DIY: Kindle Cover

Daniel got this book at his family's white elephant gift exchange last month.  Pretty boring reading material, but the instant I saw it I thought, ooh, crafting potential.  

What you will need: 

*A book cover that will fit your kindle

*A piece of fabric/vinyl to cover the book cover

* Elastic

Step 1: cut the book block out of the cover.  An example of how to do that can be found here from the book box project.

Step 2: Using a ruler and an exacto knife, cut off the edges and bottom of the cover to fit the size of the kindle.  

I simply placed my kindle on the cover and marked approximately where I wanted to cut the cover.  I left about 1/4-1/2 inch of overhang around the kindle.

Below are my trusty cutting tools.

Step 4: Trim the vinyl (or whatever material you want to use to cover your cover).  Make it around one inch longer than the cover on each side. 

Step 5: Mark the inside of the back cover where the elastic will go through the book.  Drill 4 holes total.  Two on the top and two on the bottom.  (In the next few pictures, you can see the vinyl already glued onto the front cover.  That was a mistake.  I recommend drilling before any glueing is done.)

Step 6: Thread the elastic through the holes.  I just rolled up the end of the elastic and squished it through the holes.

Step 7: Using a hot glue gun, secure the elastic to the back of the cover.  Before glueing, test out the amount of tension on the elastic.  Use the kindle as your guide, making sure the elastic is tight enough to hold the kindle in place.

Step 8: Glue the vinyl to the cover.  I do not recommend using Tacky Glue for this project.  Next time I would go to the hardware store and look for a glue that will work better with vinyl.  If you have any recommendations, let me know.

 I let my cover dry under these books for half of the day.  

Step 9: Once dry, trim the corners and fold over the edges as seen below.  Use hot glue (or other preferred glue).

Making the corners neat was a bit tricky.  It just took some squishing, pulling, and folding under of the material.  Vinyl has some stretch to it, which makes it easier.

Now it's ready for the kindle!  

I made a simple closure device by glueing a piece of elastic into a loop and then glueing this flower onto the elastic.  It is completely separates from the kindle when removed.  I made the flower, which I will demonstrate in another DIY post at a later date.