bicycle, digital textile, DIY Tutorials, embroidery, fixy bike, free pattern, free printable, Give Away, mouse pad, My Style, textile design -

Mouse Pad Make over

I was reading a blog post last week entitled The Top 10 WORST Corporate Gifts! Item # 4 on the list was the mouse pad. "The average person is never in the market for a mouse pad. And with laptop sales on the rise, they won’t need one in the future either." When I saw this post I had to give my mouse pad project a second thought. But then it occurred to me that I am not your average user. Not only am I old school - I prefer to use a mouse as opposed to a track pad, I can't imagine trying to draw one of my designs using only the tiny track pad on a laptop. Anyway, I was looking around at my many well used mouse pads,  and they were looking a bit grimy and uninspired. It hit me, why not make them over... I purchased a plain white mouse pad from Ikea for $1.00 a few years ago - as time went by it got a bit soiled so I decided to use it for my mouse pad project. [caption id="attachment_987" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The Before"][/caption] You will need:
  • Fusible webbing - I used Wonder Under.
  • Mouse Pad
  • Iron
  • Scissors
  • Fabric
Here's the process
  1. Create your design or select your fabric of choice. I created a design in Adobe Illustrator using one of the graphic styles that came preloaded with CS5.
  2. Cut the piece of fabric - (8.5" x 11" worked well).
  3. Cut a matching piece of wonder under or any fusible webbing of your choice.
  4. Iron on the fusible webbing to the wrong or ugly side of the fabric (follow the manufacturers instruction).
  5. Place your fabric in your printer and print your design. The design should be printed on the side that does not have the webbing.
  6. Following the manufactures instructions, iron the fabric to your mouse pad.
  7. Trim excess fabric.
[caption id="attachment_990" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="And After"][/caption] *Please note - There is no need to create your own fabric - you may use a piece of fabric from your stash. I also had a boring blue mouse pad that I rescued from my old office when they went under. It was just begging for a little pizazz. So it went from uninteresting... [caption id="attachment_991" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="lackluster mouse pad"][/caption] To something more inspiring... [caption id="attachment_992" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Isn't this more fun?"][/caption]

I created the bicycle pattern to be used in an embroidery project (my nod to all the fixy riding  hipster I met while visiting the San Francisco Bay area). However, I have not been able to find the time to start this project - so doing a printable was the next best thing. Feel free to download the pattern.

To Download - click on the image of the bicycle, then right click and save the image to your computer.

Send me a pic of your project.

xoxo

Al


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