DIY: No Sew Handheld Gaming Case

I've seen about 5 or so PSP How-To's on making a carrying case/pouch for Sony's Playstation Portable. Each gets the job done in terms of helping you create a protective pouch for the handheld. The one grope I have with each is that they all involve sewing at some point.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I can't sew. I'm just saying If it can be avoided, I'll find another way of doing whatever it is I want to do. This tutorial will come in handy if you own a PSP, Nintendo DS, NGPC or any other handheld gaming system and want to protect the screen when not in use. Use my illustrations for guidance if you need it.

What you'll need for this project:
Scissors
Magic Marker
Ruler
Double sided tape
Velcro
Adhesive
cardboard
cloth(old t shirt)

Place the handheld on a piece of cardboard and outline it with a magic marker. This isn't going to be a piece for an art museum, so don't worry about about perfection. Just make sure the outline is a good representation of what the systems shape is. In the case of a Playstation Portable, you want to draw a rectangle with rounded edges.

Take another piece of cardboard and place it underneath the one with the outline, and cut out your shape(figure A). Both pieces will be used as protective padding for the front and back of the game system.

Now, place both pieces of cardboard on an old shirt and mark off the length as well as the width(in other words: mark how long it is, vertical and horizontal). Take the marker and ruler and extend the width by two inches, and reduce the length by one. Cut out the shape.

You should now have two pieces of cloth. You will be using both to cover the front and back of your case.

take one of your cardboard rectangles and place it in the middle of your cloth cut out. take the bottom of the cloth cut out and fold it upward(Figure B) toward the middle of the cardboard rectangle. take the top and fold it down toward the middle.

You want leave a bit of cloth free at the top(notice the horizontal line in figure B). We want the finished product to fold at the top, and and close with the help of Velcro. Use your ruler and Velcro strips to determine how much slack you'll need at the top. If the Velcro is one inch across, try to have 2 1/4 inches free.

tape down the bottom half of cloth to the cardboard, and then do the came to the top half. do this to both pieces of cardboard and cloth the idea is to have to identical sides for the pouch.

Now, place cloth covered cardboard pieces in the middle of a flat surface, one upside down.(Figure C). cut out another piece of cloth about 4 inches wide. Again, length depends on the size of your handheld gaming system. fold up one side and use the double sided tape to create a seal with the cloth covered cardboard(second pic. figure C). Do the same with the other piece as well.

You have a few options when connecting the sides you can either fold both sides, and tape them overlapping with the double sided tape. Or, you can use an adhesive to put pieces of Velcro on the outside of one flap, and the inside of another. In my opinion, Velcro is easier because of the confined workspace needed to apply the double sided tape.

Congratulations, you're pretty much at the finish line. Use an adhesive to glue down a piece of Velcro to the inside of one flap at the top, and the bottom of the other(See figure D). I hope this How-to will serve helpful to any and all who like to partake in handheld gaming. At some point, I hope to revise this tutorial, and draw more illustrations to assist those who may struggle in completing this craft project.