I made this case for a friend to hold a bunch of USB sticks.
Materials: Dollaro, Brio, Salpa, Felt, Elastic
Prep
Template used to cut salpa and brio
Using an A5 template I cut out salpa and brio to size. With a sample USB I measured how thick I would need to make the spine and cut a strip of salpa to size. After cutting all the relevant corners with the appropriate radius, I skived all the edges.
The Dollaro for the outer in hindsight was too stiff a material. Next time I’d use something softer. I cut the dollaro oversized. I cut a felt rectangle allowing a 1cm fold-over allowance.
Assembly
Salpa was glued to felt (my felt thankfully had an adhesive backing so this part was relatively painless), and the edges of the felt folded over carefully.
I marked where the elastic would be stitched. I used a combination of counting the number of ribs on the elastic, as well as gauging the tightness per loop.
Salpa covered with felt, and elastic stitched
Zipper strips ready to be edge painted
With the inner complete, I prepped the zipper strips. The zipper’s own ribbon was not quite wide enough to wrap around the salpa edges, it needed to be extended. Again Dollaro was not the ideal material for it, next time I’d use something softer. I skived to 0.3mm the zipper strips. Too thin and I was easily able to hand rip the dollaro, and I didn’t want to risk too easy wear and tear during the lifetime of this object.
I painted the edge of the zipper strips where it would be close to the teeth. Using a “form” (a yellowpages with a radiused corner) to make laying the zip easier I folded the strip over the salpa and felt, aiming for a 1cm overlap. I aggressively skived the lumpy bits at the corners.
Zipper strips fold ~1cm onto salpa
Corners skived to reduce bulk
With the inner basically complete, I put the outer together. The spine was ever so slightly wider on the outer. I used painters tape on the zipper strips to not just hold them down and let the glue set, but also as a means to mark the inner. I temporarily stuck the outer to the inner using double-sided tape, and gently awled through the outer holes onto the painters tape. I then removed the outer, and fully awled the inner. This was easier to do on a flat surface and a cork mat. I marked a few corresponding holes to make it easier to index later when putting the two sides together.
Dry fit of outer Dollaro/Brio to inner Felt/Salpa
Matching up holes, preparing to stitch
I trimmed the zipper start, added the top stoppers, and stitched the zipper end to the outer’s spine. Next time I’d make the flap the same width as the spine. The zipper tape was about as wide as the spine and was interfering a little. Next time I’d prep this area with more forethought.
Zipper end stitched to outer spine
With the spine out of the way, it was time to stitch up the case. Numerous stitch runs were required because the felt created a bit of friction and caused the thread to start fraying despite heavy waxing.
