Brandon won a new Kindle at the Christmas party in December, and I knew immediately that I would need to get him a Kindle cover for Christmas. But, I couldn't find any that I liked at a reasonable price. Seriously, there are covers out there that are nearly as expensive as the Kindle itself! So I decided to make one. After all, how hard could it be? I found
this tutorial on Pinterest and tried adapting it to open horizontally and include a magnetic closure.
Well, it was harder than I thought. I used an upholstery pleather for the outside, suede cloth for the inside, and auto headlining to cushion it, all over a book board base. It took three attempts to achieve the above cover, and it was still not right.
The elastic straps were too small to hold the Kindle in place; it would hold either the top or the bottom, but not both, and it kept just falling out. It also wouldn't close properly, which made me a little nuts. I'm not sure if I made the right edge too short, or if the magnet placement was off. It was probably a little of both. Anyway, I ran out of time, and this is the cover that I gave to Brandon for Christmas. I told him right off that I would be redoing it, because it wasn't good enough.
This is the fourth attempt, and while it still isn't perfect, it is a vast improvement. I did away with the top flap and magnetic closure completely, so that it just opens like a book. I also skipped the narrow piece of book board in the middle, so that the "binding" flexes easily. I made the elastic straps a lot longer, and brought them in farther, so that the Kindle now stays in place without any problems.