DIY Kindle Cover

Did anyone else out there score the great deal on a Kindle at Walmart? If you bought the basic Kindle at a decent price, they gave you a $30 gift card. We jumped on it because I knew that our book situation is getting out of control. We have so many books for homeschooling plus we're all major bookworms that we had to go buy another bookshelf. I figured a Kindle would be a great way to have lots of the classics available to the kids without taking up more space in the house.
Of course, having a Kindle means needing a cover of some sort. I wanted to have a cover to protect it as we traveled to my sister's wedding and then headed to the beach. We didn't have time to go shopping or find something online so this is what I came up with the night before we left!

To fit our 6.5" tall by 4.5" wide Kindle, I cut the following pieces:
Fabric 1 small blue floral: 8.125" x 12.25" (cut 2 for the main front and back)
Batting: 9.125" x 13.25" (cut 1 for the main cover) 6.5" x 6.5" (cut 1 for the pocket) and 3.5" x 6" (cut 1 for the strap)
Pocket stripe: 6.5" x 6.125" (cut 2)
Fabric 2 large floral: 3" x 6" (cut 2 for the strap)

I started with the strap. With the batting on the bottom and right sides of the fabric facing each other, I stitched around 3 sides of the strap. (The 2 longs sides and 1 short side.)

After stitching, I trimmed the threads and clipped the corners. Then I turned the strap piece right-side out.

Next I prepped the pocket the same way. Batting on the bottom, right sides facing.

 

Here's where I would have done things a little differently. I would have attached the entire pocket and strap to the top of the main cover body before sewing the back on. Instead, I attached the strap to the back cover (centered on the side), and I attached the bottom edge of the pocket on the other side at the bottom and the outside edge.  Then I top-stitched the right hand side of the pocket to the top layer of the body.
I made the batting, fabric, strap, fabric sandwich and sewed almost the whole way around leaving an opening where I could turn it right side out.
It was a wonky way to attach the pocket but I was trying to do this in too much of a hurry. :)

For the tabs to hold the Kindle in, I cut small rectangles and folded them in half.

 Then I folded the side over to make a triangle.

I spaced them out on the bottom right hand side of my cover body and then hand-sewed them (only going through the top layer of the body fabric.) I didn't have any elastic on-hand or I would have put some on for the top of the Kindle. I ended up only using 2 little tabs but I didn't have any trouble keeping it in the little bottom tabs though.

Once the tabs were on, I top stitched the body of the cover closed and added a snap to the strap. To hide the snap hardware, I stitched a decorative button on top of the strap.

That's my quick-make-a-cover-for-the-new-Kindle-in-one-night tutorial. I think there are definitely things I'd change if I ever make another but for now, it's working.
Back view:

Kindle in reading position view:

Kindle and charging cord in pocket view:

Side View:

 Happy reading!

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