Something for the boy.

Hubby and I both got new phones recently.  And you know what that means:  all new accessories.

Hubby likes to wear his phone on a belt holster at work, but his new phone is so large that there aren't many options.  And we found none in leather, his preferred material.  He was looking online and saw a really lovely leather holster, but it was far too small for his Galaxy Note 3.

I'm sure you can see where this is heading.

"I can make that," I said.

"Really?"  Big eyes.

So yesterday I decided to take the afternoon off from my lengthy list of things I need to get done around the house, and just sew.  I had already made up a pattern for the case earlier in the week, so I just needed to cut it out and sew it together.

And here's the back slot for the belt:

And I ordered some button studs just for this project from this Etsy vendor.

I changed the design a little bit from the original.  Also, because the leathers I have in my stash are much softer than what the original is made from, I decided to line the inside of the back with another layer of very fine leather, to keep flakes of suede from getting all over the phone.  I attached that with quilter's basting glue spray; the seams keep it in place.  This finer leather isn't the same grey, and it's pearlized, but it doesn't show :-)

You can see that I edgestitched all the openings to keep the leather from stretching out with wear.  Of course, all of this was sewn with the walking foot and a leather needle.  I'm considering this one a test run - I'd like him to wear it for a bit and see if it's practical.  If he likes using it, I'll get some black leather and make one where everything matches.

The top piece is a bit larger than the back, so it creates space for the phone.  I liked the idea of leaving the corners open rather than trying to miter and sew around them.

Here are my pattern pieces.  I started by tracing around the phone, then adding on 1/4" all the way around - 1/8" for wiggle room, and 1/8" for the seams.  Once I'd drafted the back piece, I used that to make the belt loop/flap piece and the front.

It was really fun to puzzle this project out.  The end result isn't perfect, and we both feel it looks like a man purse.  But with a phone that big, what are you gonna do?