Yesterday I worked on the cell phone case. The first step is to put your needlepoint face down on top of your fabric (with the fabric's front side touching your needlepoint front) and cut out a piece of fabric the same size. In the photo my lining is a little bigger so you can see there is fabric under the NP.
Next I turned under the margin along the top of the needlepoint and the top of the lining fabric...
...and pinned these down.
The next step is to fold the NP into a pouch form, right sides together. Sew around the bottom and side, but leave the top open. The top is where you turned the margin down and pinned it. Note that by now the raw NP edges are fraying a bit. This is why you leave a big margin of bare canvas. Once everything is secure you can trim it a bit, but I think wider margins are better to start with.
Repeat this step with the lining, right sides together. Sew around the bottom and side again but remember to leave the hemmed top open.
Trim around the side and bottom raw edges nearer the stitching for both the NP pouch and the lining pouch. I trimmed everything to about 1/2 inch away from the sewing. As you can see, there's just a little free room around the cell phone case I borrowed to test but there will be more without the plastic ribbed cover, so I'm ok here.
Turn the NP pouch right side out. This takes a bit of gentle pushing with your fingers until you can't reach to push any more, then use the eraser end of a pencil to push more.
Use the eraser end especially at the bottom corners. Remember, you are only turning the NP pouch right side out. Leave the lining pouch as is with the wrong side out. After all, your phone will slide inside and you want the right side to touch the phone.
Now I attached the jump rings to the lining. These rings are where the detachable chain handle will go. Below is a close up so you can see the left ring being attached and how the detachable shoulder strap slips over the jump ring.
I didn't go any further with the finishing because I realized that the snaps I have here are the wrong kind. I can't stitch them to the lining to close the pouch. The finishing will have to wait until I get the correct type of snaps.
The sharp-eyed will realize that I didn't follow much of Summer Truswell's finishing after all. I realized when I got started that her mini sock finishing technique will work better for a cell phone case that has two separate sides instead of being in one piece.
Hopefully I'll be able to pick up snaps today. If not, I'll work on Stars until I can get the proper hardware to complete the finishing.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
