Plastic bag phone case

Happy New Year. Over the Christmas break I had time for 1 crafty project before I was struck down with illness again. I decided to make a mobile cover for my new phone. My last one got quite dirty from all the grease on your fingers so I chose to make it from recycled plastic bags.

I laid out a large thin piece of bag for the background on top of some baking parchment to protect the ironing board. I then cut out pieces from other bags to make my design. After messing about with a random design, I went for this jubilee inspired design with the intention of cutting it up in the next stage so that it didn't become twee. The black crown was not cut as intricately as this - it went like this during ironing - one of those happy accidents you get now and then!

If you don't like the strength of any colour turn it over and see if the other side looks better. I then ironed my design on the lowest heat setting of the iron, protecting the whole thing with another piece of baking parchment.

Next I cut out 2 pieces of white felt, a bit bigger than my phone, and covered them with Bondaweb.

I then took pieces from my plastic collage and fitted them on. Once I was happy with the placement I ironed them onto the Bondaweb, again on the lowest heat setting. It is really easy to melt the bags too much - I did this in the making of this and had to throw it away and start again.

Next I stitched round the edges of each main piece to ensure they stayed on during use and also to quilt it slightly. I used invisible thread on the top and normal white thread on the bobbin. One reason is because the invisible thread is plastic and I thought it would not pick up dirt as easily as white thread.

Finally I started to assemble the case. I began by stitching across the bottom edge, leaving a decent margin. Then I had to cut the top edge to size and round the corners. You have to do this now so that you can finish the top edge before you sew it together else it will be too fiddly. I finished the top edges with 2 rows of machine satin stitch.

Then I put the phone inside and pinned the sides to get a snug fit. I stitched them, rounding off the bottom corners and tried the phone for fit. Once I was happy with it (which did involve some unpicking a re-sewing as it was too snug the first time), I trimmed off the excess.

Finally I finished the edges with 2 rows of machine satin stitch. Where there were small patches of white felt still showing through, I daubed at them with a blue felt-tip!

The one mistake I made was to mark a rough outline of the phone on the white felt with a black pen which you can still faintly see through the plastic.

Overall it is wearing well and I have had comments on how unusual it is. If it doesn't last that long, it doesn't matter as it didn't cost anything to make.

Elsewhere, my family went to Mottisfont House to looks at the start sculptures. These were my favourites - acrylic creations hanging in a tree.

This one was beautifully made and implies the bend in space caused by a star. Sorry that I cannot name the artists - I have thrown the leaflet away.

Finally, my daughter decided that she would make a gingerbread house out of the Great British Bake Off Showstoppers cookbook she got for Christmas. It was a big undertaking and she got fed up waiting for the royal icing to set to hold the roof on. So here I am with the roof panels propped on a sweet tin and a strange lego-shaped lunch box, trying to get it to set in place.

And here is the final house and grounds - well done Millie. It tasted really nice too!