Upcycled iPad or Kindle cover tutorial

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I am so in love with this case. Every time I pull my iPad (a Christmas gift from my parents!!) out of it I feel happy. I run my fingers over the stitching and look at all those pretty colors and it seriously just makes me giddy! I wish I could hang it up and display it I love it so much!

I have always wanted to make a dresden plate (that quilted circle on the case) quilt. Ever since I bought this 70's quilting book at Saver's long ago, I knew I wanted one of those for my bed. Problem is?? I have never gotten around to making one since a queen-sized quilt is such a large undertaking. (The only quilt I have ever made was for Olivia.) Anyway, I finally made a dresden plate and it was for my iPad. perhaps another reason I love this thing oh so much!

Tutorial for Making an iPad or Kindle case (with or without the sweater and dresden plate)

Materials:
*old sweater (optional)
*scraps of fabric for the dresden plate (optional)
*piece of felt to back the dresden plate.
-zipper (specific sizes see below)
-pieces of fabric big enough to fit your kindle/ipad (or just fabric for the 2 linings if you are doing the sweater version)
**The kindle cases I made for friends had vinyl covered fabric or leatherette on the outside to make them water resistant (i.e. good for the diaper bag). This is optional also (unless you are doing the sweater version)

this is a photo of a photocopy of a magazine photo of the actual object...

first of all, here is my inspiration for using the sweater. It is from the January issue of Marie Claire Idees (My all time favorite magazine for home/sewing/crafting/decorating inspiration. We used to buy this every month to be inspired when I did display at Anthro.)

First we will start with how to create your pattern for the case.
1. lay your kindle/iPad on a piece of paper.
2. lay your zipper down in the direction you want it to open (in this case horizontal) and this will be the entire length of your case pattern.
ZIPPER SIZES:
kindle: horizontal= 9 in  vertical= 7 in
iPad: vertical= 9 in horizontal= at least 10.5 in (which doesn't exist so you have to buy a larger zipper and just sew it shorter when installing it. you can use kitchen scissors to cut off the remaining zipper)

4. create a 5/8 inseam around the  k/iP making sure you have enough excess room on the inside (this shouldn't be a problem since you are using the right sized zipper).

If you want to just make a lined case with water resistant fabric or regular fabric go to this tutorial and the rest of the process is there (no need to repeat since this is the one I used!).

If you want to make yours similar to mine then keep reading, though you will also end up at that tutorial in the end!

 5. Make yourself a dresden plate pattern piece, making sure before hand that the circumference of the circle will fit on your case. (If you go to that link your can download a pdf of the pattern piece I believe. I scaled mine down from one I had in a book.)

6. cut the pieces out of scraps of fabric leftover from old projects!
7. lay them out on the scrap of felt, pin them down, and then stitch in place using a simple straight stitch.

 8. you can see the simple stitch I did on each piece above. I then did a fancier stitch on top of that one, connecting the two pieces that were side-by-side. If your machine can't do this, then just do a zig-zag stitch.
9. go around the inner and outer circles with your zig-zag or fancy stitch as well.

 10. cut around the plate leaving just a little trim of felt on the inner and outer circles.
11. Using your pattern (made earlier), cut out 2 rectangles from an old sweater (I used scraps I had left from this project).
12. Sew the dresden plate down onto one of the sweater pieces.

 13. In order to prevent your sweater from getting all wonky and stretched out, you also need to cut out a piece of fabric (won't be seen) to line the sweater. This will add more water resistance, but its really to keep the sweater stable.
13. sew the sweater to the lining (inner inner lining). I just did a 1/8 in seam around the whole thing.

 (if you look closely you can see the edges are where I stitched the backing).  I love how 3-D, thick and textured this becomes with all the layers.

To finish the case and put the lining and zipper in, follow this tutorial. SO EASY!!! and beautiful! enjoy!

see! fits in their perfectly. all nice and cozy:)