iPod Cozy Tut – Image Heavy

iPod Cozy tutorial

This is my first tutorial ever, so bear with me. Personally, when I take a first look at a new tutorial, if it’s too long or has too many diagrams, I tend to get scared off, so I will try to keep this one from being too scary. But I can’t leave out any important details either…

Also, one thing I’d like to say in my defense before you see any of the up-close pictures: I made two of these cozies. When I did the first one, I had no intention of writing a tutorial, so I didn’t take pictures of the process. When I did the second one, for the tutorial, my sewing machine decided to seriously freak out. I’m taking her to the doctor tomorrow but for most of the action shots, the stitching looks awful, I promise yours will look better. And I also swear that I’m a much better sewer than some of these shots imply.

Note: For the sake of making things easier to figure out, I’m going to refer to the denim pocket as, of course, our pocket. The back, where the earbuds go, is going to be called the pouch; although it’s a pocket too, we don’t want to confuse ourselves anymore than we have to (okay, honestly, I don’t want to confuse myself. It probably makes sense to you without the “pouch” but it was giving me a headache.)

Also, all the pictures get bigger if you click on them. Just thought you should know. :0)

Materials needed:

One complete pocket with a flap and button closure, cut from an old pair of jeans. Can be any size, but remember, the bigger your iPod, the bigger the pocket should be, since your iPod has to fit inside it :0)

One small piece of fleece or other soft, slightly thick material (to protect your iPod from the rivet of the button on the inside of the pocket)

A piece of fabric twice the length of your pocket (for the back pocket that holds your earbuds)

Two small scraps of fabric for the loop (optional).

Step One

Make sure your iPod fits in the pocket you’ve chosen. It’d be really, really frustrating to get too far along in this project and then realize your player is too big for the pocket; don’t ask how I know this, just trust me.

Step Two

We aren’t going to take the pocket apart and put it back together. You could, if you wanted to be really precise about raw edges showing and such, but I am just not into working that hard today. So, since we aren’t going to be able to do much to the actual pocket itself, you need to make sure you trim away any extra fabric from the pants it came off of. I used pinking shears for this part, but later I almost wished I’d used regular scissors so that the little pieces leftover would fray and give it some character. Your choice.

Next, slide your iPod into the pocket one more time. If the button of the pocket flap could potentially hurt your expensive little gadget, we need to cover it as quickly as possible to eliminate all threats. I used a piece of green fleece I found on my sewing room floor. Since my machine is being all kinds of crazy right now, the stitches aren’t picture perfect, but they are enough to keep the fabric in place, covering the back of that button and saving my iPod’s life. Turn your pocket inside out and pin the fleece in place. Since we didn’t do a whole lot of precise measuring before hand, you may need to trim your fleece to fit the pocket. I took the easy way out and pinked all the edges so they wouldn’t fray. One important note at this point – you don’t need to sew all four sides of your fleece onto the pocket. All you need to worry about are the two short sides, the up and down ones (aren’t my technical terms impressive?)

Step Three

You could stop here, if you don’t want a separate pocket for your earbuds or a loop on the side of your pocket. I wanted both, so I kept going.

It’s time to make your loop. Take your two fabric scraps and trim them up to be the same width and roughly the same length. Sew them, right sides together, into a tube, and use the eraser end of a pencil to shove the fabric through and turn it right side out. If your machine is running right, this will be the hardest part of the whole project. Sigh. Lucky you.

Step Four

Figure out where you’d like to place your loop and what size looks the best with your pocket. You could put it anywhere, really, but I wanted to be able to cover the rough ends of mine up with the earbud pocket, so I chose to anchor my loop on the back of the jeans pocket, just below the flap. I sewed it on with a straight stitch, and because I am always a little nervous that the worst will happen and my stitches will, for some unknown reason, come out, I backstitched and re-stitched twice. If you don’t have OCD about these things, once will probably be sufficient, as long as you put it a few backstitches at the beginning and end. Make sure that wherever you place it is close to the very edge of the jeans pocket so you will still have room inside the pocket for your iPod.

Step Five

Again, you could stop at just the loop, but if you want to get all kinds of fancy, keep going.

Now it’s time to put our earbud pouch on. Fold your pouch fabric in half, so that it’s the same height as your jeans pocket, and make sure it’s inside out. Then, lay your pocket on the wrong side of your pouch fabric. Give it a rough trace. It won’t be exact, which is just the way I wanted mine. Cut out around this shape and flip it right out. Fold the two rough edges down and sew them up tight with a decorative topstitch if you feel like it, a basic straight stitch if you don’t.

The stitches you use to attach your pouch are going to show on the front side of your cozy. You may want to mark some straight lines to sew along so you don’t end up with wobbly and crooked lines, like I did on my first try.

There are two ways you can attach your pouch, this is a completely personal decision. You could lay the un-stitched edges of your pouch against the back of the jeans pocket and sew it as close to the bottom edge of the pocket as you can get it. Then, flip the pouch fabric up towards the flap, and check out the beautifully finished bottom of your pouch. It’s amazing, right?

Or, if you’d like your stitches to show, you can start on the sides. (Even if you chose to do your bottom with the hidden stitches, this side method is for you. These stitches are going to show.) Position your pouch on top of your jeans pocket and make sure it’s as close to the edges as you can manage, and if you’re hiding the rough ends of your loop, double check to be sure that’s happening.

Pin the pouch in place. Check to make sure that your iPod will still slide in and out of its case easily with these seams. Readjust as needed. Then, choose a stitch to use for attaching the pouch. This will show, so you can get as creative as you want, as long as you don’t use one that’s too wide, your iPod still needs to be able to get into its house. Now, patiently, carefully, and without cursing (if you can manage it) sew around the sides and bottom of your pouch. Clip all loose threads, put your iPod to bed and snug those earbuds into their pouch!

I did something a little extra to the second cozy I made. When I folded the tops of the pouch inward to sew them shut, my stitches ended up looking so terrible that I had to come up with a way to hide them. I found a strip of fabric that matched the loop I used, and I folded both sides in to the center and then folded it half to make a small strip with all the raw edges hidden (I wish I’d taken pictures of this part, but it’s the same as making binding tape.) Then I sewed the strip on the top of my pouch, again I only worried about the sides, just like with the fleece on the inside.

That little extra strip ended up coming in handy. Now I have two places to attach things to hold the iPod to my clothes, hang it up, etc. Here’s some finished shots just to show what the cozies look like together and one of the options for using them.

That’s a clip for a badge I wore at work.

The red fabric is a left-over piece of bias tape that I sewed shut to use as a necklace-typer carrier and hanger. This is pretty much only for the pictures, I don’t think I’d wear it in public, but it’s convenient for hanging it up at home.

See what I said about my machine being screwy? The topstitching can look a whole lot prettier than that.

Both of them, side by side, the one with the iPod in it is the second one I made.

And the backs. Messy but cute, right? Charming. That’s what I call it. :0)