Sewing & Stitching Archives - Helen G. Designs

I was looking for a pouch of case or sleeve for Nexus tablet and Pinterest, as my go-to-inspiration-source. I found few posts on tutorials how to make an iPhone and external hard drive sleeve/case out of felt & handstitching.

So I was wondering if I could try to make a tablet sleeve instead of buying it.

And I tried. Success! And I am super happy with the result 🙂

It didn’t take a long time to make this. Basic material you will meed are:
– Felt in your your favorite color
– Scissors or rotary cutter
– Pinking sheer
– Ruler
– Needle
– Thread in matching color with the felt
– Valcero or button

First, measure the tablet. My Nexus is about 5″ x 7″

Then I measure the felt I wanna use. I found this darker grey in my stash. Using rotary cutter and quilt ruler, I cut my felt into 12″ x 7.25″

Then I fold to make the sleeve at 5″ from the bottom. Hold it with needle so it will stay in place when you hand-stitch its sides.

This is what I love… Handstitching. I think this is what they call blanket handstitching. This blog post is an excellent tutorial with pictures.

Last step is adding the fastener. For mine, I use adhesive Valcero. You can pick what you want to use for the sleeve flap.

I am happy for the result 🙂 And I hope you can follow these simple steps. If you have any questions, feel free to leave it as comment and I will try my best to answer it.

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

I went to a blogging conference, Declare Conference, in Dallas this weekend. It was amazing conference for women. I got to meet some of my friends I met on Social Media groups (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogging) IN PERSON!! We got to spent time together and I share hotel room with 3 of them. I will share some pictures later this week 🙂

So, when I found out that I would have roommates, I started to look for inspirations. I decided to make a business card holder/wallet for them because we were suggested to bring business cards to swap with others there. So, Pinterest where I went for more ideas. I found so many tutorials using sewing machine and they said that it was for beginner. I told myself, “Helen, this is the time to learn and try using your new sewing machine.” I tried. But failed. It was not because of their tutorials, but it was because of my lack of ability of using this machine! Check these sewing tutorials if you want to try 🙂

I still have LOTS of felt leftover from our craft making party last year and why not using felt and hand stitching, I talked to myself. And there went I tried. Adapting from this sewing tutorial, I made single card wallet/holder with felt. And I wanted some textures on my felt, not just plain felts. I remembered this embossed felt tutorial from Becky Fleck and decided to try when I made these business card wallet.

Supplies you will need to make this business card wallet/holder:

Felt
Iron
Needle and thread
Scissors
Rotary cutter
Pinking shears
Ruller
Spray bottle and clean water
Rubber stamp of your choice

my ruler is too long for this picture… sorry.

You will need 1 of 4″ x 2.5″ rectangle and 1 of 3″ x 2″5 rectangle. I cut my felt using my rotary cutter and quilt ruler, quick and easier than using regular scissors.

Lay the felt on top of the stamp that you want to use. For this first one, I laid my smaller felt on top of one of the butterfly rubber stamp from Denami Design – Fancy Flutters stamp set and using my spray bottle I sprayed the felt lighty with water.

The iron I used is a tiny one I found at Walmart (or you can find at any craft store). It is not too hot for craft projects. So, I press the felt on the rubber stamp with my iron for about 15 seconds. Don’t be too long. But if the impression is not what you want, you can press again for another 10-15 seconds.

Here’s what the embossed felt look like after the ironing:

Then last step is to put them together. Lay both felt on top of each other and stitch. I used blanket stitching to make the pocket. You can use the pinking shears before or after the stitching together for the decorated border top.