I like perfect, but I’m a bigger fan of perfectly imperfect. The blanket-stitch is one of those imperfect things I’m ok with. It’s like the whittling of hand sewing. No fancy tools, no expensive machines. I liken it to my grandma’s embroidered tea towels combined with my Cub Scout sewing skills. Here’s a plan for your phone case, but you can easily adapt it to make a case for nearly any device. Measure up whatever needs a sweater and get sewing. — Matt

See the full how-to after the jump . . .

Materials

• small amount of Pendleton wool
• embroidery thread

 

Tools

• knife
• cutting mat
• metal ruler
• embroidery needle

 

Instructions

1. If you’re making a phone case, measure and cut a 5 3/4 inch square of the wool. If you’re using a heavily patterned piece of wool, decide where you want the pattern to lay in relation to your case. I chose a busier part of the material for mine.

2. Fold over and iron the top edge of your material. Fold enough so the overall height is now 5 1/8 inches tall. This will give the opening a clean edge, and because of the extra material at the top, it’ll squeeze your phone securely into the case.

3. Next, you’ll want to sew that rolled edge over. I just did a crooked hand stitch that would keep the inner edge from unraveling so the phone wouldn’t catch the edge. You can get as fancy as you want: clean rolled edge or crazy stitches. I kept it simple. After you finish that edge, trim the folded ends in a bit so they don’t bunch when you fold the piece in the next step.

4. Fold your piece in half and start stitching at the top opening. I looped a lot of stitch at the top to make sure that it was extra tough and wouldn’t put stress on the blanket-stitched edge. Loop the thread around about 5–7 times before starting your blanket-stitch. Without giving a full tutorial on blanket-stitching, there are several great tutorials out there. The clearest one that I refer back to most is here.

5. Once you continue to stitch around the corner and to the end, double stitch a couple passes before tying it off and tucking the thread inside.

Now you have it — a simple case for your phone. This method is easily adaptable on any other device, tools, beer cans or maybe pets?

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