Watermelon Westie Cases

I'm catching up on blogging about some of my 2012 sewing projects, beginning with these sweet Watermelon Westie cases. These were featured in my quarterly newsletter last summer and have been listed on my Finished Projects 2012 page for quite some time, but somehow never made it into an actual blog post until now.

They're made using Kona cotton premium quilting fabric from Spoonflower.com; the irresistible Watermelon Westie fabric design is created by Kim Niles of KiniArt.com.

 

This small wristlet/phone case is just the right size to carry my Blackberry cell phone or my digital camera. It's made using the iPhone embroidery design from Embroidery Garden's in-the-hoop Zipper Cases Set.

Both the front and back are quilted and feature that happy Westie face. I've paired it with a fun cotton fabric printed with tiny watermelon slices for the linings. I was thrilled to find the lining, because it is such a good color match to the green circles on the cover fabric. Here's a peek inside:


Last fall I traded up to a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone, which didn't fit that case; later on I found out that the newer iPhones with hard cases just about fit inside, but were a tight fit. So I decided to make this larger version (using the 5x7 case from the same embroidery design set). The front is quilted the same way as the smaller version, but the back is just padded with cotton batting.

 

The larger cell phone wristlet had room to spare, so I added a divider pocket inside. The phone can fit in one section and folded money, ID, ear buds or other personal items can be carried in the other section.

Instead of carrying a cell phone or other device, either version of this wristlet could be used as a small purse or to discreetly carry cosmetics and other personal items.

The wrist strap for each wristlet is about .5 inch wide by 6 inches long and has a nickel-plated swivel hook so it's removable.

I thought a matching sunglass case would be a nice coordinating accessory to go with the cell phone cases. This one is made using Embroidery Garden's Pleated Monogram Eyeglass Case in-the-hoop embroidery design set. I omitted the monogram and centered the Westie face in it's place.

The body of the sunglass case is made with the watermelon slice fabric, and just the focal point of the front is made of the Watermelon Westie fabric.
My sunglasses fit nicely inside! The closure is made of coordinating pink and green grosgrain ribbon and a metal snap. 

While I was looking for the right size case for the new Samsung phone, I discovered it fit perfectly inside this sunglass case too.

Back in the summer of 2011, I made some coin purses, zipper cases and key fobs using Garden Westies quilting weight cotton fabric, (also from Spoonflower.com and designed by Kim Niles).

Around the same time, I ordered only one yard of the Watermelon Westies fabric. After it had 'aged' for about a year in my stash, I made the first batch of cell phone and sunglass cases (Summer 2012).

I quickly sold out of the cases in my Etsy shop and needed to order more fabric. Apparently Spoonflower changed their fabric line-up at some point in the year between my orders. I decided to try the their premium Kona cotton, which turned out to be wonderful to work with - however, the overall color of the fabric was more muted and not nearly as intense as the original. Hopefully you can see the difference in my photo with swatches of each color.

The newer fabric is still a very pretty pink! I'm not sure why the color is different, but when I re-ordered a second time, it arrived in the same color.

Interestingly, when I re-ordered the Garden Westies fabric, it turned out to be a much darker, intense green than my previous (multiple) orders. So I'm assuming the new fabric must accept the ink differently than before.

I'm almost all out of the watermelon slice lining fabric and haven't been able to find any more, so I'm keeping an eye out for a suitable replacement. Somehow I missed this coordinating Wild About Watermelon fabric on Spoonflower until recently - probably because it doesn't actually have Westies on it, LOL. I've just ordered a yard of it to go with a new yard of Watermelon Westies, which I plan to use on a brand new project. ;-)

  • Update July 2015: The wristlet style zipper cases are available by request through my Etsy shop or my website (I donate part of the sales of each one to Westie rescue). I've run out of the watermelon slice lining fabric, so the sunglass cases are no longer available as shown.




edited:
Nov-23-2018 Replace SewAmazin Flicker photos with Google photos; edit old links


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