10 minutes tablet cover: how to

A while ago I made a cover for my Ipad, which survived almost a year and a half of everyday use (click here for the pattern and tutorial). Lately, though, that cover was in desperate need of retirement, and this weekend I finally decided to make another. 

However, my life has been so busy lately, that more often than not 10 minutes is all I have available to sew. So I needed to forget more complicated patterns and find a way to create a new cover in just that small slot of time.

I'm posting here a tutorial, not specific measurements, so that everyone can replicate the process for its own tablet. 

Way you need: 

- a piece of felt in your favorite color (see below to check the size)

- elastic

- a button

- matching sewing thread

optional: additional bits of felt for embellishment

Step 1: place your tablet onto the piece of felt and cut it to size as show in the pictures below. You should have a margin of about one centimeter on each side, and enough extra felt top and bottom to create a sort of an envelope for the tablet, complete with a folding tab. 

Step 2: pin the bottom fold in place and sew the sides. Because felt doesn't fray, there's not need to fold inside out, you can just leave it as is.

Step 3: cut the elastic. Again, look at the pictures below to take your measurements before cutting. The elastic is to be folded in half. When both edges are pinned to the outside of the top flap, the elastic should be long enough to go around the entire closed cover. 

Step 4: sew the tips of the elastic in place (leaving the folded side free), and then sew a button over them. So, when you wrap the elastic around the tablet cover, the folded edge will be secured by the button, effectively keeping the cover closed. 

Your tablet cover is ready to be used. This is how it looks when open, so a pretty good fit: 

Now you can leave it as is, or add a bit of embellishment. I cut a flower out of contrasting felt, and sewed it over the button. 

And then glued a small circle of gray felt on top, to hide the stitches. 

Here's the final result: 

Not bad for just 10 minutes, what do you think?

Happy Monday, 

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