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Make a Book/Tablet Sleeve

Around the Spinney

Ready to sew your own Book or Tablet Sleeve? If this is one of your first projects, you can check out some of the foundational tools available in our Sewing Circle! For this tutorial, you will be especially helped by the Learn to Pivot Sewing Guides where you can practice pivoting on the needle. Check out my blog post Learn to Pivot to learn how to use the guide.

Supplies

Directions

You’ll first take your book or tablet and measure it. Add 2 inches to the width and 2.5 inches to the height of your fabric to give your sleeve 1 inch extra space on each side and bottom and an extra 1.5 inches at the top. If you have a very thick book, you’ll want to take that into consideration, so add another 1 inch to the width to make a total of 3 extra inches.

For this tutorial, we made a Sleeve for our Fire Tablet which is approximately 11″ tall and 6.75″ wide. We cut our Fabric and Batting Pieces 12.5″ long and 8.75″ wide.

Prep Your Fabric & Batting

  1. Prepare your fabric by ironing it, you will not iron your batting. Our favorite iron to use is our Oliso M3Pro. It’s smaller so that the kids feel more comfortable using it (and I feel more comfortable supervising them using it) and it does a really good job.
  2. Cut 2 pieces of your Outer Fabric, 2 pieces of Lining, and 2 pieces of Batting to the same measurements that you calculated.
  3. Place each of the two Outer Fabric pieces onto your 2 pieces of Batting. I like to lay the Outer Fabric right side down on the table, place the Batting on top, and then turn them over so that the Outer Fabric is on top, right side up.
  4. Decide how you would like to quilt the outer fabric to the batting. We decided on a simple diagonal stitch and used our Hera marker and ruler to make the lines to follow. We started by marking a line towards the middle of the fabric, as shown, and then positioned each additional line 1.5 inches away from the last, all the way up and down the fabric.
  5. Finally, to get our pieces ready to quilt, we used Wonder Pins to pin the outer lining and batting pieces together. I love to use Wonder Pins for basting together a quilt to sew. They are so much easier on your fingers and they are great for small people and those who struggle with arthritis.

Quilting Your Outer Lining

  1. Next, you’ll take each of your pieces over to the sewing machine. Start with one Outer Lining/Batting piece by lining up one of your quilting marks with your sewing machine needle to stitch right down the line. See below.
  2. You’ll start each line and backstitch a few stitches. The slower that you go, the more accurate you can be. As you or your child becomes more comfortable, you can speed it up a bit. Then proceed down the line until you reach the other end, where you will backstitch a few stitches again to finish.
  3. Complete the quilting for each of the marks that you made. Trim the extra thread.

Prep Outer & Lining Pieces

  1. Once your quilting is complete, take your two quilted Outer Pieces right sides together and use clips or pins to secure them in place. Clip them together on both long sides and the bottom edges. You will leave the top open.
  2. Do the same with the Lining Fabric. Place them right sides together and use clips to secure them together. You’ll want to leave an opening for turning that is about 4 inches long. Below you’ll see that we used yellow Wonder Clips to remind us where our opening would be and clipped the rest of the way around the two long sides and the bottom edges. The top will remain open for the Lining as well.

Sew Sleeve Pieces Together

  1. Take your secured Outer Pieces and Lining Pieces over to the sewing machine to sew them together. You’ll be Pivoting on the Needle for each of your Sleeve Pieces.
  2. You’ll start at the top of one of the long sides of your Outer Pieces and use a 3/8″ seam allowance all the way around the three pinned sides. Make sure to backstitch where you start and where you finish your seam.
  3. You’ll keep the Outer Sleeve inside out for now.
  4. Do the same with your Lining Pieces, using a 3/8″ seam allowance. When you get to your marked opening, you’ll want to stop with a backstitch and then pick it up again at the next clip with the same 3/8″ seam allowance, making sure to backstitch at the beginning and end.
  5. Clip the corners of each of your Sleeve Pieces and turn your Sleeve Lining right sides facing out.

Finish Your Sleeve

  1. Place your Sleeve Lining into the Outer Sleeve right sides together, as seen below.
  2. You’ll use a 3/8″ seam allowance to sew the top edges together. We always pull out the drawer of our sewing machine when sewing in a circle like this. It creates a little arm for you to place your project around. No need to backstitch because you’ll be meeting the seam you started as you go around.
  3. Time to turn your project right side out! Find the opening in your Lining and carefully turn the whole thing so that it is right side out. Use a Point Turner or Chopstick to make sure that the corners are popping out nicely.
  4. Sew the opening shut with a 1/8″ seam allowance.
  5. Push the Lining Down into the Sleeve and enjoy! You did it!

Finished Product

My son and I completed this project together in one fun weekend morning. I helped him with the instructions and supervision and he did the work! He was very proud of his finished product and now has a nice sleeve for our shared Fire Tablet.

The nice thing about this tutorial is that you can make sleeves for each of your favorite reading items, especially for the ones that are odd sizes. For more tutorials, check out our Sewing Circle for inspiration. They are great for all ages and for building your sewing skills.

Until next time, keep sewing <3 Kate

Sewing Guide Downloads

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links from which I may receive a small payment at no extra cost to you. I really encourage you to visit your local quilt shop when looking for quilting supplies because it so encouraging to build relationships locally and to support those shops. My favorite local quilt shop is Warman Cozy in Barrington, Illinois. I can’t wait to hear about your local quilt shop!

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