Tutorial: DIY iPhone Charging Station

Kevin loves his iPhone. It's probably his most prized procession. For his birthday I wanted to make part of his present, in addition to the store-bought present he got. I was inspired by something similar I found on Pinterest, but in Canada our plugs are flush (not indented) to the wall and I was worried about the material touching the charger prongs and causing a fire.

Enter this idea!

I had an empty shampoo bottle sitting on the edge of the bathtub when inspiration hit. "Would an iPhone fit in there?" I thought. Yes! It would. And so began my project :-)

iPhone Charging Station Tutorial

TOOLS:

• Shampoo bottle
• Scissors or utility knife
• Sand paper
• Fabric
• Marker
• Modge Podge
• Card stock (optional)
• Glue gun (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Step 1: Peel off the label and clean the bottle inside and out. 
Step 2: Cut off the top of the bottle
Step 3: Draw the outline using a thin marker. Don't worry if you scribble all over it because this will be covered up.

Step 4: Using scissors or a utility knife, carefully cut out your outline. Tip: To ensure you cut the right sized hole for where the charger plug goes into the wall, trace the outline directly onto the bottle. 

Step 5: The edges will be rough, so go ahead and sand those down until they're smooth. Tip: If your bottle is light coloured and your fabric is dark, run a dark permanent marker over the cut edges of the bottle. This will help give a more finished look.

Step 6: Cut a piece of fabric slightly larger than the diameter of your bottle. To do this, I just laid my bottle on my fabric and rolled it over, then cut about 2 inches of excess fabric around all sides to give myself some wiggle room.

Step 7: Ensuring the seam is in the back (this part goes against the wall so no one will see it), start gluing your fabric to the bottle using Modge Podge. This is the method I used to wrap the bottom of the bottle. When you're done wrapping and gluing, rest the bottle upside down to dry until the fabric is dry and stiff. I rested my bottle upside down on a paper towel holder.

Step 8: Now that the fabric is dry and stiff, use sharp scissors or a utility knife to cut away the excess fabric. Cut as close to the fabric as possible. 

That's it! You're done.

Bonus Points: I went one step further and added a little Apple logo for some pizzazz. I free-hand drew the apple and stem onto a piece of thin paper using a thin marker. I placed that paper backward onto the back of my glitter card stock and then traced around the apple using a heavy hand so that the apple became embossed onto the card stock. I cut out the apple and used a glue gun to adhere it to the front of my bottle.

This project was fun, easy, and very inexpensive. I spent just over $2 on this pretty fishtail fabric and only used about 25 cents worth of it! This project can also be slightly altered for any brand of phone - you could even do it for a slim point-and-shoot camera! It's a great way to keep cords and counter clutter to a minimum.