Weaving Project 16 Part A finally gets used

The original intention of weaving project 16 was to weave two companion pieces to use as the front and back of an iPad case. At this time I had no idea what pattern I was actually going to use to make the case and kind of figured I’d just weave something of “around the right dimensions” and work it out properly later. I gave no consideration whatsoever to lining it either. Having checked my flickr stream it looks like I finished the weaving part of weaving project 16 part A back in June.

It is made out of two DK wools - the orange is Adriafil Regina DK and the blue is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK. The draft is a simple houndstooth. It was pleasing to work on, but took quite some time.

I completed the 2nd part of weaving project 16 (I feel I should renumber now that they aren’t both being used in the same end product, but that would throw all the other numbers out, so it stays as a 2 part project) in around September and since then they’ve been sitting in my spare room - initially being blocked, but then just covered over to try and stop them getting too dusty.

At the Knitting and stitching show last October I bought some fabric which I was originally going to use as a lining.

I find, or maybe that should be found, sewing and assembly rather intimidating, so was in no rush to commit myself, instead building up my sewing confidence via a few smaller projects (a t-shirt bag, a needle case, the lining for a small crocheted bag and a lined sewing basket).

A few weeks ago it got to the point where I really couldn’t put it off any longer. So I took a long hard look at the fabric and weaving I had. And decided to have a change of plan. I’d only use part a for the iPad case, and would instead use the fabric I’d bought for lining as the back and flap of the case and would find some orange fabric to use as a lining instead.

I started with the front, and sewed some batting to the weaving and to the orange cotton. It took an hour or so and wasn’t too difficult. A good place to start.

I then made a tracing paper approximation of the dimensions that I’d need for the back and used that to cut my fabric and batting too - this was a good idea as it allowed me to experiment with how I was going to get the corners to work. The blue fabric turned out to be quite stiff, which is good for the case, but not so good for my poor thumbs/fingers which took quite a battering whilst sewing it. I should probably point out that this was entirely hand sewn. I have no sewing machine and had never used one until a few days ago (of which more in a future blog post I’m sure) by which time this was finished. But again, it wasn’t too difficult, just a bit stiff. It took a couple of hours.

Now came the complicated bit - getting the front and back to join. Because the front ended up being quite a small piece of fabric, I had to join the two pieces on the front. This meant the corners were going to be complicated. I ended up doing some form of hospital corner style thing. It worked, but has made the joins pretty bulky. I sewed the outer part of the case together quite loosely, before pulling it inside out and overstitching the inside part of the case. Twice. This was probably the most time consuming part. I originally intended to stitch the outer parts a bit more thoroughly, but ended up deciding that it was good enough and any more would become much more noticeable.

The last thing I did was pop a couple of velcro patches down the side of the flap - I didn’t want to sew velcro onto the weaving and so these made the most sense to me.

I had originally planned to put some form of braid over the join on the front to disguise what I’d assumed was going to be really obvious stitching. But, in the event, it turned out not to be so bad, and after living with it for a week, and taking the advice of a friend, I’ve decided to leave it as it is. I can always add something later if I feel it needs it, but right now, I’m pretty content with it.

So, all in all, probably about 24 hours effort - 18 to 20 for the weaving, 4 to 6 for the sewing. That probably makes it one of the most expensive iPad cases ever. But, it’s mine, it’s unique and above all it is all my work.