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This blog is now exclusively devoted to crafting in general, and the shop in particular! Pretty much all of my personal content has been moved to a new blog, one that is intended primarily to help keep our family and friends in the loop. (If you are interested in following the new blog, you will find it here.) This blog will continue to feature shop news, new listings, sales, giveaways, and all of my share-worthy crafting exploits.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Kindle Cover

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.  




4 comments:

Unknown said...

It seems like one of the best protective kindle covers available in the market, which can be used both for casual and professional purposes.

kms handmade said...

Great job Adrienne! I made someone an iPad mini cover but I haven't gotten to blog it yet. You leather look is great! Book making isn't an easy process. I've done books with flaps before. With all your fabric it is really bulky. So you probably just needed the little flap spine to be wider like you said. But the final one is great!

Corinnea said...

I think your final is awesome! Like Kelly said, book making can be tricky, then you added tricky materials... I guess I should try to make Tim a cover for his....

Jennifer said...

what everyone else said!