Teaching Practice: Mini iPad Carrier

My two sons, one 7 and one 5, have now become interested in sewing after watching me giving some sewing lessons last week. My oldest, Connor, has not wanted to really follow through except to request more made to order items and go fabric shopping for his stuff.  My youngest, Aidan, pretty much begged me to teach him about the basics of sewing.

I thought for a while about what project to give him where he would not lose interest and could help at the sewing machine.  My boys both received iPad mini's for Christmas and have the most amazing foam cases that are very protective but also very large.  So I thought an over the shoulder carry case might make traveling with his iPad nicer.

I had some errands to run and we stopped at Hancock Fabrics armed with coupons and Aidan selected all of his own fabrics, a faux fur for the interior and a polar fleece for the exterior.  He also selected some wide polyester webbing in a fantastic rainbow color scheme.  He is a very outgoing child and I honestly could not influence him on his choices.  We actually had a little tisk at the store because he found an organza print he wanted very badly but I had to explain it would be a poor choice for a case and he finally caved in and agreed to look at heavier weight fabrics.  He also selected some happy face buttons to add as trim.

To make the case, we measured the iPad in its case and added 2 inches to width and length to account for the depth of the case and to make it easier for him to insert and remove the iPad.  Using the fold of the fabric as the bottom, I cut a rectangle piece in both fabrics.  The faux fur became the interior lining while the polar fleece became the exterior.

After cutting the pieces, I pinned them right sides together and sat my son at the machine.  Using a half inch seam allowance, I held the fabric and his hands and he pushed the pedal very slowly.  He was so excited that he was actually using the machine!  We had a lot of fun sewing the four straight seams.

After we had two fully sewn pouches, I took over on the sewing and Aidan helped do some pinning.  First, I measured the webbing length and tacked to the right side of the lining.  Since we needed to use his button somehow, I used the last of the webbing as a flip closure.  We worked on attaching the lining to the exterior, I did the sewing on that one.  We flipped it right side out and top stitched the opening all around for extra security.  Aidan helped to hand sew the buttons and the case was complete.

Aidan has been using his new carry case for a week now and it is holding up nicely.  He proudly tells people, whether they wanted to know or not, that it was his design and he helped to make.  It makes me very proud and happy to his face when people complement him on his good work.