A Squid in My Jeans?

With all my recent business travel, college visits with my Rising Senior Daughter, and family illnesses, it has been a long time since I last posted.  To get back in the swing, I am going to start off with a simple recycled jean project.

 In Big Lots yesterday, I spotted a cell phone charger on sale for $8.  That’s not a great price, except this model had a charger that would plug into either a wall socket or a car cigarette lighter and six different “heads” to fit many different phones.  I could see carrying only one charger and using it to charge my daughter’s Motorola, my Blackberry, and my wife’s LG either in the minivan or in a hotel room.  I envisioned the cable looking like a squid with a head shaped like a USB plug and six tentacles streaming out behind.  In that configuration, I could conceivably charge all three phones simultaneously.

  Unfortunately, when I got home and opened the package, I found the squid head shaped like a USB plug, but the tentacles were separate adapters that plugged individually into the South end of the squid.  So, I can only charge one phone at a time and I had to come up with some way to keep track of all those loose adapters.

Knowing that I had a pair of discarded jeans on my cutting table, I decided to recycle that fabric, rather than buying new.  As I looked to find the best place to cut, I noticed a rear pocket and decided that if I could incorporate that pocket into my design, half of the cutting and sewing had already been done for me.  I cut out the pocket leaving about one inch of fabric all around.  

Next, I cut a chunk from the bottom of a leg, keeping the hem intact.  I trimmed that piece to the exact shape of the bottom and sides of the pocket, with about 2-3 inches extra at the top to serve as a cover flap.

I rolled over the fabric above the pocket and made a hem.  Then, I measured and sewed six even slots in the pocket to hold the six adapters.  

Next, I sewed the pant leg piece to the back side of the pocket and rolled the extra fabric from around the pocket to the back side and sewed along the pocket seam to hold it.  I could have been neater if I had taken more time, but thinking this would only be a prototype, I was more interested in getting it done quickly.

After coming up with some way to fasten down the flap, the six adapters fit snugly in the pocket and the charger and squid live in the compartment behind the pocket.

To keep this on topic, I was going to discuss the Necchi BU I used for this project, but this post has gotten so long I will save that for another day.