Nintendo DS Case

As I've mentioned before, I teach English to three little girls. Last year, I only taught the two older girls and for Christmas I made them little matching purses. The younger girl (a little sister to one of the older ones) is just 6 years old and the older girls are 9. I wanted to make each of them the same thing for Christmas, but not a purse. I racked my brain - what do both 6 and 9 year olds need?!?) and then I came up with a DS case. I, also, have a DS so it would be easy to mock one up and make sure it works before doing the girls'.

I looked online and quite liked this tutorial.* I made a few changes from the start. I figured the girls' might beat up their DSes a bit, so I wanted the case to have more padding. After cutting out my pattern, I also cut out some batting and quilted it to the lining fabric.

 

Once that was done, there was a lot of ironing and then it was pocket assembly time. As a note, I top-stitched all of the folds for the pockets to make sure the openings were nice and crisp. The tutorial is pretty straight-forward, but at first I did find the pocket assembly a tad confusing. Once you are actually doing it, however, it will start to make sense. Just go with it.

 

After the pockets were ready, they have to be basted together. 

 

Then the game dividers had been sewn; I tested it out and it worked! Wahoo!!

 

Next you baste all of the pockets to the lining. Then it was a pretty simple, right-sides facing, insert a hair tie and sew together deal.

 

Then flip it and add another hair tie to the last pocket for the actual DS.

Because I adore top-stitching, I went around the whole outside one last time.

The final step is to sew on a few buttons and then you would be done. I haven't actually done that step yet, because I was busy with other things (or just lazy about finishing it - either way).

Aside from the batting and top-stitching, I followed the tutorial closely and while I liked the case, I didn't love it - hence the lack of buttons. I knew some changes had to be worked out before I made the cases for the girls.* But, I'll post about that later in the week!

*As I was linking back to the tutorial, I noticed that it has been updated since I used it to make mine (just before Christmas). I haven't looked very closely yet, but I see that one of the changes I made was also made in her new version. But again, more on all of that later.