Is This Crafty?

I am not really a crafty person, but I do like to do crafts on occasion. Most of what I do is imperfect, that's the kind of non-crafter I am.

Kevbo recently started reading A Song of Ice and Fire and has been using my Kindle to do so. We have  talked about getting another Kindle for awhile, and I decided that since that series was going to be a fairly epic undertaking now was the time.

I didn't really want to shell out the money for a cover for this new Kindle right away, so I decided to see if I could make one myself. As with most good ideas, wine was involved.

My supplies included:

One Glass of Merlot
2 Sheets of Felt, one sheet for the outer layer, and one for the inner. I used grey for the outer and purple for the inner.
Embroidery Floss

The ribbon and black felt are for another project I worked on and will probably
post a tutorial for in the future.

Start by hacking a good sized chunk of cardboard out of the box from your dishwasher, which has been conveniently waiting for a year on your front porch to be put to some use. This should probably happen prior to opening the bottle of wine.

Measure your Kindle and cut two pieces from the cardboard of the approximate size. Use the only ruler in your house, a souvenir from Seabreeze Amusement Park that your husband got sometime around 1987.

 

Cut the outer layer of felt into two pieces, you will want it to be slightly larger than your piece of cardboard. You can just eyeball it, as you can see this felt piece was the perfect size and only needed to be cut in half.

 

Do the same with the inner piece of felt.

 

Sandwich the pieces of felt and cardboard. 

 

The order should go: outer layer, cardboard, inner layer, inner layer, cardboard, outer layer.

 

Use the embroidery floss to "anchor" the cardboard where you want it to sit within the felt. Four anchors total: top, bottom and each side. 

 

Try to take a picture of your complicated anchoring process and fail to keep your giant head out of the shot.

 

Use whatever stitch you feel comfortable with to close up the bottom and two sides stopping about  two inches from the top. I think this might be called a pillow stitch, but I can't find any reference to it online to give a better explanation of it.

 

Forget to see if your Kindle actually fits into your case and check when you are about half way through stitching.

 

When you get to the top, continue your stitches going through only two layers of felt. This is your opening.

 

When you have stitched all the way around pull out your anchor stitches.

Admire your handi-work, and it cost less than $3, spend the money saved on more wine for future crafting sessions.