Early Birthday

My birthday is not until mid May, but Dale wanted me to have my present before we left for our next trip to Vegas. You can't tell from the picture below that I got an ipad mini. It was a difficult decision whether to replace my current ipad, or get the mini, but in the end the mini won because of its size, weight and portability. It took a couple of days to get the mini just the way I liked it as some of the apps didn't come right over and my magazine subscriptions had to be restored, but now I think the it is ready...well not quite.

While I liked the sleekness and size of the mini I did not want to bulk it up by placing a case around it and then trying to find another means to carry it around with me in a small enough purse that I could wear like a cross body pouch.

I then went to my purse stash and found my LeSportSac bag I had bought several years ago on one of my trips home to Honolulu. I liked this bag because you can wear it as a shoulder bag, as a cross body bag, and around your waist like a fanny pack minus all that bulk. I realized that this bag was also just the right size for the ipad mini. BUT it was made of nylon and I wanted a little bit more padding to protect the mini. Although I bought a top cover for the iPad mini, I did not feel that it had enough protection from bumps and dings.

I found this laptop cover at Target for $1.00. It was nearly about 2 1/2 times the size of my mini, but I figured I could cut it down and sew something where the mini would just slip in. I did not want to sew in another zipper; because basically I just wanted a pocket of protection where I could just grab the mini quickly when I wanted to use it. Besides that the purse already had a zipper to protect it from slipping out.

I turned the laptop cover inside out and then traced out the mini on the back with about 1/2" ease on both sides of the side seams. I cut it out and stitched the three sides together. The downside of this is that I didn't realize how difficult neoprene was to sew through. It was a little unwieldy to sew and difficult to press. Consequently it was a challenge to sew straight seams without skipped stitches.

To finish off the top I used extra wide, double fold bias tape. I made sure I steam ironed it before sewing as it is made of 100% cotton.

This is the finished pocket for the ipad mini. In retrospect, perhaps the 1/2" ease needed to be greater because it was a little tight getting the ipad out of the pocket. I am really pleased on how this turned out: ipad slips into the pocket; the pocket slips into the bag. The spots on the lower right was from my steam iron. As I mentioned above, even with a press cloth, it was difficult to iron.

Voila, the finished ipad mini pocket and it only took about 10 minutes to make. This LeSportSac bag will also pack well in the laptop compartment of my carry on and will breeze through TSA security because you don't have to take out the ipad mini like you do the laptop.