More cases using card-woven bands

The older mobile phone case differs slightly from the other cases I have made using card-woven bands. I didn't use a zipper and left one end of the bands uncovered. The picture below shows the case front closed & front open, and the back of the case. I made the bands from leftover yarn, so I had to combine several different colors. It works great when you divide them into dark and light colors and then make the band the same way as you'd make a two-colored one.

The mobile phone case is made of 100% cotton yarn. I have also experimented with combining that and a wool/polyester blend (the dark read yarn in the picture below). That experiment ended up to be a case for PlayStation Vita. It's similar to the Kindle case, except there's a little less padding in this one.

Mobile phone case

I made a mobile phone case out of card-woven bands for my previous phone, but my current phone is bigger, so I needed a new one. This is a variation of the Kindle case I made earlier.

I sewed two lengths of band together and pressed the piece flat (see the earlier post). Then I added pieces of fabric to the ends to make them neat. First you sew the fabric and band to each other right sides together. Then you cut off any extra fabric and turn the fabric around the edges and sew it in place. In total there will be two seams in each end.

In this case, I added loops to the back as this is meant for hanging from a belt. I used sewing machine for sewing all the fabrics in place as it's easier and faster. The only hand sewn seams are the middle seam and edges.

Before sewing the edges together (see the earlier post), I sewed the button in place and made a loop for closing the case. It's easier to do that first and only sew the side seams when everything else is done.

This was much faster to make than the Kindle case as I left out all the padding. The case is made of just the bands and the green fabric. I intend to put the phone in with the screen towards me, so there isn't much risk of it breaking inside the case. The previous case worked for that phone fine this way, so I'm expecting this to be fine as well.

Kindle case

At the end of the previous post, I had a picture of a protective case for a Kindle. This post explains in detail how I made it.



The first step was to cut the bands to correct length. I first sewed across the bands to keep the ends from fraying and then cut them.



Then I pinned them together for sewing. As the bands are a bit stretchy, you need to pin the ends first and then the rest of the length spread evenly.



Next step was sewing the bands together using the yarn used in the edges.



Here are the bands sewn together.



To remove all unevenness, the piece needed to be pressed. I used a regular iron and ironed through a damp cloth.



Here you can see the reverse side. The seams are a lot flatter after ironing.



Then I cut the lining and two pieces of sturdy bubblewrap for reinforcement.



I sewed the lining to a piece of wool fabric. The plastic pieces went between these two fabrics and the seam in the middle kept them in correct places.



Then I cut away all the extra outside the seams.



I sewed pieces of the lining fabric to the short edges of the outer piece.



Then I put the lining and outer piece together, turned the fabric to cover the edges and sewed all the layers together. At his stage the side seams were not yet sewn.



Then it was time to sew the zipper and side seams. The side seams were sewn by hand and only through the edge of the outer pieces, the same way as sewing the bands together. The sides of the lining remained open.