How To Make a Keyring Headphone Case DIY

By Carly Jacobs

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o I did a very grown up thing on the weekend – I bought my first proper sewing machine. I’ve had a few hand-me-downs and loaners over the years but this is the first one I’ve ever bought new. It’s actually bloody delightful. It took a little getting used to (I watched lots of YouTube tutorials including one on attaching zipper foots where the lady in the video had an accent so now I simply have to call my zipper foot my ‘zeepair va-hoot’) but now I’m quite the sewing whiz. To celebrate I’ve created a super easy tutorial on how to make a keyring headphone case DIY.

I have serious issues with headphones, I’m constantly losing them so I thought it would be a great idea to attach them to my keys… which I also tend to lose… but I lose my keys less frequently than my headphones so I’m sure it’s still a good plan. Here’s how to make your own little headphone case for your keyring.

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What You Need

Sewing machine

115mm jar lid or bowl for tracing your circles

290mm x 170mm piece of thick material (I used a vinyl coated fabric but you can use denim, leather or anything that will hold its shape)

Matching thread

Zipper foot (‘zeepair va-hoot’)

Scissors

1 zip (about 8 to 10cm long should be plenty)

A keyring, s-ring or caribeena

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What You Do

1. Gather all your supplies – you don’t want to be fumbling around trying to find your scissors when you need them!

2. Cut out your circles. Trace one circle perfectly and trace the other with an elongated centre. To do this, trace half the circle, move your template down 2mm and finish tracing the circle. When you’re done cut your elongated circle in half and leave your perfect circle in tact.

3. Next you want to sew a very thin seam on your half circles so they’re all nice and neat next to your zipper.

4. Now you need to attach your ‘zeepair va-hoot’ (zipper foot) to your sewing machine. They’re pretty straight forward to use but if you’re having trouble just google your sewing machine model + zipper foot tutorial. I sewed mine with the zip zipped up all the way so it didn’t get in the way of my sewing machine foot. If your zip is too short for this just move the zip as you sew to keep it out of the way.

5. Then make a little loop out of left over scraps of material. I cut a thin strip (about 20mm x 70mm), folded each long edge to the centre and zigzag stitched it. If your fabric is thinner, you’ll be able to do this more neatly but my material was pretty stiff with a very busy pattern so I could get away with being a bit messy on this step.

6. Fold your strip in half to make a loop. Place both circles together with wrong sides facing out (active part of zipper facing in). Stitch around in a complete circle leaving about 100mm seam. Note: try your best to do this with the zipper open because it’s really difficult to open the zipper once you’ve sewed it. Believe me. I tried. Also be careful sewing over the zipper ends. I used the fly-wheel to slowly stitch these bits to stop the needle breaking on the metal parts of the zipper. The loop bit is also a bit difficult to sew because it’s about 4 times the thickness of the rest of the circle. I found going faster rather than slower helped. Don’t give the obstacle too much to think about , just go for it before it knows what’s happening. Note: when you go to sew your pieces together you shouldn’t be able to see your loop. I just popped it out like that in the photo to remind you that it needs to go on the inside. You can pick where you put your loop.

7. When you’re done sewing around your circle, trim off the edges and clip little snips to make a fan around the circle to make it sit better when you turn it back in the right way.

8. Turn it in the right way through the hole the zipper makes when it’s undone, attach your keyring or caribeena and you’re good to go!

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I love little sewing projects like this. They’re super easy, (fairly) stress free and very repeatable so you can make them for all your friends when they see how snuggly your headphones are in their little pizza house and they’re worried that their own headphones will be jealous. Which they will. Headphones can be super bitchy like that.

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Do you sew? Are you keen on seeing more easy sewing tutorials on Smaggle?

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P.S I asked everyone on Facebook to help me name my sewing machine and although there were some excellent contenders (Benestitch Cumberpatch, Tailor Swift and Sew You Think You Can Darns) but the winner is Sew-phia Loren!

P.P.S  – If you want something a bit silly, uplifting or interesting to read every day make sure you follow Smaggle around on the ol’interwebs –  Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin, Instagram, YouTube and the Smaggle weekly newsletter. Sometimes I swear though… jiggly balls.

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About Carly Jacobs

Carly is the founding editor of Smaggle which launched in 2007 back when blogging was weird. She has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Cosmopolitan and Cleo magazines. Hoop earrings are totally her thing and she almost got run over by Myf Warhurst while out jogging one day.

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