Popsicles & Pinatas

This is my first sewing DIY! Yes, I got a sewing machine. Finally! For years I have been avoiding sewing projects, unless there was some sort of no-sew work around.

Our friend Jill is getting married so I made this case for her iPad so she can take it to all of her wedding appointments. I ended up with quite a bit of extra fabric, which I used to make a cute clutch for myself as well as another case for a friend’s iPad mini. It was such an easy project (even for my VERY basic sewing skills) and it turned out really cute. You can make them in any size but here is the tutorial for the ipad mini size.

What you will need to make this one

Material – I used a vinyl pleather type in white you will need a piece 9 inches by 24 inches for this  size

A sewing machine with thread

Two buttons

Embroidery thread

Paint – I used Martha Stewarts all-purpose paint in gold.

Stencil for the monogram

Step 1 – do some math or use these measurements (in inches) and cut out in cardstock. (tape a few pieces together to get the size you want)

Step 2 – trace the outline onto your fabric and cut it out.

Step 3 – paint the rectangle piece gold, it will likely take a few coats. My material took 3 coats (this is only after the first one)

Step 4 – Sew the longer of the two pointy ends (the 6.5 inch long one in this case) to the gold piece and stich the end of the gold one just so it looks nicer.

Step 5 – Then flip it over and sew the rest of the piece together. Again, I continued up the top envelope flap even though that doesn’t get sewed to anything just so it had stitching as well. You can see this a bit better in the next picture.

Step 6 – Sew the embroidery thread on to the inside of the top flap like above and then tie it in a knot and cut off the extra at the top. You should be left with a long piece that goes down from the top to the bottom of the clutch and a bit past it. Better to leave a bit extra on the length as you can always trim that later.

Step 7 – Sew a button to the top of the flap on the outside over where you sewed in the thread on the inside. Then sew a 2^nd button to the bottom area of the clutch wherever you think it looks the best. This together with the embroidery thread will give you that retro memo folder closure.

Step 8 – Stencil the monogram onto the font.  Now this can be very tricky on this type of material but don’t panic! Just make sure to peel the stencil off while the paint is still wet. Because it is textured you will probably get something like this.

This is an extreme close up but YUCK. However, since the paint is still wet you can use a few q-tips to fix this up. Just rub gently with a wet q-tip and then follow up with a dry one on the places the paint is not supposed to be.

That is it! You should now have a monogrammed white and gold ipad or ipad mini clutch!

Hope you like it!

Oh, also I made this one for me out of some weird table cloth material that had a really cool pattern of the city at sunset and I love it!

Michelle