I got an iPad a couple of weeks ago and have been nervously carrying it around, unprotected. Believe me, protection is important. We have another iPad at work, and got a neoprene sleeve for it. Nice for carrying, but when you are using it or set it down, it is vulnerable. Plus, when somebody took it home for the weekend, they stuffed the charger and cable in the pouch and now we have some hideous scratches all over the back.
Here is my iPad, yes, these pictures will all be from my iPhone in low light. Just wanted to make the entire experience iPropriate.
Now, I'm not much of an inventor, but I'd like to be. Ask me about the Lid Lifter, my garden cistern, and any other of my random ideas. Long story short, I decided to make my own case.
Here were my requirements:
1. Easy to clean.
2. A spot for the charger.
3. Easy for me to make.
I actually decided at first that I'd just make a pouch out of and old sweatshirt, or fleece pullover. Then while I was going through the closet looking for something to cut up, I spotted some fleece sweatpants. They had a pocket, elastic waistband, and 2 legs, so if I screwed up I had a second try available.
Here are the steps I took, I'll leave out the parts where I tried to get the sewing machine to work. Then after an hour and much frustration, I gave up and just stitched it by hand. Thank you Ms. Naive (home economics).
1. Lay out the pants.
2. Lay the iPad on the pants.
3. Using pants with a pocket was key for me.
5. I left some extra at the front and back on the waistband. I wasn't sure if I might need to do something creative to get that functional. These pants also had a drawsting, as an added bonus.
6. Put the iPad back on the pants and cut it to length. Mine ended up being a little bit too long.
7. I have plenty of extra fabric, which a good tailor would have stitched to size and cut off the excess.
8. Then flip it inside out, and pin the edges together. I think you are supposed to use straight pins, but I used safety pins because I'm accident prone. After you have it all pinned up, stitch it together following your pins. A sewing machine would be best, but if you don't have one, just sew it by hand. Google, how to sew by hand, for help.
9. When you are all done, flip it back rightside out so your seams are hidden inside.
10. iPad is inside and safe (from scratches and dust at least).
11. Here is a shot of the iPad coming out, and the cables in the pocket.
As far as I know, I'm the only person to ever make a ipad case out of pants. I guess you can consider this my patent pending statement.
Total cost to produce... next to nothing.
Pants - unknown original price, pick some up from good will.
Thread - cheap, who cares
Needles - again, cheap, who cares
