Cell Phone Case - Verizon Blitz

Maybe you aren't happy with your current cell phone case/holster. Maybe the availability of cases made for your phone just plain sucks. Whatever your reason, this instructable hopes to give you ideas for a case made to fit your cell phone, while detailing the process for my cell phone, a Verizon Blitz.

I chose to make my case out of leather, good because you can mold it and get it to save it's shape, thus making a good, tight case to keep your phone from bouncing around. Below is a list of what you should have.

-About 2 square feet of vegetable tanned tooling leather. (If you're having trouble, ask for help in the leather store. I have yet to meet an employee and Tandy that didn't know what they were talking about!)

-scrap wood (I used some plywood and scrap pieces of balsa wood)

-your phone (You'll need it as a reference!)

-hand saw or jigsaw

-sander or sandpaper

-White glue

-Snap or button

-pen and paper

-scissors or knife

Optional
-Dremel with carving attachment
-Neatsfoot Oil or other leather sealant
-Velcro

All these steps are very phone specific, but you should get the general idea of how to do it for your particular model.

Comparing my phone to the wood that I had, I cut out a block of the plywood that was roughly the same size as the phone. I saw that the plywood was thinner than my phone, so I cut the same shape block out of some thin balsa wood that I had lying about.

Then, I cut a piece of balsa wood that was approximately the same size as the phone's keyboard. I glued these all together and then let them dry up.

After the glue is dry, it's time to move on to the more refined shaping. I used my jigsaw to cut the corners off of my mold, and then used a sander to clean up and round the edges. Also, I used my dremel to carve the keys out somewhat. of the front.

At the end of this step, you should have a block of wood very similar to your phone.

It's important to sit down and think about how you want your case to fold and open. This is the step where we look at that sort of consideration.

Get out your pen and paper and start sketching. Then cut out your sketch and wrap it up around your phone. Get a real good idea of how this thing is going to go together.

I wanted my phone case to button on the front. It took me a few different tries before I was able to make it work well, but in the first picture you can see what I settled on.

In the second picture, you can see how the paper wraps around the phone.

Hopefully by now, your mold is dry and ready to go.

Place your paper pattern onto the leather and trace it out. Then cut it out with a good sturdy pair of scissors, or a sharp knife. I prefer scissors because I feel like I have alot more control.

Once you have your leather, test fit it around your mold, it will probably be very stiff and a little hard to bend around the edges. We will fix that soon.

Go to your sink, and turn on the hot tap. Let it get as hot as it can, then plug the sink and let it fill. Dip the entire piece of leather into the hot water. Let it soak for a few seconds, then pull it out and refold it around your mold. It will be alot more pliable now, so make sure to press it against your mold to get it into any of the details you carved, like the buttons.

Now, wrap it in a sock and then a bunch of rubber bands. This will keep it tight without leaving any marks on the leather.

Once the leather has dried up, go ahead and unwrap it and take a look! Leave your mold in there, because the next step is to glue those flaps in place and re-wrap it in that sock so that it can dry up nice and tight.

Finally, install your snap or button. I won't go into much detail, but you can see how my snap went in, it was a magnetic clasp off of one of my sister's purses. Wifes, sisters, girlfriends, moms. They all have plenty of that crap lying around, so you can probably snag one without them noticing!

That's about it! Once you have your clasp in, go ahead and do any dying or sealing that you'd like to do. And post with a picture if you make one of these yourself!