I decided to get an iPad when the most recent one was released. I don’t have a laptop of my own, Jacob and I share one, so I planned to use it mostly for work stuff. It has been awesome. I read and annotate papers, show presentations, and while I’m presenting can easily switch between my papers and presentation. I like typing notes from a meeting on it but haven’t yet figured out how to best take notes, if I want to hand write or draw it is a little more difficult. But I’m really enjoying my new toy, I mean tool.
I bought the smart cover at the same time but didn’t feel comfortable putting it in my bag with all my spiral-bound notebooks. This was made apparent by the trip Jacob took into new York city with my iPad, I was worried about him not having a good way to store it during his travels. So while he was gone, and Anna was napping, I whipped up a little pouch for it. I quilted some beautiful fabric together and just sewed up the sides. I attached some sew-on Velcro and made a flap to keep in the iPad. I love it, my iPad is always in it. I feel more comfortable about carrying my iPad around and acting normal with my bag rather than treating it delicately. I didn’t put an extra layer of felt and some lining in like I have seen done because I’m not trying to protect it from a drop or anything, just from typical scrapes and scratches.
One friend at work asked if I made my cover, then followed up the question by saying that it looked like one of those items made to look homemade, I’ll take that as a compliment because of course my off-center closure was on purpose!
Jacob has been reading a lot more recently and was reading on my iPad every second I wasn’t using it. So we got him a kindle fire to read on and he loves the convenience and all the free books he can now get a hold of relatively easily. He asked me to make him a case too so I did.
He didn’t want any closures so I had to make it a tight fit and stiff enough to hold the kindle but with enough give to release it with easy. Explaining it makes it sound like I did a lot of measuring, on the contrary I did a lot of eyeballing and finger crossing, but it turned out just right. A few weeks back Jacob accidentally felted a sweater in the dryer. It was way too small to ever wear again but I saved it from the trash with a promise to find a nice use for it. He requested that I make his cover out of it, I have to agree the colors and pattern are perfectly masculine. Instead of quilting, Jacob’s cover is based around a very stiff felt pocket and lined with a canvas-esq material. I struggled figuring out how to sew the sweater without stretching it. I ended up using a basting stitch to keep things straight then going over it and zigzagging beside it.
The tight fit of the lining combined with the bulk of the sweater made for a very pin-full connection of the two, which just goes to show how much I love my husband. On top of that I had to pin it up twice because I sewed the lining to the wrong side of the sweater. Wait, this project involved pins and seam rippers and Jacob still ended up with a kindle sleeve? Yep I’m just as amazed as you are, must’ve been the manageability of such a small project that kept me going; I finished it in just a couple of hours mostly during a nap of Anna’s on a Sunday afternoon. Miraculously, everything fit together and Jacob is very happy with his new accessory, and I love how much padding the sweater provides. Our devices are useful and fun but now look great in a pinch of homemade love.
