iPhone Sleeve {Mini Tutorial}

A few week's ago I wanted to make my mom a new iPhone sleeve for her birthday. Last year, upon request from her, I put together this pathetic looking sleeve. Last month,  when she pulled that pathetic looking sleeve out of her purse I desperately wanted her to put it back in her purse... actually, I wanted to throw it directly in the trash. Not only was it super dirty (*note to self never make a sleeve out of white fabric), it was to small for the phone, and poorly constructed. That's when I knew that I needed to make a new iPhone sleeve for her. Before I just slapped one together, I decided to search the internet to see if there were any tutorials that may be able to guide me a bit better than my first attempt. Sure enough, I stumbled upon Erin's Blog (Dog Under My Desk), who just so happens to be a fellow Yorkie lover. She has an awesome downloadable PDF that really lays everything out in detail! However, I did a few steps/techniques differently.

The basic supplies you will need are (2) pieces of fabric 10-3/4" x 4", Fusible interfacing (cut smaller than fabric), scrap of batting (I didn't have any of this--so I omitted), coordinating smaller piece of fabric (2-1/2" tall x 2"), split ring (didn't have this on hand, so I removed it off of the beer bottle opener), thread, chalk line, pins, scissors, ruler, iron, etc...  *I happened to have all the supplies on hand, so this project cost me very little; however, if I was to add it all up I would probably say it would cost the average person around $5 (rough estimate).

This was the first time I sewed with fusible interfacing. I read the directions, I used the damp cloth, and it didn't adhere. That's when I decided to take a risk and iron it right on... that seemed to do the trick; however, I had to be a bit careful that it wouldn't come undone. Anyone have tricks for using this finicky material? I also only had lightweight... and didn't understand why Erin had 3 pieces pictured (now after looking at her PDF and reading the directions AGAIN, I realize she was also using batting).

Like I wrote above, we didn't have a key ring on hand, so I just found one that wouldn't be (that much) missed to use for this project. I happened to have a piece of coordinating pink fabric to pair with the sleeve. 

I folded thie 2.5 x 2" piece in fourths and stitched around the edge. 

Once the edges were sewn, I folded this in half (placing the key ring in the middle), and pinned it to the fabric. I pinned the right sides of the fabric together, and placed the key ring facing down. 

I carefully sewed around the edges (leaving a 3 inch space on one side). 

This is what it looked like when it was sewed around the edges (you'll noticed I left a few inch gap in the middle to be able to flip the right sides of the fabric out). 

Turn it rightside out. Fold the sleeve in half, pin, and sew around the edge (leaving an opening for iPhone to slide in). After I did a basic straight-stitch around the edge I added the decorative stitch to each side. 

Here is a view of the decorative stitch I used. 

Here is a side view to show it's thickness. 

Headphones are plugged in and music is on! 

Here is an aerial view of the iPhone sleeve.

This is what the inside of it looks like! 

I realize that there are some imperfections to this sleeve; however, it's 100 times better than my first attempt. Plus, no one's perfect--that's what makes us all unique! 

Don't be intimidated to try this beginners sewing project out.