I got myself a nintendo ds lite last month and I decided that it needed a sweet case to keep it in. I've never done any
cross stitching needle point before and my aunt recently gave me these plastic grid
cross stitch canvas sheets, so I thought this would be the perfect project to learn on!
I think it turned out really great, but I am swearing to never
cross stitch needle point a project this large again. It takes
forever! Here's what I did to make it. The instructions aren't perfect since I did make some of it up as I went along, but good luck to anyone who wants to give it a shot!
Things you need: plastic canvas sheets (size 8 grid)
lots of grey yarn
slightly darker grey yarn
black yarn
red yarn
scissors
glue gun
Optionalgrey felt to line the inside with
some velcro to make a closure with
1.So first I measured my ds and figured out what to cut the pieces of the plastic grid stuff to.
You need: (units of measurement are in squares of the size 8 plastic canvas)
two pieces of 25 by 44 (for the top and bottom)
two pieces of 8 by 44 (for the long sides)
two pieces of 8 by 25 (for the short sides)
one pice of 7 by 44 (for the overflap) -> I cut this down so it was 44 on the top and 40 on the bottom of this piece so the flap would have rouded edges
(I also cut out a spot for the charger cord in the back, but I'm not including this, since it was one of the things I just did on the fly as I went along)
2. Then I made a pattern using adobe illustrator of where to stitch to make the top look like an NES controller. And here it is!
3. Then I just needlepointed like mad for a few days until all the pieces were done (but not around the edges of the plastic). Then I put the pieces together so it would lay flat like a box.
4. From here I did an optional thing where I cut pieces of felt to approx. the right size to line the case with. The bottom part is one piece sewn together to just fit in nicely, and the top is a separate piece. The felt is glued in with a hot glue gun, but not to the edges, since you still need room to stitch around the edge of the plastic to give it a finished look.
5. Then I stitched together all the joining parts of the case, going through the felt where necessary. So the case is case shaped now, and some of the sides of the felt are covered up by stitches of yarn where I was finishing the edges of the plastic pieces.
I also put some velcro on the overhang flap and the front of the case to keep it closed better. I just used a hot glue gun to attach that bit on as a last step!
And that's basically it! It was challenging to figure it all out, so if anyone attempts to make theirself a case from this tutorial and has any questions, please comment with them and I'll do my best to answer them!
There are some more pictures in my flickr account. I made a set for the photos of this ds nes style case that you can check out here -->
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosered/sets/72157594335228317/
Thanks for having a look!
EDIT:The fantastic Natalie Zee Drieu, the associate editor of CRAFT magazine, has posted up a modified version of this Nintendo DS case with instructions! You can check out her version at the CRAFT blog over here! 
button to nominate it!
