Whiplash: cozy for mp3 player

Tony bought a new mp3 player which came with a not so sturdy bag, so I thought I'd make a proper cozy for him. I thought it'd be nice if the cozy had a zip, instead of just a drawstring -or nothing at all- and felt lining to make it nice and un-scratchy.

It took me a wee while to get it done because I didn't have a zip in the right size! But taking such a long time to finish it meant I had lots of time to go over it in my head how to put it together.

The design on the front is taken from the so-called Århussten (Århus Stone), which is a Danish Viking rune stone. Tony likes the Vikings and the stone is from Århus and so am I, so I thought it was a perfect match. :-)

I drew the mask from the Stone on freezer paper, cut it out and ironed to the fabric.

Then I painted it with red fabric paint. Red seems like a fitting Viking-y colour.

The mask didn't turn out as crisp and clear as I had hoped, but then, it was a rather fiddley design. Even with freezer paper, the colour still ran under the edge. But I was able to kind of save it by scratching off paint. And if you don't look at it too closely, it does look pretty good...

To make the actual cozy with the zip, I used this excellent tutorial. It is so clear and easy! First you sew on the zip in a lining-zip-outer fabric sandwich, which that tutorial explains in a much better way.
Then you fold over the lining and the outer fabric, so you have the outsides of the outer fabric facing each other, and the insides of the inner fabric facing each other (but in this case that doesn't matter because I used felt.

I forgot to take a picture of that step, but there is a back pocket (for the head phones) on the cozy (as you can see at the top this post). The pocket is simply a third piece of the outer fabric, with the top edge double hemmed and decorated with some red stitches. This piece of fabric has to be pinned to the outer fabric back piece, so it will be sewn together with the rest of the cozy. The pocket is pretty tight so I didn't have to add some kind of closure for it.

When you sew together the cozy, remember to leave an opening in the lining, so you can reach in and open the zip so the cozy can be turned inside out! And cut them corners so you get a nice straight corner once the cozy has been turned.

Turn the cozy inside out, then sew together the opening left in the lining, and you're done!

Tony is very pleased, and, frankly, so am I! :-)

Whiplash tutorial