Protective iPad case using Recycled coffee pouches

As always, I try to find new and innovative ways to deal with the waste we generate.  Mike was gifted a book one Christmas by our lovely German friends, Michael and Lindelies,  It's called Cool Hunting Green and has many ideas of recycled objects in it.  Below is one little project I tried out; we were given an old adding machine at kindergarten and it had outworn it's play life, so before throwing it out, I got the children to help me take it apart. The keys have a hole drilled through them and threaded with elastic as hair tie ornaments.  The stretchy elastic came from some Warehouse shoes we bought a while back - they use the elastic to hold pairs of shoes together!

Our Balinese lady holds my hair ties with computer key buttons.

And as Mike is still trying to steer clear of milk, in favour of soy milk, I try to use as many of the tetra-paks as possible and up-cycle them into coin purses as gifts.

Coin purse

Then there are the crazy little upcycled projects like this sleep shirt I made my daughter in the holidays.  Mike had a few old bamboo shirts which had stretched beyond comfort and as I like the feel of them, I turned 2 of them into a hoodie-sleep-shirt which my daughter ABSOLUTELY loves and wears often.  I love that she is not a label girl and will wear crazy upcycled gear happily.

  

3 ultra-stretched t-shirts...

  

become a crazy sleep shirt with attitude.

Sleep Ezy

 So when my work laptop started to die, I was given a replacement iPad.  (Now that is a whole other story - me and technology - groan!!)  I asked for a keypad cover as I am a touch typist and can't do that on-screen.  So it looks like a mini laptop!  But of course, it's still hard and needs a protective cover, so as is my habit, in order to save extra costs, I decided to make an upcycled one.  I looked around to see what I could use and this is a step by step guide of how to make one!

Step-by-step guide to upcycled iPad case

1.  I gathered the resources:  some old coffee pouches, an old suitcase strap, a windscreen cover that's coming apart.

2.  I measured around the iPad keyboard, adding extra width for seams.  Then I cut the coffee pouches and sewed them together to fit the padded windscreen cover.  I cut up an old t-shirt to line it, so that it wouldn't scratch the iPad and pinned them all together.

3.  All 3 layers are pinned together and then sewn together at both ends.  I have hand-sewn on the cut-off top bits of the coffee pouches, to act as loops for my closing act.

4.  Opened out, this is what the bag looks like with the t-shirt inner.  You can see where the coffee pouch loops have been attached by hand.

5.  An Interesting clasp - an old Opp Shop find which cost $1.  A Maori carving souvenir which fits through all three loops to close the bag.  Note the sides have been sewn by hand in double back-stitch.  This is because my sewing machine had a hissy-fit and absolutely refused to sew through all the 6 assembled layers!

6.  The handles are attached to coffee pouch loops, hand-sewn onto the back, at each end.

6.  Detail shows the hand-sewn loops, with a small curtain ring to hold the old suitcase strap.

7.  One loop sewn at each end to form strap attachment point.

8.  Bag ready to go.  Last step, drill a hole in carved souvenir and attach to central loop with bungy elastic cord.  This will ensue that I don't lose my closing clasp.

9.  There she goes!  Ready to transport my iPad safely, and all using "junk" found around the house.  Cost:  One whole morning of inventive fun.  I think it's kinda funky, and functional at the same time.

We'll call it the FUNKtional iPad Case.