Panda Phone / iPod Cases

A couple of new additions to the Minifelts Shop include these cute panda phone / iPod cases. They fit everything from iPhones to Blackberry Phones as well as many other types of smart phone and the iPod touch and iPod Classic.

Christmas Minifelts

Okay it may not even be December yet but I am officially feeling Christmassy! I've got my novelty reindeer socks on, I've had my first mince pie, I've started my Christmas shopping and more importantly I've been making Christmas themed Minifelts!

What do you think? They're both available from my Folksy shop and I think they'd make great stocking fillers.

Web Wednesday

Sorry for the blog silence last week, I didn't manage to do a Web Wednesday or a Folksy Friday, shame on me! I've been really busy working on some custom orders and doing such fun things as job applications and preparing for interviews. Yawn.

Anyway for this week's Web Wednesday I'd like to share this cool website I've just discovered. Uncommon, let's you take an iPhone or iPod case and customise it with your own design, simply by uploading an image from your computer, or you can choose from loads of existing designs in the artwork collection. Here are some of my favourite designs from the collection.

There are some really nice bird designs too:

Go take a look! I'd really like to get one made with a Minifelt design on. I had a play around with some photos to see what it'd look like, I think it'd look really cool with a repeating pattern...

Raccoon Netbook Cover

I have been working on a very special custom order. After purchasing one of my raccoon brooches a customer asked if I could make her a matching raccoon netbook case.

I love a challenge, so I took the template I'd drawn for the badge and enlarged it to make a mahoosive raccoons head! When coming up with designs I always start by sketching a basic shape/outline on paper, then cutting it out and pinning it to the felt.

I started by cutting out the different pieces of the raccoons head from some redy brown, white and black felt and sewing a few white stitches to add detail to the eyes.

(Check out how tiny the original badge is in comparison)

I decided to make the case double layered to make sure the netbook was well protected, and recycled some old material to make the inner and outer layers. I used an old blanket dyed brown, for the cover and some green baize for the inner layer. I stitched the whole thing by hand, not a sewing machine in sight (plus I'm absolutely useless with one!)

Next I sewed along the top and sides of the green inner layer and the brown outer layer, to make a pouch for the netbook, leaving some excess so I could cut it to size later. Then I sewed the raccoon pieces to each other and then down onto the brown cover.

Here it is ready for the opening to be cut to size. After I'd cut the edges to fit the netbook, I sewed the green inner lining to the brown outer lining so that they'd stay together, and added a velcro strap that stretched around the back of the case for extra security.

Here it is finished!

I even scanned in the image to create a matching desktop wallpaper for the customer to use on her netbook!

I'm pretty pleased with the result, since it's probably my biggest project to date. I'm planning on making a whole range of netbook and maybe even laptop covers, as they're a lot more interesting than those boring black ones you can buy in PC World! I've even been on a special visit to the big Abakhan in Wales to stock up on huge rolls of felt, so watch this space for some new designs very soon...