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I've recently bought myself an iPod Touch, so far it has been great!
I saw the nice leather iPod cases on the Apple but they only have them for the iPod Classic, so, i went about making my own, i spoke to my colleague at work whom used to work in a leather shop, and it turns out its alot easier than i thought.
Here's what you need.
I saw the nice leather iPod cases on the Apple but they only have them for the iPod Classic, so, i went about making my own, i spoke to my colleague at work whom used to work in a leather shop, and it turns out its alot easier than i thought.
Here's what you need.
- Some leather, the thicker the better. I got mine off ebay as a bag of scraps.
- Some nice thick thread
- Card, glue and tape
- A pokey thing (awl)
- a good sized needle
- a blunt metal object
- Water
- A nice sharp knife
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Signing UpStep 1Creating a Familiar,
Firstly, due to the use of water in this method, i suggest making a rough shaped copy of your iPod/mp3 player.
So, i called upon my trusty gmjboard.
Place your item on the card, and roughly trace it, work out an approximate depth, then build up as needed, due to the curved back of the iPod, i shaved off the corners using a stanley knife.
You don't need to make it spot on, but try to get it close enough.
Once you have your shape, i then suggest wrapping it in tape, i used brown parcel tape for mine.
So, i called upon my trusty gmjboard.
Place your item on the card, and roughly trace it, work out an approximate depth, then build up as needed, due to the curved back of the iPod, i shaved off the corners using a stanley knife.
You don't need to make it spot on, but try to get it close enough.
Once you have your shape, i then suggest wrapping it in tape, i used brown parcel tape for mine.
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I made a wallet the other day using some really good leather. I found that the embossing I'd made with pressure stretched itself to disappearance. A bit disappointed, I tried water. It didn't come out too well. The metal shape was a letter and it wasn't really very clear at all.
The next attempt, I tried wetting the leather and using a hot metal piece. The leather would sizzle on contact with the piece but ultimately, I ended up with a sort of blunt look. There weren't any details. Didn't look very nice. Especially for a Celtic design.
My most successful attempt at this was using dry leather and embossing it with a really hot metal piece. The details are sharp and the leather wont warp the design.
However this is only for embossing. The water technique overnight works awesome for moulding the shape.
My experience with leather xD
just had to say that ; )
Apply a pressure-sensitive glue that stays flexible and use a solid leather that does not fray easily, mask the area to be glued off after shaping the leather and drying, apply the glue, remove the masking tape (no glue inside the case, of course!) and press onto the other half (also glued) when glue is dried. You can apply heat from a heat gun to the glue after dry to the touch, try this out, it makes some glues stick better.
Now when you stick the two halves together, two things are critical:
- Alignment (you cant slide the two sticky sides around on each other, so once you get it wrong, you 'll have to start over again, probably with a new piece of leather) which you can achieve by using a guide (eg, two blocks of wood, one on either side if you pre-cut the shape, or holes (outside the cutaway area) to push the leather over a piece of dowel or round metal (cut holes with a hole iron first, then drill through the holes in the leather into a wooden board to get it aligned well)
- Even pressure without applying forces sideways - press from above, don't use rollers because they will push the leather in a direction or stretch the top layer and thus warp the whole thing, so just take a piece of wood with a minimum width as the glued seam, depending on the guides used, and press from above. Press as hard as possible, remember the time of pressing is not as important here as the amount of pressure used.
You can feather the inside (rough side, if you want the rough inside.. aah) towards the edges to create an even thickness of edge, similar to that of the entry edges, which will make it look even more sophisticated ;D
Of course, if you use a thinner leather, you might also just sew it, turn it over, and have a hidden seam as in every piece of clothing, that would work with fairly thick leather if the leather is still wet when sewing and turning over, if you can manage to sew it, wet it, turn it over and then stretch it tight over a mold, this might work well. I have not done this to a shape this flat and wide, but it is worth a try ,D
Btw. great instructable, totally got me interested in doing one from leather as well.. I have used all sorts of things up to now, neoprene, gripper, other textiles.. somehow leather never came into my mind for my iTouch.. strange, eh?
All I've ever done with leather was with horse tack. I oiled it and punched new holes to fit a bridle, stirrups, and saddle to a smaller horse. Tandy had the tools and taught me what I needed to know in a few minutes using their scraps. Come to think about it, they had scraps larger than the pieces used for this 'ible. Tandy's leather is very raw looking. You'll probably want to stain in.
If anyone wants to sell you a squeeze type tool to make holes in leather, back away slowly. The only tool that works is a punch used with a hammer.
regards from germany,
nejo0017
I've got a case similar to this one and I find that putting it in top-first alows me to plug both headphones and the USB in at the same time whilst my iPod's still kept cosy!
Other than that, great job! :-)
My advice for someone who reads this instructable and wants to do some more leatherwork of their own: