Hand-Stitch a Felt Keeper for a Charging Cable
A short felt strap keeps a loosely coiled charging cable from unrolling in a school bag. This one closes with sew-on hook-and-loop tape, so you can open it without threading the connector through a tight slot. Remove the keeper before plugging in the cable.
Measure the cable as you carry it
For one keeper, gather two strips of firm craft felt, each 1.25 by 5.5 inches, plus a half-inch length of three-quarter-inch-wide sew-on hook-and-loop tape. Use strong sewing thread, a hand needle, scissors, and clips. Coil the unplugged cable in relaxed loops without folding it sharply near the connectors. Wrap a paper strip around the middle of the bundle. The ends should overlap by about an inch without squeezing the cable. Use that measurement to adjust the length of both felt strips before sewing.
Place the fastener before joining the felt
- Round the ends of both felt strips and stack them temporarily. Wrap the stack around the cable bundle. Mark where the inside of the overlapping end touches the outside of the lower end, then unroll it.
- Sew the hook piece to the marked inside surface and the soft loop piece to the marked outside surface. Stitch around each piece with short backstitches. Keep the edges of the tape inside the edges of the felt.
- Stack the strips again with the fastener pieces facing outward on opposite sides and at opposite ends. Clip them together and whipstitch around the perimeter, passing through both layers about an eighth of an inch from the edge. Knot the thread and hide its tail between the layers.
Tune the fit
If the keeper closes only when pulled tight, move the outer loop piece closer to the tip of its strip or cut a longer strap. If a corner of the tape catches on the bag lining, trim the corner slightly and add a stitch near it. Make separate keepers for thin and thick cables so neither needs to be bent tightly to fit.
