The Sweet Man asked me to make him a cover for his new laptop.
"To the internets!" I cried.
(I... dunno. I Googled for a "horse charge", and this is one of the first images. But it seems oddly appropriate for the Wide Wide World of Web, doesn't it?")
I found this nice tutorial at One Pearl Button for a tablet cozy...
... and soon made both a laptop and tablet cozy for the Sweet Man's electronics.
But then I thought, hmmmm...
Wouldn't this method of making a nice pouch work well for my passport covers?
I had seen a lot of patterns for passport covers that worked like a fancy book cover...
... but I was wondering if government officials
might make you take the whole thing out of the cover.
So why not start with something that is designed to be removed?
(That... sounds kinda dirty.)
So after getting out my Spoonflower fabrics,
(check out the site; it's fabric porn)
and putting on my math hat...
... I got to work.
Since Spoonflower fabric is not inexpensive, I did a mock-up with cheap muslin first.
Once I was happy that the passport would fit nicely, I got to work cutting.
You'll need fabric for both the outside and the lining fabric;
the lining fabric should co-ordinate with the outside fabric since a band of it will act
as an accent along the edge.
For the outside, for a directional print (one that has a definite "up"),
cut two rectangles,
4 1/2 inches wide by 5 inches high.
If it's not directional,
cut one rectangle,
4 1/2 inches wide by 9 1/2 inches wide.
If you have an image you want to center, you may have to "fussy cut."
For the lining,
cut one big rectangle,
12 1/2 inches high by 4 1/2 inches wide.
Sew together the two outside pieces at the bottoms.
Iron the seam open.
Sew together the lining and the outside pieces at their top edges, right sides together,
with a quarter inch seam.
You will end up with one tube of fabric.
Iron the seam to the darker, heavier fabric.
Now line up the seams for the outside fabric, and iron along the edge of the lining fabric.
You're marking the middle of the lining fabric.
If you used a non-directional fabric, iron along the top edge of the outside fabric, too.
Flip your tube right-side out, and match up that lining line you ironed
and the bottom seam of the outside fabric.
(Or, if you used non-directional fabric, match the two iron lines.)
Iron it nice and flat. This will ensure that your accent fabric at the edge is even.
Flip it over and iron some more.
This is what it will look like at this point.
Now, fold it in half, outside cover fabric to outside cover fabric,
and sew an 1/8 inch seam around the three raw edges.
1/8 inch seam! 1/8 inch seam!
If you make it wider, your passport won't fit!
Turn your pouch right side out.
Use something like a big ole not-too-pointy knitting needle
to poke in there and make the corners crisp.
Iron the pouch flat, and choose a nice coordinating thread
to top-stitch a 1/4 inch seam around the three sewn sides.
Don't make it more than a 1/4 inch seam!
Again, your passport won't fit!
I started stitching at the bottom of the accent band,
back-stitched to the top, then continued on around.
That way, you won't have a raggedy end stitch right at the open edge where
there's the most stress on the seam.
Isn't the end result adorable?
I made one for all four of us.
There's kitties for me,
cameras for my photobug Sweet Man,
Darwin's journal for my science-y Girl....
... and get a load of this one for the Boy!
It's made with a Spoonflower fabric featuring
that great Doctor Who quote about time being all Wibbley Wobbly, Timey Wimey!
It seems very appropriate for a passport.
The Doctor gives it two thumbs up!
Addendum:
Speaking of passports,
the Sweet Man, the Girl, and I all received our passports with no problem.
But the Boy?
We got a letter in the mail from some official person stating he would need
FIVE
more pieces of "identifying material", each at least
FIVE
years or more old.
We're thinking this is because he got his driver's license so late;
evidently only terrorists wait until they are almost twenty-one to legally drive.
Anyhoo, I collected a presidential library's worth of
transcripts, yearbook photos, immunization records, and outdated ID cards,
copied them all, then stuffed them in the return envelope.
The end results look like Arthur Weasley attempting Muggle Post.
No comments:
Post a Comment