Instructions to Make a Kindle Fire Cover

Kindle Fire Cover - Multi Blue Circles

Wow, I never knew a Kindle Fire Cover could be so popular! I pinned my creation on Pinterest and 34 people and counting repinned it! Someone even commented requesting instructions on how to make one. I wasn't prepared to write it up, my crafting isn't always good enough to share but I worked on it and made a few more and think I have created a pretty good pattern.

Here are the guidelines for making your own Kindle Fire Cover. If you aren't crafty and want to just purchase one, I have some on sale now at my store. Click on one of the images below to buy.

Fabrics Needed: 

• Decorative fabric for outside
• Fabric for the interior
• Stiff interfacing, I used the heaviest iron-on I could find
• Flannel fabric (padding)
• Thicker craft fleece (I found this in the interfacing area.) (This is the thick padding)

Notions Needed: 

• 3/8" Elastic
• Thread

Creating the pattern: 

** Everything has a 3/8" seam

Cover Piece:

• Cut a rectangle 11 15/16" x 8 13/16", mark the seam allowance, fold it in half and mark the half way point - draw a line on the right side of the center 3/8" in, this is the seam allowance for the right side. So the right side ends up being 5 1/16" wide.
• Cut a 2 square and fold in half. 
• Place the folded square in each of the corners on the right side of the pattern. Draw a line, this is where you will place the elastic. When you cut out the fabric, cut a small slit in the seam to note where the elastic should go.
• On the right side, mark 1 3/16" in from the right edge, this is where the elastic band will be stitched.
• Cut one fabric, one interfacing, one padding, one thick padding

Right Side Interior:

• Cut a rectangle 5 7/8" x 8 3/4"
• Cut one fabric, one interfacing

Left Side Interior:

• Cut a rectangle 5 7/16" x 8 3/4" (note it is 5 7/16", not 5 7/8" like the right side!)
• Cut one fabric, one interfacing

Middle Interior:

• Cut a rectangle 2 1/16"" x 8 3/4"
• Cut one fabric, one interfacing

Pocket: 

• Cut a rectangle 5 1/2" x 8 3/4"
• Fold in half. From the center, measure 3 3/4" from the left side to the center. From that point to the edge, draw a curved line. While still folded, cut along the line so both sides are the same. I used a drafting tool, you can also use a large can as a guide. 
• Cut two fabric, one interfacing 

How to put it together: 

1. Iron on interfacing to all pieces. ** I trimmed the cover piece interfacing 3/8" all the way around. You could create a different pattern for the interfacing that was the correct size but I cut these out all at the same time and trim, I find that is easier. 
2. On the Right Side Interior piece, mark the lines from the pattern where the elastic should go (on the right side of the fabric). The bottom of the elastic goes on the line. Stitch elastic down. 
3. One the Cover Piece, pin the elastic. The place you clipped into the seam allowance notes where the right side of the elastic should go. Stitch it to the Cover Piece. 
4. Take the Pocket pieces and sew just the curved edge, clip, trim and iron. Turn the Pocket right side out and stitch the two pieces together so they are secure. The piece with the interfacing should be on the top. 
5. Sew the Left Side and Middle together, top stitch on Left Side. 
6. Pin the Pocket to the Left Side. Stitch all three sides.  

Now you have a Cover Piece with the strap attached, a thick padding, padding, Right Side with elastic straps attached and a Left side with the Pocket and Middle attached.

1. Put the pieces together in this order, flat on the table; padding, Cover Piece (right side up), Right Side (right side down), Left Side (right side down make sure Middle is on top of Right Side). Pin. Sew all the way around. Trim selvage. 
2. Turn right side out and use a corner poker thing to carefully poke out the corners. Trim the thick padding so it fits nicely inside the pocket you just made. I found out this is not an exact science. I trimmed off a tad bit more than the 3/8" seam allowance. Insert into the cover and smooth out. 
3. Once you have this smooth and flat, top stitch around the entire thing. 
4. Now, measure the distance between your top stitching. Cut two pieces of card board. The right side piece should be approximately 7 1/2" x 4 5/8" and the left side should be approximately 7 1/2" x 4 1/4". I say approximately because it depends on how far in your top stitching is. 
5. Insert the left side cardboard first, all the way to the right. You will have to wrap it around the Middle edge so it slides to the left. Stick you hand in between the pieces and push the cardboard to the left. It should end approximately where the top stitching is of the Left Side and Middle piece. Put right side cardboard in, it should end just shy of the Right Side piece of fabric, you need enough room to top stitch over the edge. Smooth it all out and test it with your Kindle. It should fold over nicely and the elastic band should easily come from the back to the front, securing the front. Once you are satisfied, top stitch the Right Side closed, stitching all the way through all the pieces, top stitching will be on the back. 

There you have it, your own handmade Kindle Fire Cover! If you make one, post your pics here! 

