Fabric Cover for Notebook

I seem to be obsessed with covering objects with fabric!  I find it so satisfying.

These covers can be made to fit any spiral bound notebook.  They turn an ordinary piece of stationary into a lovely gift!

When my kids were born I started writing them letters in a notebook, whenever I thought of it or had time, just to tell them how much I love them and what they are up to at any given stage.  (Every time I open the books up I am amazed at all the cute things they used to do that I have forgotten.  And now that they are 3 and 6 they love hearing the letters read out to them.)

Anyway I wanted to make a nice fabric cover for each of the books.  I hunted around on the web and got some ideas but i think i have put together a relatively simple but effective way of doing it.

Above are the two books.   No prizes for guessing the boy one and the girl one!  Hers shuts with a ribbon tie, his with a button but you don't need either.

Closed with the button fastened

Here it is open: the notebook tucks into the pockets of the cover.  I added a personalized front page for him (see end of post) 

Without the book.  I had to put my hand in so you can see the pockets because that stripy material makes it hard to perceive!

Making the covers was pretty simple and only required:

• a spiral-bound book
• fabric (one kind is fine or two coordinating pieces to make an inside and an outside)  (a total of about 3 times the size of the open book)
• thread

Optional:

• ribbon (about 1 metre)  or a button and a hair elastic to make the clasp
• some thin quilt batting to make it slightly padded and adhesive spray. 

Technique:

1.  Measure your book.  Measure the Height (H) and the Width (W).  For the width you want the width from side to side when it is open, but actually you need to shut it and measure around it with a tape measure because the book has more surface area when it is shut - because of the spiral.  I know I'm sounding like a maths teacher!

2.  Cut a rectangle out of your outer fabric that is 3 cm bigger than the H and 3 cm bigger than the W (1.5 cm of seam allowance all round). Let's call this piece A.

3.  Cut two more rectangles the same size from your inner fabrics (pieces B and C).

Optional Ribbon:  Now is the time to add a piece of ribbon if you want that.  Just line it up on the right side of piece A going right across the centre from side to side.  i pinned it and sewed along the top and bottom of the ribbon, most of the way across the back and about 2/3 of the way across the front.  That way the bow naturally sits on the front.  Alternatively you could just anchor it in the middle where the spine will be.

Optional Batting:  cut a rectangle of thin quilt batting the same size as your closed book.  Using spray adhesive (maybe could use other types of adhesive) attach it to the wrong side of piece A in the middle.


4.  Take piece B and cut 5 - 8 cm off the width and discard.  It will now be the same height as A but not as wide.  This piece will sit inside the cover against the spiral.  NO NEED TO HEM THIS PIECE as the edges will be tucked away.

5.  Take piece C and fold in half cross ways.  Now cut the fold off about 3 cm from the fold. This way you end up with two pieces which will form the pockets for the book to slide into.  They will both be the same height as piece A but a bit less than half the width.  Fold over one of the long edges on each of these pieces and hem (to make a nice edge for the pocket).

Here are all the pieces you need:

Piece A at top (denim) , Piece B under it (same height but not as wide) two pieces of C under that (again same height but a bit less than half the width of A each). 

Now that is all the tricky stuff done.  Just lay down piece A right side up (the batting will be underneath if you have attached it).  Then the two piece Cs right side down on top of A with the hemmed edges towards the centre.  Line the other edges up with the edges of A.  Place B on top of them all, right side down, centred horizontally.  Pin all around the edge and then sew all the way around the edge (about 1 cm in).  If you have attached ribbon, keep it out of the way - you don't want it to get sewn into the seam.

Then, trim the corners of the fabric diagonally, close-ish to the sewing to reduce bulk and turn inside out. Fold B out of the way first, then the two pockets.  Poke the corners out with a blunt instrument to make them nice and square.  Iron if necessary.

To put the book in, fold the covers backwards towards each other (sort of inside out) and slide into the pockets.

Optional Button Clasp:  If you want to add a button clasp, i just used a normal hair elastic! I tied a knot into it to make an anchor and then wedged it in the side between pieces A and C about halfway down ( you can see it in the photo below at the right side.  Make sure to put the anchor outside so that it will end up inside.  Once it was all done, i put the book in the cover, figured out where i wanted the button, took the book out and hand sewed the button on.



Front page:

A front page can easily be inserted into the right kind of spiral bound book.  Open the back cover and look at the binding.  In many books of this type, the binding does not actually go round and round but back and forth.  If it is of the second kind, you can open it using pliers and add/remove pages at will.  I just printed a front page for my son at A5 size (print A4 two pages to one) and then lined up the page with one from the book and used a hole punch to punch through each hole.  It doesn't really matter if the holes are not the same size/shape as long as they are in the right places.

Hope that was helpful.  Thanks for reading!