Embroidered Phone Case Tutorial - of a kind!

Hello, Dear Readers,

I love embroidery and Suffolk Puffs, therefore I just had to stitch another "little make" using both.

I used a mixture of imperial and metric measurements as I am trying to change over to metric.  Seam allowances not included, but generally I have used 1cm.

My method for making Suffolk Puffs (also known as Yoyo's) can be seen above.  There are also lots of instructions on the web showing how to make them.  Mollie Johansen of  Wild Olive wrote a great tutorial with some very pretty photos.  I couldn't link directly to this, but if you search for "How to make fabric yo yos" on Mollie's blog, you will be able to find it yourself.  The article is dated 7 January 2015. An equally good but more technical tutorial can be found on Pinwheel Ponders - Yo yo Pomander (Ball Ornament). 

A couple of other bloggers who are featuring Suffolk Puffs on their blogs at the moment are:  

• The contemporary stitcher - Karen Ruane - who has some gorgeous "puffs" on her lovely pockets,
• Deanna7trees - on an amazing hand dyed dupion silk pocket.

But back to my phonecase....

I use a frame to stitch my embroidery.

Using a template to centre embroidery when putting the
 pieces together.

FRONT:  The flap and wrist strap were attached before adding the lining:

• The flap is 5.5 x 4cm and I drew around a cotton reel to make curved corners. I placed the wadding with the main fabric RS up, then inserted a pony tail elastic (ensuring the larger part was within the body of the tab) and lining RS down, stitched a seam around it, leaving the top edge unstitched to turn through.
• The wrist strap was 2.5 x 26cm.  The long edges folded to the centre and folded in half and top stitched by machine to finish.  

Attaching the lining

I left a 4cm gap on the bottom seam for turning.  I clipped the corners, being sure not to cut the stitches and turned the fabric through the gap, pushing very gently to make the edges curved.

BACK:

• I made and attached an elasticated pocket for my earphones, approx 7cm deep x 10cm, and tacked this to the back which is 2.5cm shorter than the front. I added the lining and  stitched the back piece together as the front.

My phonecase was finished by stabstitching the back and front together using Perle thread (topstitch).

FINISHINGS:

• The toggle is home made - a branch from our cherry tree, varnished and glued in place. 
• The strip holding the toggle was 11 x 4cm and was handstitched on after completion.
• I added another Suffolk Puff, button and beads to the flap.

And voila, its done...

I hope you have had a super weekend, and that you have managed to make time to do some crafting.

Barbara xx

PS  I'd love to know if this inspires you to make your own phonecase and I would especially like to see any pictures of your makes.