Accessories after the fact

The good thing about working for yourself is that not only do you get to set the agenda (well, most of the time), but that also you can choose your own footwear and wear a voluminous cardi to work (several cardis in my case, and when I am working at home probably a coat, scarf and mittens).

Accountancy was always out for me because of the whole suit thing (although I do rather like dealing with figures) and anything so executive that it involves power heels, painted nails and well-groomed hair. (I would fall off the heels, and am sadly slack on the whole grooming front [dogs and all are rather unkempt round here].)

And I do remember commuting to London for a week and being totally depressed by the ocean wave of black coats, black bags and black briefcases spilling off the train and into the Big Smoke.

Very businesslike

 So when it comes to executive accessories I am afraid that I sadly undermine my executive credibility by carting them around all wrapped safely in flowery cosies - the padding is essential for the inevitable outbreaks of butter fingers and associated muscle spasms which see me dropping breakables on the floor at regular intervals, or even just missing the table when I put things down, the cause of many a mug fatality in our house. (Not to mention my endearing habit of missing my mouth with the glass of water, the source of much amusement to the Head Chef [which is why it is good to wear more than one cardi at a time as you can just remove the damp one without further ado or kerfuffle].)

Cosy cover

So I have had a bit of fun this week making a very comfy cosy cover for an iPad, using the Tablet Sleeve pattern from Michelle Patterns. This also provided the opportunity to use up some of the leftover quilt wadding mountain which is building up at one end of my office - it is growing apace, but the problem is that the leftover pieces are never big enough to use for another quilt, not even a baby one. The answer is definitely to step up production of comfy cosy covers for iPads, iPhones and assorted executive accessories.

Executive

The pattern comes in two sizes, so you can make your iPad case big enough to accommodate those lids and covers with the little triangular prop-up bit if you want (I rather like these ones from Lente Designs, particularly as they come in all sorts of colours other than black, and are less than half the price of the very smart covers that come from a certain fruity store). So it is quite safe to make pretty cases for friends with boring black Smart Covers - they will not have to eschew their Smart Cover in order to make their Tablets cosy (I am afraid that the word 'Tablet' still evokes a vision of large white elephant pills in my mind, and is not one which is at the tip of my tongue when discussing technology. Alas, I am surely A Digital Immigrant, as I hear so often on the wireless ...)

Tabby

You might notice that I have a bit of a ribbon tab fetish at the moment - I seem to be putting them on everything I make. Why on earth would you want to attach anything to a phone case? (I am pondering on the significance of these tabs, and seem to be returning to Baudrillard and redundancy.)

An Apple pincushion from Amy

The phone case was a pattern of my own making - it took me three goes to get it to fit the phone in question, in the course of which I found that I had made Princess Bunchy an iPod cover and a Blackberry-a-like case, neither of which she uses, because gadgets belonging to teenagers don't stay out of their hands long enough to be put in a comfy cosy case. Next time I will use Michelle's phone case pattern - I think it is worth paying $2 to save the useless prototypes and cursing and swearing as I try to wedge a phone into a case a millimetre too small all the way round.

Thrifty

And to impress you with my domestic economy, all my very executive accessories were made with leftovers - the iPad case is leftover quilt backing (an American Jane fabric, I think), and the notebooks and phone cover were various orts and scraps - oh, so very thrifty indeed.

I am now thinking of making my own comfy cosy case to snuggle in when I sit at my computer in my office - the question is, where should I put the velcro?