Granny Square Creation

I feel like I should apologize for being such a bad blogger lately.  I took a full month-long hiatus.  During that time, I spend more time with family, visited home in Georgia, and came back to Hawaii attempting to get back into the swing of things.  It was nice to not feel like I had to be on the computer at least once every day spending hours in a virtual world.  Face to face relationships were the priority, and blogs, tweets, editing photos, and the sort all faded into the background.  It was a nice little break, but I found myself missing my outlet to express my creativity and thoughts.  So.... here I am.  I hope you guys didn't completely forget about me.  :)

I thought I would kickstart my return to the blogosphere with a new project that I'm a wee bit excited about.  Last week, I finally decided on something I wanted to get with my Christmas money.  I had been debating back and forth on whether or not I wanted an iPad that bad.  I couldn't stop thinking about it though, and since it had been forever since I'd splurged on something I didn't really need, I decided to go for it.  I brought it home and LOVED it, so I decided it needed a cute, one-of-a-kind, home for safekeeping while it sat around the house.  And since my ongoing obsession with crochet has yet to dwindle, I thought I'd put it to use.

This is what I came up with.

Right now, I'm really loving old fashioned granny squares, but I had never made anything with them, so I decided to give it a whirl.  I Googled and looked at my handy-dandy crochet and knitting buddy Ravelry.com for patterns, but I had no luck.  I just had to make one up.

First, I decided my case, sleeve, or whatever you want to call it, should have a thick soft liner.  Since I had some extra tan fleece material laying around, I decided to use it.  I doubled the fleece over, and then folded it smoothly again, then I placed my iPad on top and cut about an inch around the three cut sides. (I left the folded side because it would be less work for sewing later.)

I didn't take photos of every step, so this is more or less a general guide.  If you've never sewn anything like my fleece sleeve, you could research making a pillowcase or pillow, and it would be the same concept. 

To me, the double thickness of the fleece felt perfect.  It will offer a bit more protection from slight bumps.

My next step was the artsy part of it.  I wanted to add a granny square cover to the fleece lining.  I had one failed attempt the first time, as it turned out too big, but I eventually figured it out.  Plus, you'll notice I changed my mind about the colors.) My first granny square photos are from that attempt. :)

I made twelve old American granny squares, six for each side.

For this particular yarn and my gauge, I found that four rounds would make it too large, but three was perfect.

I used the single crochet method to join them.

When I had the face of each side joined, I joined the two sides on one of the shorter ends (two squares).  It created a piece that was two squares by six squares.  When I folded it in half, it wasn't quite wide enough for my fleece sleeve. I added two extra rows on each long side following along with the three double crochet chain one pattern, followed by one row of half-double crochet.  Then I folded the long rectangle right sides together, and joined the edges with single crochet.

This created the "pocket," or sleeve.  I wanted to add a little extra length, so I added one row of single crochet and two rows of half-double crochet around the open edge.  It was then the perfect fit for my fleece sleeve, so I used embroidery thread to sew them together.  (Thanks to the double thickness of the fleece, I couldn't make it work with a yarn needle and yarn.  You could possible do it with a lot of patience and a thimble, though.)  

When the fleece liner and the crochet outside were assembled, I decided I wanted to add a mechanism to keep the iPad from sliding out, so I sewed a button to one side (through the fleece, not just the crochet), and added a crochet loop to the other side.  When it's buttoned, the iPad isn't going anywhere.

Now I'm happy knowing that I have a one-of-a-kind case for my new favorite toy. :)

What do you guys think?

If you would like a similar case, or if you would like one to give as a gift, shoot me an e-mail at TailstoTell [at] Live [dot] com.  I'd love to talk about it with you and make it happen. :)