Sunday 31 March 2013

Quick sew Kindle Case Tutorial


 
 
 
Easter weekend is flying by and it suddenly dawned on me yesterday that I need a little cosy for my kindle whilst on hols. So as mentioned yesterday, I want to share this quick and easy kindle case with you. I don't know about you, but I find tutorials incredibly useful and the more pictures and description the better for me. So hopefully this works for you.

So here is what you are going to need:
Two different materials, one for the outside and one for the lining
Sewing Machine or you can sew it by hand if you like
A button
A small piece of yarn of your choice
A crochet hook, any size between a 4mm and 6mm will do (I used a 4mm)
Some pretty ribbon or alternative fabric
Small piece of crocheted lace
Cotton

Now to make it
1. To start cut your four pieces of fabric, if you double fold your fabric you only need to cut twice. The measurements I used were 9 inches x 6.5 inches. I used a lovely thick grey felt and beautiful soft velvet for the lining.



2. Now you want attach the ribbon and/or lace that's  if you want to attach any. I used two strips of Cath Kidston ribbon on one side and some Cath Kidston ribbon and lace on the other side. It's also a good time to attach the button, to save flaffing with it later.
 

 
 
Once you have attached the ribbon and/or lace, cut off any excess. 




 
So this is what it should look like once you have attached all your bits. You should have your four pieces of fabric which we are going to join up next.
 



3. Now you want to sew each little bag, so to speak. First do the outside bag, so in my case the grey felt. Put right sides together and sew the bottom and both sides, leaving the top open. I did half and inch on all the seams.

4. Now do the lining and this is where it can become a little confusing. You want to leave an opening (no seam) of about a minimum of 3 inches at the bottom like this. So sew from one side double back, leave 3 inches and sew the rest, again make sure to double back on all your seams.





5. So now you should have two bags sewn together, apart from the little gap at the bottom of your lining bag. Turn them out like this (again Blogger is having its own mind with these pictures being upside down, sorry)



6. Now you want to do a little crocheting and if you don't crochet, this is pretty easy, but you can also just use a piece of thin ribbon or some elastic if you prefer to skip the crochet bit. I have tried to do a video on how to do a crochet double chain stitch, but as my kids keep interrupting (don't you just love that?!) I started looking for a video on how to and here goes.

Here is the diagram that I used.



Basically what you do is start with a slip knot, then chain two, then do a double crochet (UK) or single crochet (US) into the second chain from the hook. The way you do this is by putting your hook through the left part of the second v (each chain looks like a v if you look closely) from your hook, wrap the yarn around your hook and then pull it through both loops on your hook. Continue to do this all the way until you have the desired length. Mine was about 2.5 inches.



7. We are almost there. All we have to do now is to put the two bags together, make sure to include the little loop and then you're done. So for me doing a lined bag without any visible stitching required some oil for the old cogs, so hopefully this is straight forward enough for you.

Keep your outer bag with right sides out as in the picture in 5. and turn your inside lining bag wrong side out. Then put your outside bag (felt) into the inside bag (velvet) like this. So your fabrics should now be right sides facing.



8. Adding the loop. Once you have them snuggly fitted together line up your opening and edges. Now add your loop and pin it securely on the opposite side to your button so be sure to check it is on the right side (an easy mistake to make that will require a lot of unpicking).





9. Pin all around to make sure it stays perfectly in place.



10. Now you want to sew it all firmly in place.



11. Once it's all sewn pull the inside bag through the little gap that you left



and keep pulling it all out very gently until it looks like this



12. Almost there all you need to do now is close that little gap by sewing it by hand



13. You little kindle case is now complete.





Hopefully this was pretty painless and your kindle has now got a new cosy corner to rest in. As a newbie to this world of blogging and tutorials, I would really appreciate your feedback and comments. Do let me know how you got on and do share your experiences and photo's of making your kindle cases.

To kindle or not to kindle that is the question?! I sit on the fence here, even as a kindle user I still can't part with my books, so I use both. I love the smell and touch of books and their oodles of character. I also love the charm of beautiful and old books around the house, so I don't think I will be completely kindleminded (couldn't resist). It funny, but for me one of the first things I look at when I go into other people's homes are what books they have on display, I think it says so much about a person, what do you think? In fact I haven't picked up my kindle this year, but I know it will come in handy whilst on holiday, saves having to take two books as I am currently half way through Suffragette Girl, which I already once this month abandoned for another book, so I now WANT to finish it. One thing I noticed is that I read faster using a kindle, possible because of the increase font size. Old age is slowly creeping in and gone are the days of Twenty Twenty vision, there is certainly alot more squinting going on, heehee. What are your experiences with using a Kindle?

So are you a kindle user or do you still use good old fashioned books?

Hannapat

2 comments:

  1. So cute!! Thanks for sharing! Love the floral ribbon! xo Heather

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  2. Hello! I love that idea and your tutorial is splendidly easy to understand....thank you for your comment on my blog so lovely to have a new crochet fan....
    bestest to you and yours today
    Daisy j

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