Recycled Album Cover Padded Gadget Sleeve

Some of my best memories of being a teenager were afternoons spent with my grandfather searching through the boxes of records at Goodwill. I love to craft with vintage records that won’t play anymore, or fun and unusual record covers, and thanks to my Papa Ben I have quite a collection. A few weeks back I had posted about a design challenge on the fantastic website Earth911. The challenge was to create a case or sleeve for a tablet or phone that was made of mostly recycled items.

So, I decided to create a cool sleeve to carry my ipad. I knew my album covers were going to be perfect. These recycled covers are funky and best of all sturdy and protective.

Here is my DIY:

What You Need:

*Old Record Album Covers

*Bubble Mailer

*Scissors or a paper cutter

*Awl

*Hammer

*Needle and embroidery floss

*Buttons

Instructions:

The first thing you want to do is find a bubble mailer that will fit your gadget. Luckily I had a small stash at home for shipping. You can buy them at Walmart or the post office.  Once you have your mailer you are ready to cut your album. Cut the tab off of your envelope top so you have an open even sleeve. Measure your padded envelope. The width should be a 1/4″ larger than your envelope. For example is your envelope is 9″ wide, you would cut your album to 9.25″ wide. You will have two lengths. The front of the case will be the height of the envelope. The back of the case will be the height of the envelope plus a few inches to fold it over. I added 2.5″ to the top of my back piece. So the finished cover front should be the width + .25″ by height + .25″ of your envelope. The cover back should be width + .25″ by height +.2.5″. So if your envelope was 7×9, your front would be 7.25″x9.25″ and your back would be 7.25″x11.5″ . You can cut two separate pieces, or you can keep the fold in the bottom of the record in tact , trim it to the width and then trim the top to the front and back height measurements. Measure and mark your dimensions on your album, and cut it out with scissors or a paper cutter. The next thing you need to do is punch your stitch holes. Put your album pieces on top of your envelope sandwiching it in. With your awl and hammer punch a hole every 1/2″ a little bit in from the edge all around both sides and the bottom. Now decide where you want your buttons, mark the center and punch a small hole for the top and bottom button. Stich your buttons on the top flap and the front top of your album pieces where you marked.  Now start at one side and blanket stitch all the way around to the other side, leaving the top open. To make the closure, tie a strand of floss around one of the buttons. Clip the thread so it has a long tail of about 4-5″, and then wrap the thread in a figure 8 around the buttons to close the sleeve. And there you have it, and fun and repurposed sleeve to hold your gadget.

I love my little sleeve for my ipad! I even made my mom one for her kindle. It was really easy and whipped up really fast! This would be a great gift for a friend or any music lover. These are really inexpensive to make too. You can find records at the thrift store for around a dollar a piece. A bubble mailer will usually set you back a little less than a dollar as well. So for around $2-3 you can make a fun sleeve. Pretty cool, huh! I hope I have inspired some of you to try crafting with old album covers. The designs you can find are so fun!

Happy Crafting!