Dress Your Tech ― 35 Projects to Customize Your Phone, Laptop, Tablet, Camera and More

Nowadays, everyone has their tech – mobile phones, laptops, e-readers and tablets, as well as music players and digital cameras. Store-bought covers and accessories can be expensive and are not unique – so what if you could customise them yourself at a fraction of the price? Here, Lucy Hopping shows you how to do just that. In chapter 1, Decorate Your Tech, discover how to personalise your tech: for example, use washi tape for colourful phone cases and keyboards, and add beads or braids to your headphone leads. You can even knit your own touchscreen gloves and attach cute designs made from polymer clay onto your USB flash drives. Chapter 2, Keep Your Tech, is about giving your tech a home, whether to store it, carry it around with you or simply identify it as yours in a household with several tech users. Make the gorgeous vintage book laptop case, or a simple holder for your phone while it’s charging (preventing it from lying on the floor where it can be trodden on), as well as an armband pouch to hold a phone or music player while you’re out running. Finally, Chapter 3, Protect Your Tech, offers a variety of cases to keep your tech safe from damage but looking good. The phone covers include a fabric lolly, contemporary cross stitch and laser cut designs, while you can make tablet covers from felt or an old hardback book. There’s an oilcloth tablet case too, which is wipe-clean and can be stood upright, making it perfect for following online recipes in the kitchen. The projects in this book use a range of easy craft techniques, from sewing, knitting and crochet, to weaving, moulding polymer clay and preserving flowers in resin, among others. Each project has clear step-by-step artworks and there’s a section that explains all the techniques you’ll need, so you don’t have to be an expert to start making your tech world more beautiful.

Lucy Hopping, an Art and Craft Product Developer in the toy industry, designs and develops kits to teach children various crafts, and regularly attends international trade fairs. She also makes stitched, crocheted and knitted products to sell at local craft fairs and via online craft websites. She is the author of ‘Rubber Band Bracelets’, ‘Loopy Loom Rubber Band Animals’ (ISBN 978-1-78249-183-5) and ‘Friendship Bracelets’ (ISBN 978-1-78249-107-1), co-author of ‘Handmade Glamping’ (ISBN 978-1-908862-74-7), and a contributor to ‘Crafting for Girls’ (ISBN 978-1-78249-052-4), all published by CICO Books. She lives in south London, UK.