The Bloomsbury Microphone Case

I shared a few pictures in my extraordinarily long post from the other day, but it wasn't actually done yet and now it is! I used the wrapped handle from the English style briefcase course that came out a few months ago because my house is incredibly dry and doing any edge painting takes days longer than it needs to due to the way it dries, so I was really happy when that course came out! Anyway, the case is black Buttero, and the handle and clochette are American Alligator flanks I got from Rocky Mountain Leather Supply. Those flanks are a really good deal for anyone who's in the US, I just ordered one set and had enough for the handle and clochette!

The quilting is all hand stitched, and originally I was going to make it one piece covering the entire inside of the lid but when it came time to make it I realized that I needed to offset it all the way around so it didn't mess with the lid being able to close, but it wasn't a measurement I could make until I had completed the base so I ended up doing a bunch of things out of order from the course, but I think it ended up pretty alright. I used two pieces of 5mm memory foam doubled up to make sure that it came down inside the case enough to hold everything in place. If you've ever seen the inside of a microphone case, the top is usually lined with an eggshell style foam to serve the same purpose, but I didn't want to try to glue suede to something like that and thought this would look a lot fancier.

Here's how it started in case anyone is curious, I laid out the parts a couple different ways to get the internal dimensions

Then I had to figure out how I was going to do the inside, originally I was going to have everything be one solid piece but then later I decided there was just too much room for error and that would have been a bad idea. Plus having everything separate and not glued in means I can just take it all out if I ever sell the mics or want to use the case for anything else!

Then I altered the dimensions from the course to match the design I had decided on, and cut out pieces from an old drum head box and taped it together as a mockup to see how everything actually fit inside. What I didn't take into account at the time was the thickness of the suede, and also how much the angled in top parts of the sides would push everything over so the case I ended up with is actually maybe a centimeter narrower than I had planned for. My goal was to have the same distance in the center between the shockmounts as there was from the mounting part of one to the back of the other, if that makes any sense, and then once I had it assembled for real I realized that it wasn't going to happen and I was a bit disappointed but it's really no big deal in the grand scheme of things!

I had made a practice handle of the style from the course because the new one hadn't come out yet, so I had to check to make sure it would fit correctly given the new dimensions

Then while I was waiting 35 years to get my package from MMC Colombo I got the measurements of the locks and handle attachments and made little mockups so I could at least figure out the placement before they arrived

So yeah there it is! I hope this was interesting to anyone, or informative or helpful in any way. I feel kinda odd about making this post because I honestly don't really know what I'm doing and don't want it to come off like I'm bragging or showing off or anything. I've only been here for a year and wouldn't be able to make anything without following along with the videos and rewinding stuff four thousand times to make sure I'm doing it right. There's a reason there aren't pictures of the other side of the case haha there were a couple stitches that are off that almost had me pulling the panel out and redoing, and had this been me making this for an actual person in exchange for money I totally would have, but I kinda just wanted to get it finished. I've learned that when you get sick of something and start to not really care how it looks and think oh yeah that's good enough whatever, then it's time to stop and move on to something else at least until the next day or whenever because coming back fresh and fixing whatever it is definitely is a lot easier and makes you feel a lot better. At least for me I guess.