Denim obsession !

For some time now I've been working my way through a pile of old jeans, up-cycling them into new & usable items. Running along side this obsession has been a fascination with shabby chic...  now, neither of these two styles are new, I've been doing both forever but my interest has been revived lately. It's probably that I've had more time on my hands for thinking & in my case that always generates new ideas.

So, my latest shabby denim 'make' is a mobile phone case for my trusty Blackberry ~ I wanted something to go in my bag, to protect the screen ~ my bag usually looks like the inside of a skip & trust me my screen needs protecting !

First, I cut a section of denim, from the leg of a pair of jeans & on the reverse side, drew around the phone. I extended the top edge to work as a flap, to close the case. I was going to have an asymmetric flap but I re-cut it later in the process because it didn't look right. I enlarged the shape to allow for seams by drawing a second line around the outside of first shape (about 1.5 cm apart). I cut this piece out & cut a second matching piece out of a cotton fabric. I decided that I would have the denim on the outside for the back & the pretty pink fabric on the outside for the front. I cut a front section out of denim & a second piece out of the other fabric.

I applied most of the decoration to the two halves before sewing them together, it made life a lot easier. I stitched through both layers when doing this, so make sure they're lined up properly... you could pin them like I did to stop them moving ~ I sewed some ribbon & lace to the front cover & attached similar decorations on the back.
Before I decorated the front piece I sewed the 2 front pieces together, starting with right sides together & then turning them after stitching.

The lace section on the back is a piece of net curtain,  the butterfly is made with another bit of the net fused together with a piece of pink voile. I used the iron on stuff to fuse them together, sandwiching the pieces between some waxed paper when I ironed it, before cutting the butterfly out. (this stopped the fusible material sticking to the iron because of the spaces in the net curtain). The heart & the butterfly were then appliqué'd to the denim. I used one of the waistband loops at the edge of the case, in case I wanted to attach the case to my bag at some point.

 

When I had finished decorating the case I pinned the two sections together, trying the phone inside & adjusting it, before sewing.
 I couldn't decide whether to bind the outer edge or to rag & fray it... so I snipped around the outer edge & washed it  ~ this frays the edges, this also left me with the possibility of trimming the raw edges & binding them if I didn't like the look later. As it turned out, it looked fine with the ragged edge.

When the case was dried, I finished of decorating the case by applying some pearls to the heart & to the butterfly. I also stuck on some pretty little flower buttons & put a pearl on each. The closing is a piece of elasticated crocheted lace, folded into a loop & stitched on to the flap; a corresponding pearled button has been sewn on the front. If I made another case I would find a magnetic clip or maybe use Velcro... this little loop is too fiddly if you've got long nails... as I found out !

So, here is my finished case & I have to say I love it so much I'm making a laptop case to match it.

       

21st April
Quick update.... I could no longer stand fiddling around with the button & loop... so on went the Velcro & voilà it's been sorted... I left the button, put on with the loop, because it looks OK and it's not out of place.