Elastic Nook (or book) Strap

For those of you who have purchased a Nook in the last few years, you have probably seen those elastic straps you can buy to keep your cover closed.  They come in several colors, are pretty handy, but are pretty expensive for a simple piece of elastic.  
 


A couple of yards of colored elastic only costs a couple of dollars. I got 1inch wide because they didn't have a colored variety in a smaller size.  I recommend going to a fabric store, like Joanne's, rather than a craft store, as they'll have a better selection. 

The first thing that I did was to wrap it around my Nook as a way to measure the length I would need.  When I was comfortable with the tension, I pinned it and cut. 







To prevent fraying, which started to happen right away, I sewed the ends with a zig-zag stitch. 

I then sewed them back together with a square, to attach all open edges, then sewed an "X" through the middle for strength and structure integrity.  That "X" is important for any strap attachment or wide loop.

Covering the elastic seam with fabric turned out to be the trickiest part, but not unmanageable.  Most of my setbacks stemmed from not creating a large enough seam allowance.  (Instead of measuring, like you're supposed to, I eyeballed it and "guesstimated")  In the future, I'll try to do at least a 1 cm allowance. 

I sewed down the long edges so that the width equaled the length of the elastic seam.  Next time, I do it a couple hairs bigger so it'll cover the seam a little better and I don't have to be quite so precise in the final steps.

This is where things start get a little trickier, so follow along.  I folded the elastic in half and pinned it so that I would have room to work and not risk sewing the fabric to the elastic before meaning to. 









I wrapped the fabric around the folded elastic, right side in, and sewed the length of the edge so that the inside of the folded loop was a just a hair bigger than the width of the elastic.  Then I turned it right side out and  scooted the loop up to the seam.

Lastly, I sewed it down in a square, going over any stitch lines that are already there.  Make sure to cover the edges completely, so they're not poking out.  It wouldn't hurt to go around twice.  

Now you have a pretty book strap!  The Barnes & Noble version uses pieces of thin suede that match the elastic, instead of cloth.  You could do this, if you want, or really wide cloth ribbon.