Following a delivery from Birdsall leather & craft in Australia I was finally able to finish the iPad sleeve.  My wife was gob-smacked that I had actually completed something, which was probably the best part of this project.  I just didn’t tell her that the sleeve was done, but the bag was nowhere near finished yet 🙂

The canvas flap (made from left-over canvas from the ex-WWII haversack) was already hemmed, and the corners sewn over.  The next step was to attach this to the leather sleeve.  Once that was done the final step was to use a leather scrap as the anchor for the harness post to close the bag.

Sleevus Completus!

While I am waiting for some hardware to turn up in order to complete the carry bag, I have been working on a leather sleeve for my new Apple iPad.  The intention is that the iPad lives in the sleeve, which is in turn carried in the bag.

I started by selecting two pieces of leather and tracing the shape of the iPad on to these, adding a 5mm seam margin on one, and a 10mm seam on the other.  The smaller piece sits against the screen of the iPad, and the larger piece follows the curved contour of the iPad back, hence it needs to be somewhat larger.  I didn’t happen to capture any images of this stage – sorry.

The next step was to use some strong waxed linen thread and a sharp leather awl to double-needle stitch the two pieces together using two needles at once.  Start from the open end on each side and stitch down to the bottom corners first.  Then insert the iPad and use it as a former (carefully!) when stitching the bottom seam.  You’ll need to stretch the leather over the curved shape of the iPad to get a good fit.

I then hemmed the edges of a piece of left over canvas from the WWII bag to use as a flap.  The corners of the flap are also folded and stitched over.  Once again by hand because my sewing machine skills are non-existent.  When I get some time I will attach the flap to the sleeve – but another project has come up in the meantime…