Nothing Worse than a Naked nook

My sweet husband totally surprised me with a nook for Mother's Day!  Between homeschooling, college classes, and contract work with my previous employer, I suppose I need to find time to read!  :)  (We'll just pretend that my house and laundry are self-cleaning.)

So, I started pricing covers and decided they were either (1) too expensive for my cheap budget, and/or (2) too bland.  I love to browse etsy.com for inspiration and decided I would make one myself.

Supplies:

• 1 piece of fabric for outside cover - 9" x 12"
• 1 piece of fabric for inside cover - 9" x 12"
• 2 pieces of fusible batting - 9" x 12" each (my batting was pretty thick; I probably could've just used one piece)
• 1 piece of fabric for pocket - 7" x 9"
• 4 squares of fabric for nook anchors - 3" x 3"
• Button and 6" of ribbon
• Extra fabric and rhinestone for embellishment (optional)
• Fabric glue

Note:  My original plan included plastic canvas for support; however, it just didn't work since my batting was thick enough, and I discovered that I was creating more sewing work for myself.  :)  So, pretend like you don't see the canvas in the photo.

1.  Fuse the batting to the fabric for the inside and outside cover and set aside.

2.  Fold the fabric for your pocket in half, wrong sides together, and stitch about a half inch from the fold.  Set aside.

3.  Fold two of the squares into triangles (wrong side facing), and line them up with the right side of the inner cover. Pin the edges into place.  (Note that the fold should face inward.)

4. This is where a cutting mat comes in handy.  Place the inside cover on the mat so that it lines up with the ruler.  Place the other two triangles (fold facing inward) so that they are lined up with the 6" mark.  Then turn the vertical edge under about 1/4" and pin into place.  (Oh and if you're wondering about that extra little piece of the fold that shows, just clip it off and seal with fabric glue.)

5.  Sew the outside edges of the triangles onto the inside, using as small of a seam as humanly possible. ;)  Then, insert your nook and breathe a huge sigh of relief when it actually fits.  :)

6.  Remove your nook and place the pocket along the left edge, fold facing inward.  Pin into place.

7.  I now realized that I forgot to take pictures of the next few steps.  Take your outside cover and measure in about 1 3/4" from the center of the edge.  Place the center of your button on this mark and stitch onto the fabric.  Now, take the outside cover and place it on top of the inside cover (wrong sides facing) and pin together.  Make sure your button is facing the side with the pocket.  Stitch around the cover with a 1/4" seam, leaving a gap on the side with the triangles.  Clip across your corners so that they're not so bulky.

8.  Turn the cover right side out.  It takes a little bit of work, especially if you didn't leave a big enough gap like me.  ;)  Reinsert your nook and breathe another sigh of relief when it still fits.

9.  Fold your cover so that you can see where you need to insert the ribbon.  I tucked mine in about 3/4".  Fold the raw edges inward and pin together.  Stitch along the edge.

10.  Your sewn edge should look like this (I like to reinforce around the ribbon).  You may want to stitch around the entire cover just to finish it off.  Mine was pretty bulky, so I opted not to.     

11.  You're done!  You may want to press it open with an iron (without the nook, of course!)

12.  Oops, I forgot the embellishment!  I cut two circles from my fabric and glued them to the cover.  I then glued a rhinestone to the center.  Breathe your final sigh of relief as you fasten it closed.  :)

Unflattering Shirt into Cute Skirt

I have a list of craft, home design, and sewing blogs that I flip through every morning with my cup of coffee in hand.  A trend that I really enjoy is recycling clothing.  I have two boys and a girl, and let me tell you, I never thought that shopping for a girl after age five would be so difficult (she's almost seven and I prefer to have her not dress like a sixteen-year old streetwalker).  I thank God that he gave me a small portion of sewing talent. ;)

I have a few shirts that have either shrunk or just don't flatter my body type.  Rather than donate them, I thought I would try to recycle them into something for my daughter.  I always liked the bottom of this particular shirt, so I decided a skirt would be the best option.

(Note that your measurements will vary.)  For the length of the skirt, I measure from my daughter's bellybutton to below her knees, and then subtract about four inches (for the waist band).  One of my best sewing investments was this cutting mat and rotary cutter--it makes measuring and cutting so much easier!

Next, you'll cut the fabric for the waist band.  Measure your daughter around the fullest part of her hips (usually across her bottom), divide by two, and add 1.5 inches.  In our case, that measurement wasn't too much smaller than the width of the shirt, so I was able to cut straight across the shirt.  Take the top portion of the shirt and measure about four inches from the bottom.  In this case, I folded the shirt and pinned the bottom before I made my cut.  (My daughter is very tall, so I barely had enough fabric for the waist band.)

The one thing I love about this project is that the amount of sewing required is minimal--my side seams are already there!  (If your daughter is smaller, you will have to stitch one of the side openings on the waist band closed.  Simply turn the band right sides together and stitch up the open side.)

The next step is to gather the skirt and attach it to the waist band.  Use whatever method you want for gathering (I apparently like to re-invent the wheel and prefer to hand gather).  ;)  Attach the gathered skirt to the waist band as show below and sew.  (If you had to trim down your waist band, your skirt may be fuller than what is pictured, too.  That's okay--what girl doesn't love a full twirly skirt?)  :)

The last step is to add the elastic at the top of the waist band.  I used 3/4-inch elastic, so to make my casing, I folded down about 1 1/8-inches from the top.  Sew around and be sure to leave about a 1-inch opening in which to thread your elastic.  I find it's easier to use a large safety pin to work my elastic through the casing.

Stitch the two ends of your elastic together and then stitch your opening in the band closed.  Voilá!  You have a cute new skirt for your daughter!  :)