Styna, Munchkin and Bones!

Styna, Munchkin and Bones!
Mischief Managed!

Friday 4 March 2011

Kindle Cover

So, I was casting around for ideas for Mum's birthday this year and I came up with this! She's always been an avid reader (it's genetic, I tell you) and my Uncle got her a Kindle for christmas; I was looking at the covers on t'internet and there was just no way I could afford one. Well, with my motto being 'I bet I could make that,' what did you expect to happen?

Luckily, I already had a ton of faux leather fabric left over from something or other, so after a brief foray to the local craft cave I got stuck in... since I thought it turned out pretty well, I decided to post the how-to on here.

You will need:

Faux leather fabric (or something suitably tough on the outside and soft on the inside... which reminds me of that old Dime bar advert: 'AAAArmadillo!' Ahem.)
c. 11 inches of ribbon for trim
Needles, thread and so on

Since I had access to a Kindle, I just laid it on the fabric and drew around it - it came out as a rectangle roughly 11inches by nine inches.

Step One:
After measuring and cutting the faux leather, I gave myself about half an inch on each edge of the fabric and drew this on with tailor's chalk.

Step Two:
Hemming the top edge of the fabric - this will give you a professional looking top, so remember to be careful to keep a straight line when you sew. I folded over (wrong side up, so the fold is on the inside) about half an inch of fabric and sewed, in straight stitch, right along the edge of this fold.
Note - don't do what I did and entirely forget this step until after step three :) made life tricky.

Step Three:
Mark the position of the trim ribbon (just put it where you think it looks good) and pin it in place (fabric and ribbon right side up, this time). Try to make sure that it's going to line up on the other side of the cover when you've finished the side seams and adjust accordingly. Sew in place - again, I used straight stitch.

Step Four:
Fold the cover in half so that the ribbon lines up on both sides (right sides together) and pin along the side seam; again, I gave myself about half an inch grace. Sew seam twice for strength, if you want - I found straight stitch held pretty well as it was.

Step Five:
Pin and sew the bottom seam - pretty much the same as the previous step.

Step Six:
Tidy threads and trim hems. When I turned the cover rightside out again it was pretty tube-like, so I put it between two heavy books to flatten it (irons and faux leather not getting on).


And that's it, a chic looking Kindle cover in less than an hour! Well, I was impressed with myself, anyway :)

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