Inside of of Cover

Cream and White Scroll Cover

Inside of Multi Blue Circle Cover

Handmade Kindle Fire Cover

 

I made this Kindle Fire cover after looking for some online and seeing a few I liked but not liking the price. The best one I saw was a Kate Spade teal blue one that is $99 on Amazon. I love it; it seems so Tiffany-esque and Martha  Stewart-ish yet has the Kate Spade cute little logo on it. LOVE IT! But, don't love the price. 

So I started looking online at other ones and found that several styles have the elastic bands around the four corners. This seems to be acceptable, though several reviews questioned the longevity of the elastic. There also seemed to be several that had plastic clips the kindle would "clip into", that seemed harder to replicate. 

I also found a few reviews of a cover that had an elastic band around the front to keep it closed, similar to a Moleskin journal, which a friend pointed out to me earlier today. 

So I thought to myself, can I make one of these? How hard is it? It's a square that folds over. 

As I do often, I thought very carefully about the construction during the many savasanas in yoga class. No, we are not suppose to think during class and certainly not how to make cool crafts but sometimes the mind wanders and gets stuck on technical aspects of design. 

By the time I was done with class I had decided I knew what I wanted and how to constructed it. I went to Jo-ann's Fabrics and bought two fabrics, a basic black faux suede, a decorative outer fabric and some elastic.

It took me a couple of try's but here it is! The custom made Kindle Fire cover. 

Cover open with Kindle inside

Closed cover with elastic closure

Detail of the elastic bands around the corners.

Left inside flap with pocket to hold notes.

More up close detail of the straps.

I can only assume this is scalable to an ipad but since I don't have one I don't know. Anyone have a broken ipad they want to mail to me for free? :) 

A Happy Father's Day card for my daddy

As a busy crafter, sometimes I find I want to just but premade things instead of making them. I know, shame on me! Lol

Unfortunately or fortunately, crafting is a hobby and not my job so I sometimes run out of time to make cute and thoughtful things. On the flipside, I tend to feel guilty as store bought cards somehow make me feel like I didn't care ENOUGH to make time to make a card. What a dilemma!

Just fyi to anyone that receives a store bought card from me, with all the great card selections, it can be hard work finding the perfect premade card!

I did manage to have a few hours where I made my dad a card but it was only after I had gone through the above delimma in my head.

This card is not my own design. I'm pretty sure it was in a Cricut newsletter I got though I couldn't find it when I was trying to come up with what to create. I also am pretty sure it is a fairly standard design.

I measured out a shape for the tie and folded it over the blue piece of paper. I cut "DAD" out of red paper using the Opposites Attract Cricut cartridge. I popped it off the card with some pop dots.  

Easy to Make Wool Dryer Balls

Old dryer balls

I got these plastic dryer balls years ago in an effort to be more green and stop buying dryer sheets. I've really liked them, they fluff up the laundry and reduce static without chemicals. One down side to them is they are really loud in the dryer.

I recently discovered wool felted dryer balls. I think these are such a great idea! Eco friendly and relatively inexpensive. (And quieter!) I found a great blog post at goodmama on how to make these. These are great detailed instructions with pictures.

With what I felt was good enough knowledge in hand, I went to Michael's and purchased some wool yarn. I already have two huge bins full of yarn but not wool yarn, so of course I had to go BUY more materials. :) Thank goodness Michael's was having a sale and some of their off colors were discounted to $2.99. I bought 6 skeins of Paton Classic Wool medium gauge, 3.5 oz. 

I wound the yard into a ball, measured and put in a panty hoses leg per the instructions. Instead of putting them in the wash I put them in a bowl with scalding hot water and swished them around. I'm not sure this was the best idea, obviously the agitation in the wash would have been better for felting the fibers together but I have an HE washer and I felt there wasn't a lot of swishing going on anyway. After the water was cool enough for me to stick my hands in it, still hot though, I squeezed the yarn balls and massaged them a little to help the fibers mesh.

After that I put them in the dryer. I let them set out for a day before I added more yarn, they weren't quite dry and I hate to use the dryer to just dry dryer balls.

I wrapped more yarn around and repeated the process.

Here are my finished dryer balls. I like them. They look like the ones in the pictures on the blog post and like others I found on the internet.

New pretty wool dryer balls

I will say though, I don't like the fact that they still look like yarn. Why go to all the trouble of "felting" if its still just going to look like a ball of yarn?

Also, even though each skein was the same weight, the multi colored one didn't go as far. I had to use a different color for the inside of the ball so the outside was the multi color. This of course was only discovered after I had wound one ball almost all the way and realized I wasn't going to have enough.

The solid red color was better, I used 1 full skein and maybe 1/4 of the second skein. I still have probably 3 full skeins left and could make another 4 balls.

A friend told me about another technique for felting and I'm going to try some other things with the other yarn, I'll post again when I get those done.

All in all, if you consider the yarn was only $2.99 a skein, I basically got two dryer balls for less than $6, not a bad deal. My old plastic ones cost me $9.99 at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

If you are curious why someone would even use dryer balls. Here are two things I found on the internet.

How are Dryer Sheets Manufactured?

Are the Dangers Of Dryer Sheets Causing You and Your Family Serious Health Problems?