Tablet Holder Pillow

Now, I love to read. I love to read so much that I literally have too many books for the number of bookshelves I own. My apartment is all but overflowing with books.

So in order to relieve some of that, I recently bought myself a Kindle Fire. I mostly check out e-books from my local library onto it. I love it! I normally read in bed or in a cozy chair, so I thought if I made a stuffed e-reader holder I could make reading an even cozier experience.

I think this pillow/e-reader holder would make a really good project for beginner sewers. It's really just sewing several straight lines -- nothing too fancy.

I also think it'd make a really good gift for children who like to read -- especially in the car on long road trips!

Keep in mind, you will have to change the dimensions of your cuts to suit your iPad or another type of tablet/e-reader, as this pillow was specifically designed for a Kindle Fire 8. Let's get started!

Supplies

• 2 13-inch squares of fabric
• 2 10-inch squares of fabric
• Filler - something to stuff the pillow with like poly-fil or microbeads
• Needle and thread
• Sewing machine
• Sewing pins
• Scissors
• Pinking shears (optional)

Step 1: Cut Your Fabric

Like I mentioned in the supplies list, you'll need to cut two 13-inch squares of fabric and two 10-inch squares of fabric. It only looks like I have one of each in the photos, but that's just because they're stacked on top of each other.

Step 2: Make the Triangles

Cut the two 10-inch squares in half on the diagonal, so you make four equal-sized triangles.

Fold over the long edge twice, pin, and hem it using your sewing machine. Do this for all four triangles. These will be the four pockets your e-reader sits in.

Step 3: Pin Triangles to the Front

Place the four triangles on top of one of the 13-inch squares of fabric. Overlap the triangles so each triangle has two visible corners. Keep adjusting things until it looks good, and test your e-reader before you pin down the triangles.

Cut off the excess edge fabric so none of the triangle edges overlap the 13-inch square underneath.

Once you've pinned the triangles, add in your e-reader once again. You'll notice that if you just sewed the pillow as-is, then the e-reader would fall down too far into the pockets. To fix that problem, you need to top-stitch where I've marked in red. This way the e-reader will stay in place. So pin where you need to sew, remove the e-reader, and top-stitch where you marked.

Step 4: Sew the Back

Place the other 13-inch square of fabric on top, right sides together. Sew all the way around, leaving a 1-inch seam allowance and a five-inch gap at the bottom. Cut the corners and/or use a pair of pinking shears (if you've got 'em) to snip off the excess fabric all the way around.

Step 5: Stuff the Pillow

Turn the pillowcase inside out, using a chopstick or a knitting needle to gently poke out the corners.

Start stuffing the pillow with poly-fil (or microbeads or whatever you want), while frequently testing the e-reader. You don't want it too stuffed because then the e-reader might easily pop out of the pockets. But you want it stuffed enough so it's comfortable. Preference also comes into play here, so just use how ever much feels right to you.

Use a ladder stitch to sew the opening closed.

Step 6: Finished

And that's it! That's all it takes to make a cozy e-reader holder. When I read, I often curl my legs up so this pillow is really perfect for leaning up against my legs.

It was a quick project and it's something I'll use for a long time.

Comments

[yarnclub]

Hi there! How much did you fold over on the long edges of the triangles? 1/2" each time?
"Fold over the long edge twice, pin, and hem it using your sewing machine. Do this for all four triangles.

This is a great idea! Thanks!

[ellygibson]

It was about 1/4" each time. I just eyeballed it.

[YukonJulie]

What are the dimensions of your kindle? This would be useful to know, and would make it easier to determine how to adapt the pattern to a different sized e-reader.

[ellygibson]

It's approximately 8.5 x 5 inches.

[DebM03]

This is such a great idea! You know, one way to solve the overstuffing to the point that the tablet will not stay in the pockets is to insert a sort of thick (around 1/8") piece of cardboard inside on the tablet side before you stuff it. This way the area for the tablet would stay flat & a little rigid.
How's that sound?

[ellygibson]

That's a good idea! Although I would still want to want to wash the pillow in my machine.

But maybe if you were to make this into a pillowcase for a square pillow, then you could put a piece of cardboard inside before you put the pillow inside. Then you could still wash the pillowcase.

Either way though, it's really not that big of an issue for me personally, but I could see how it might be for others.

[grueni4]

Hi ellygibson,
I'd like to make this great reading pillow for my ipad, which is a little broader than a kindle reader. Do you think it'll be ok to take the sizes for the fabric pieces given in your instructable and only adjust it as you described or should I adapt sizes and make it bigger from the beginning? The ipad measures about 17,5 x 24 cm. Sorry, don't know how much this is in inches!
And I have another question: When you wrote "Cut off the excess edge fabric so none of the triangle edges overlap the 13-inch square underneath.", did you mean to cut these edges underneath the first layer of fabric? (See my marks in your picture) In the finished pillow it doesn't look as if something has been cut off. (I didn't understand this correctly, as I'm German and English is not my native language.)
Thanks for this good idea, if I've made it I'll send you a picture here!
Greetings from Grüni4
P.S.: Downloaded a converter app and found out that the ipad measures about 6,88 x 9,45 in

[ellygibson]

Hi, Grüni4!

So I've just measured my Kindle and it's 13 x 21 cm, if that gives you an idea — so not too much smaller than your iPad. I think you could use the same dimensions for the pillow, but just topstitch (the last picture in Step 3) slightly differently, testing the iPad to see where to stitch to hold it in place.

As for your other question, the edges I cut off the triangles were on the outside, not the corners. But basically, when I set the triangles on top, they made a bigger perimeter square than the 13" square underneath, so the outside edges needed to be trimmed. I'll attach a picture to show what I mean — the red square roughly represents the 13" square underneath.

Thank you and I hope that helps!
Elly

[grueni4]

Hi Elly,
of course this helps! Thank you so very much! Then I saw it correctly: no corners of the triangles were cut off! So I think it'll be easy to make this pillow, and it's a good gift for some other ipad-users I know, too! 👍😄
Bye, Grüni4

[ellygibson]

I think once you start making it and have the fabric pieces in front of you, it will begin to make more sense — at least that's how I am with following tutorials!
Good luck to you! 🙂

[barry_johnson]

Really clever idea!

[ellygibson]

Thank you!

[MadeByGloria]

Very cute!

[ellygibson]

Thanks! :)

[Triedittoohard]

What is in the pillow at the end or article? It look like a dvd case, not a Kindle.
How do you keep the tablet from flopping around?

[ellygibson]

It's a Kindle. And it doesn't flop around if you follow the instructions.

[Penolopy Bulnick]

Oooh, I need to make this for my daughter :)

[ellygibson]

I think they'd be great for kids/teens!

[rplatt3]

This is cool! Great idea

[ellygibson]

Thank you very much!