Felting and Fiber Studio

I have been having a few technological difficulties lately. First my Kindle Fire tablet stopped charging itself. It was just finicky for a while but then it wouldn’t charge at all. Suddenly I had no books to read. I knew giving up “real” books wasn’t a good thing. Then I decided I could read them on my phone. But, then I dumped my phone in the lake. Uh oh. Now my phone doesn’t work. So Dennis kindly got me a new Kindle Fire. He thought he was getting me the same size that I had before but it was smaller by a couple of inches. So my felted Kindle case was much too big for it. Normally, I would have made another seamless felted one but we are having trouble with our well. It has been so dry that our well is having difficulty keeping up with the water demand of our small 2 person household. So I decided to save water and make one from a piece of commercial wool/rayon felt blend that my friend Deb gave me. She dyed the felt and was sure it was going to come out “baby shit brown” but I told her that I thought it would be better than she expected. She ended up giving it to me. Thanks Deb!

Here’s the piece of felt. It looked like it would be the perfect size to cover my new Kindle Fire.

I folded the felt in half and put my tablet on top. Perfect fit and room for a flap.

I folded the felt in half with the “good side” towards the inside.

I stitched a 1/4″ seam on the side with the sewing machine. This is all simple straight seam stitching. Nothing fancy.

I then checked to make sure that the Kindle would fit OK. Success!

I used the iron to flatten out the seam.

Here it is after the ironing is finished.

Then I stitched the end closed. On all the seams, I sewed over the same line twice to make sure that the seams would hold well.

Here’s the case after the end was stitched. The edge was a bit wonky.

So I trimmed it close.

I turned the case right side out and checked the fit again. Perfect!

I put the Kindle all the way in and measured where I wanted to cut the slit where the Kindle will slide in and out of the case. I cut the slit with a pair of scissors. I didn’t mark it, just cut it. You could mark it with a dressmaker’s pencil if you wanted.

I then took it back to the machine and turned it right side in. I then stitched along the seam where the cut was. I didn’t want the seams to be coming loose. It turns out that I could have left the top seam as it will be stitched later. But that’s what comes of not planning thoroughly in advance.

Next I stitched from the outer corner up to the middle top seam to make a flap. I stitched over these seams twice too.

Then I cut off the excess felt along the seams just stitched.

I turned the case right side out. The flap was all wonky.

I ironed it down but then decided I didn’t want the flap as loose as it was.

So I stitched the top of the flap shut. The slit is still open to allow the tablet to move in and out but the top of the flap is stitched together to give it more stability.

Next I made a machine stitched cord with turquoise yarn and the same color thread I had used on the case. You just stitch over the yarn with a zigzag stitch covering it completely with thread.

I made the machine stitched cord into a loop and used a polymer clay button that Zed gave me. (She has an excellent tutorial on how to make these on her site.) If I had planned ahead, I probably could have stitched the cord into the flap as I made it but I ended up hand stitching it down. I hand stitched the button as well.

And here’s the finished case. It’s a great fit and will be perfect for carrying my Kindle Fire when I take it back and forth to work every day. Can’t go anywhere without a book to read!

And here’s the other side. You could make this any size that you needed depending on the size of your tablet. This would work as a phone case as well, again, just adjusting the size. Your could also use a piece of handmade felt if you had that handy or add more embellishments if you wanted. I thought the dyed felt was enough of a statement!