The First Room

After being in the house for a few weeks, the rose tinted specs had well and truely fallen off and I was struggling to pass off having 3 different kinds of wallpaper and mismatched curtains in one room as "character". I was also conscious that we had decided to have both of our families over for the first Christmas in our new home. Said Christmas was now about 5 weeks away and we still had boxes to unpack and we only had enough space for 5 people to sit down, there would be 9 adults on Christmas Day, one toddler, one baby, 4 cats and a labrador. It was time for action. New sofas were ordered, wallpaper was stripped (this was about 4 layers thick in some places), and paint was chosen. Sam had to go away with work so I was commuting to work (I couldn't drive then) from Brighton to Surrey everday, coming home, decorating like mad, going to bed and doing it all over again everyday for a week. The front room went from looking like this:

To this:



We used the money we had been given for our housewarming presents to pay for the curtains and tv cabinet, we got the sofas on one of those buy it now pay for it in 100 years deals you always see on tv and I made most of the cushions (mostly after Christmas when I got my sewing machine).

I found the sideboard you can see in the second picture (behind the sofa) in our shed. I think it was one of the original free-standing kitchen units from when the house was built in the 50s. It was covered in dirt and cobwebs but I fell in love with its rustic charms. I cleaned it down and took the cracked, peeling laminate off the top and sanded it down. I bought some dark varnish and painted 3 layers on the top. I keep meaning to sand down the wood and paint that but there are always plenty of other jobs to do.

I painted the dining room chairs that we bought with us from Sam's Dad's house where we lived before the move. I bought a length of oilcloth from Dunelm for a tablecloth (this worked out much cheaper than buying a ready-made table cloth and you can't tell the difference). I also revamped our tired old pine dresser which was donated to us by my parents. (This will be the subject of a separate post.)

How to make a Kindle Cover

We decided that instead of buying presents for everyone this Christmas, we would make our presents. Some were easy like the sloe gin we made from sloes we foraged on Sunday walks in September which made the perfect gift for friends. Other people were a bit trickier to make for. I stumbled across this idea for a homemade kindle cover in a magazine and thought it would be perfect for my brother's girlfriend. Here's how I made it.

You will need:
Thick card or mountboard
A roll of wadding
Glue gun
Material of your choice (ideally something quite sturdy)
Length of elastic
One large button or toggle
Sewing machine
Needle & thread

First, cut out 2 pieces of card and 4 pieces of wadding (the size will depend on which version of the kindle you have but roughly 14x22 cm for the version with the keyboard), abd using the glue gun, attach a piece of wadding to either side of each piece of card.

Next choose your fabric and cut two rectangles (you can either use the same fabric for the inside and outside, or use 2 contrasting fabrics) measuring around 38x26.5 cm

Pin the fabric together, right sides facing and stich a 1 cm hem around 3 sides of the rectangle, leave the right hand short side unstiched. Turn the cover right sides out and slide one of your covered card pieces inside, it should fit snugly inside the fabric (if it doesn't take your hem in a little until it fits).

Next using the sewing machine, stich the fabric as close as you can to the edge of the cardboard to secure it in place. Sew a second line approximately 2 cm away from the first, this creates the "spine" of your book. Next slide the second piece of card into the cover, making sure it is as close as possible to the line of stitches you have just made.

Fold the open edges of the fabric inside the cover making sure the edges are even and pin together. Cut a length of elastic around 9 cm long, fold in half and tuck it inside the cover so you have a loop sticking out over the edge of the fabric (you will use this to fasten the cover closed). Machine stitch the final opening making sure the elastic is caught in the stitches and the cardboard can't move around inside the cover.


Choose a large button or toggle, sew it to the front of the cover (left hand page), lining it up with the loop of elastic. Make sure there is enough space between the button and elastic to create enough tension to hold the cover closed, but not so much tension that the material puckers.
Finally, cut 4 strips of elastic measuring around 7.5 cm and pin them diagonally onto the right inside cover. When you are happy the pieces are even, stitch them into place. These pieces of elastic will hold your Kindle in place.

And there you have it, a homemade Kindle cover. It makes an ideal present (my bro's girlfriend was chuffed with hers) at a fraction of the cost of a bought cover and it can be made in just a couple of hours. Of course, you can customise yours however you like. You could add a pocket to the inside left page by stictching in an additional smaller rectangle or triangle of fabric, you could stitch beads or buttons to the front or even sew your name to the front in letters of contrasting fabric. I'd love to hear your ideas and see your finished covers - send your pictures to me and I'll post the best ones to the blog.