Upcycling - sunglass case

Material 

In the beginning of last Summer I bought a pair of sunglasses to each one of my two children. When we bought them we talked about a case for the sunglasses and all three of us agreed immediately to do our own cases together by upcycling stuff we had.

As we searched for stuff to make up a sunglass case at home we realized the textiles we had weren't suitable for this kind of project.

So we combined pleasure with "work" and next day we took a tour into town a coffee and cake out and looked for suitable felt textiles. I just pointed out the "right" kind of textiles and the kinds choose the ones they wanted for their sunglasses case.
 

Our plan for the cases 

    We needed a plan. Not a fancy detailed plan. Let me remind you that this       was a project I did together with two children ages 9 and 6. So it was not       supposed to be perfect. Imperfection is welcome in our projects.    
    Imperfection is an important part on learning.
   
    Besides the very purpose of this "mother - children project" was to be a        moment of fun so we could do something together and they could learn to    do their own stuff mostly out of whatever they already have.
   
    The only thing we purchased for this project was the felt textile.

 

After the kids cut the cereal package

Marking folding lines in cereal package

 

measuring the textile 

We used empty cereal package to embody the sunglass cases. Why?
So the cases could be hard enough to protect the sunglasses, easy enough for the kids to work with and because it was an  available material at home.

We used the sunglasses to measure the cases.
If you are going to do a case according to mine humble instructions, remember to measure the depth of the glasses so your case is deep enough for your sunglasses. Otherwise they wont fit the case...

Fortunately I came up on that detail before it was too late.

Hand sewing the outer shell

Then we used the already shaped cardboard from the cereal package to measure the textile. Because the kids were doing part of the job it was important that each cardboard fitted the textile properly, so I took over the making of the cases during the next two or three steps.

As you can see you need an inch/centimeter or so more in textile around the cardboard for the outer shell. The inner shell should be just the same size and shape as the cardboard.

The inner shell is glued to the cardboard with white textile glue. A part of the process the kids loved to do.

Glueing inner and outer shell

I sewed the outer shell of the case on the sides before glueing the top parts on the inner boarders of the sunglasses cases.

This step was made by all of us.

It takes a lot of time for the children's safe textile glue to dry. So don't hurry, this project might take more than one day from idea to the finish product.

The clothes springs did helped the stubborn felt textile to stay in place during the many hours of glue drying.


After that I folded the felt around the upper and lower edges, sewed and glued it in place. We had black round velcro tape from older projects. So I attached them to the inner upper lock of the cases and the outer lower lock. Remember to fit it before you attach them.

The final results?
Two sunglasses cases that stil work as a charm after a year and the kids love to use them and take more care in their sunglasses than they did before.