Sep 28 / Jamie

iPad Sleeve*

*pun fully intended

I have the best husband in the world. Truly. He is the yin to my yang and after more than 16 years together (how is that even possible?!) I can honestly say that I love and respect him more and more every day. He is so entirely supportive of everything I do and works tirelessly to help make all of the crazy visions in my head a reality.

Mike is especially supportive of my sewing endeavors, something for which I am truly grateful. He really understands how important it is for me to engage in some creative destruction and reconstruction after a day spent chasing kiddos and livestock. He appreciates having homemade items around our home and he knows that making things for others is my favorite kind of sewing.

For two full months now, this wonderful husband of mine has been asking for a case for his iPad. He has been neither pushy nor intense about it, but on occasion he has reminded me that he is still patiently waiting. He has seen me sew a ton of things these past two months, all of which have been for other people.

So, last night, after completing some paid sample sewing work, I sat down to finally sew a cover for my favorite techno-pioneer. Mike wanted the case to have orange and to, “not be ugly”. I followed this tutorial from One Shabby Chick with a few minor modifications. I didn’t use batting on the lining (just the one layer on the cover), I didn’t quilt the tab, and I used self-adhesive velcro. I found the tutorial to be really well documented and would love to make more of these.

Mike loves puns and things that are humorous and ironic, so I knew exactly what fabric to pick for his case. Mike attends yearly conferences for work and is occasionally selected to be a speaker. On those occasions, he is given a shirt that is embroidered with the conference name. Outside of the conferences, he never wears these shirts except to do farm work. He must have a least half a dozen of them. I have been meaning to make him a wall hanging like this one for his office with the shirts, but every time I start cutting up the fabric, it just hasn’t felt right.

I used two sleeves, plus a tiny bit of orange that was leftover from this quilt that I made for our oldest son earlier this past spring. There is not one single thing I would change about this case, I love it SOOOO very much. I will now count the ways.

First of all, the cotton is super soft, I think it must be brushed.

Second, I love the colors. There is something about blue and orange that is so perfect.

Third, I love the piecing. The front is so minimal, just the orange in the corner and the little bit of the darker blue on the one side, while the back is so random and organic.

Fourth is the quilting. I have been wanting to do 1/4 inch straight line quilting on a project FOR EVER. But, sewing a straight line is kind of hard, and I felt that I was just now good enough to do it across an entire piece. In contrast, the quilting on the back was equally satisfying. Some free motion pebbles and zig-zags, completely free form and organic, just like doodling.

Fifth, I love that the interior lining is orange and you see it just peeping out from the top of the bag. His flap-type-cover thing for the iPad is also orange.

Sixth is the tab closure. I used part of a cuff with some adhesive velcro. LOVE IT. This is my cheeky nod to it being a “sleeve”.

I am not kidding, and only fellow fiber addicts will understand this, but when I finished I just sat there and pet it. I looked at the front, then the back, then the front again. I practically took it to bed with me, just to have it close. Mike was also very happy with it, which makes me happy, although he felt no desire to sleep with it . He did have a blast using some of his new camera lenses to take tons of different pictures, hence the picture heavy post.