It is probably fine if I just skip my introductory post, right? Let’s just skip to the part where I messed up the other day.
A few weeks ago a BTSSB phone case that I had been eyeing for a couple years came up for sale secondhand. When it was in store I would talk myself out of it because it felt so frivolous to pay so much for a phone case I would have to put another phone case in to protect my phone. Kind of defeats the purpose, right? Well, lolita is not a hobby ruled by logic. When one popped up on Lace Market lightly used in a color that matches almost every dress I own my willpower fizzled out.
The only problem was that since it was used the tape to attach your phone or case to had already been used. So I bought some intense Gorilla Glue Tape. I was a fool. Not that the tape would not hold the phone to the case, it did it so well…it did it so well that when I tried to reposition the phone case I snapped the plastic that held in the slider. I had my wonderful treasure for about 5 minutes before my ham hands destroyed it.
After some panicking and telling myself that it “wasn’t that bad” I did determine it was indeed that bad as I threw my phone on some asphalt trying to put it in my purse. With the mechanism broken the phone was completely unsecured making the case pointless.
For awhile I was too afraid to do anything. It still looked cute! I can just keep a piece of cute garbage, I told myself. In the end it just made me sad to look at knowing how quickly I had bungled something so simple, so I came up with an idea.
I bought a cheap phone case off Ebay for $5 and used a knife to pry off the shifting mechanism.
The rhinestones mean it is classy. 
This was pretty easy! I wasn’t too worried about messing up the pleather so it came off quickly. Just wedge the knife under the plastic and twist. The real pain came in taking off the adhesive on the back. Glue does not stick well to glue, so it is very important you do not skip this super annoying step. It took me about 40 minutes to get it off with a mix of acetone and Goo Gone. After removing it completely be sure to wash the residue off with some soap and water to make sure it doesn’t interfere with the adhesive. After that I just scuffed it up a bit with some sandpaper for extra grip. Good to go!
Now for the part I was dreading. I had to cut the old base off the phone case and it felt reeeeeeal bad. As expected of Baby the Stars Shine Bright the quality was better and the mechanism was glued directly on to the sheet of pleater. I had to cut through it. If I had just pulled it off it may have created a rip in a visible place, so as much as I hated to do it…
The final result is worth it, I swear! To make sure the pleather did not unravel further once the phone case was placed on it I took the glue and did a coat around the edge of the fraying material. It doesn’t look too nice, but I believe this will help the pleather from moving around under the plastic bit during use.
All that is left is to glue down the plastic mechanism. For this I took a paint brush and made sure to coat the entire back touching the case. As my cut was (somewhat) neat the plastic bit easily covered the entire frayed area! I was a little worried, but it looks surprisingly clean! Good as new! No one would know, except me who will always be haunted by the shame of when I Hulked apart a nice brand piece. :’)
Thanks for reading! Maybe this will help someone out there. Maybe you can just laugh at my pain. If you have any questions just let me know and expect more lolita fashion specific posts soon!
Emmylouu 