the foam to be too thick for suffocation risks, and it gave me twice as much surface area to work with. I attached 4 pieces of it together very loosely with an overcast stitch and then moved the pieces to lay flat. 

The nylon casing itself was pretty simple - I just cut out two rectangles about 1" larger than the foam and sewed 3 sides together and most of the 4th, leaving a gap big enough I could turn it right side out and put in the foam, and then closed the hole by hand. I then ran it through my machine at each point the different batting pieces were joined, which both helps keep the batting in place and allows me to easily roll the pad for storage.

Since nylon isn't very comfortable to lay on, I also made a little cotton cover out of some monkey fabric. I also then will be able to remove the cover and toss it into the wash easily.

This was made almost identically to the nylon case, except instead of closing off the 4th end, I made one side longer than the other to be able to wrap around the pad and hemmed the raw edges. The longer end is then folded around the back and helps it stay in place both when laying flat and rolled together.

I have a couple more pieces of fabric I'd like to make into additional covers, so you'll likely see those at some later point. All-in-all a pretty successful evening I think. :)

Kelsey

New Shinies

My husband was kind enough to take me to a nearby quilting shop last weekend, and I picked up some new shinies that started to put me into a bit of a holiday mood.  Now I just need to figure out what to make with it. :P