SUI - sewing under the influence

Last Saturday, I was a grass widow, as Superhusband had put on his Football Referee suit and flown south. Not that I was entirely alone, I had Vodkalainen, cordial lime, and Mr Kindle, who I found on a shelf with a layer of dust on him. Truth is, I haven´t been able to read a single one of my Kindle-books since Christmas. Circumstance has invited me to do some other reading. It occured to me that I should have some sort of cover for the Kindle, to keep it from the dust and such. Like the one I made for my Iriver Story. Yes, I know there are these handsome leather covers, but I am not crazy about them. This is more along the line of something I would do, but I don´t need a pattern to create with hook and yarn. And this time, I wanted something faster.

I decided to go without a plan. This probably would have been hard without the vodka, as I´m usually a very organized, very mapped out kind of person. But who would I be if I didn´t sometimes present myself with a creative challenge? I have a large enough stash of pretty much everything, and Thrift is my middle name.

First, I fished out an old, empty plastic folder from years and years. It was marked "political socialisation", which seems to be a university course I once took and have now completely forgotten about. It´s all probably swimming around in my subconscious frame of reference. I simply placed Mr Kindle on top of it and cut around him. Which gave me something solid to build on.

Next, I found in my stash of fabrics a pair of trousers from a wrecked project. It had the exact right shape for what I needed and it seemed like a shortcut from having to do a lot of sewing. I measured, by eye, a bit of leg the length of 1½ of the plastic cover, and then some for seam allowance.

By now, I was firmly under the influence of cordial Vodkalainen, and decided to staple the thing together. Quick and dirty - indeed! I totally like the shape I had come up with, it was like a sturdy, padded envelope with two pockets, created from folding the hemmed end of the trouser leg towards the inside middle of the cover.

However, it wasn´t pretty. What to do? In another stash I found a tie. (Not the husband´s, I assure you I wouldn´t touch any of his - this one I thrifted to make a belt from, but then I found a better one and this one ended up in the stash.) I cut the tie up for an appliqué design that covered up the staples and that wrapped around the envelope shaped cover. And then I just stiched it in place.

(If you like to do improvised sewing, consider having threads of different weights at home. Some materials call for delicate thread, others for something coarser. And tip of the day: if you need to mend your sneakers or your backpack, use dental floss.)

The end of the trouserleg that was a bit wider (only about a centimeter on each side), invited me to add an elastic there, which held my envelope together from the sides. And then, what to use to fasten the tie end? A snap would have worked, if I had thought of it before I started sewing, which of course I didn´t. But, in my buttons&buckles&cetera-stash, I had a bunch of suspender clips. Well, waste not, want not. It seemed like the perfect thing for this dapper cover. No doubt, Kindle feeling so much like a Mister to me is what led me through this entire process.

By now, the vodka had worn off, and so had the staples, so I added stitches to the sides, to make it all proper and neat and safe.

The whole process took about two hours. And I´m pretty happy with the result. Ok, it might not be something I come bragging about to mum-in-law (the professional seamstress), but it is very functional, and thoroughly original. It cost me nothing. It makes me happy and keeps the dust off Mr Kindle.