Notebook Cover Tutorial

Hello and happy weekend everyone!

How was your Saturday?? Mine was very productive and fun! Playing with beautiful printed fabrics is what I love^_^

There are so many lovely fabrics out there, don't you just love all the colours and fun prints?
 I DO!!! My favourite way to sew with them is patchwork and quilting, they look amazing, the more different patterns the better.

I made this patchwork neck pillow a while ago:

These fabrics come from various Tilda's collections, they are so pretty! My pillow is super comfy and I use it all the time. If you want to sew your own you can purchase my PDF pattern and instructions  here.

And today I was working on a super sweet notebook/ book cover and I will share the tutorial with you. Give it a go, it's so much fun! And the book looks a lot better!^_^
 I want to fill it in with all my creative ideas!

BOOK COVER TUTORIAL

 You will need:

-scraps of various fabrics
-lining fabric ( I used cotton)
-light weight wadding
- 2.5 cm wide bias binding
-scissors
-self- healing mat
-tape measure
-3 ribbons of different colours
-rotary cutter
-sewing machine

First measure you book/notebook:

Add 3 cm (that will be your seam allowance). Mine measures 36 cm x 24.5 cm (incl seam allowance).
Now determine how many patchwork squares you will need. I am using 5 x 5 cm square template to cut mine and I would need 60 pieces.

And here the fun part starts.. Be bold and choose fabrics with lots of different prints and colours.
I use a rotary cutter and a self-healing mat as this way you can cut more than one square at a time and they are more accurate but you could also use scissors.

Lay out your fabric squares. Place them in a desired pattern, label them so you remember the order later on.

You will also need to cut a piece of wadding and a lining fabric using your notebook measurements (incl 1.5 cm seam allowance),  cut 2 flaps too- the same length as the lining and for the width - a bit more that a quarter of the lining's width.

All the pieces

 Sew the squares together to form rows using a 1 cm seam allowance. Press each row when 

finished to the same side:

Stitch all the rows together and press.
Neaten flaps' outside edge with a zig zag stitch, turn under 1 cm to the wrong side, press and stitch. I used a decorative stitch for that:

I hand printed a small design on one of the flaps in advance:

Lie the fabrics right sides facing together and stitch the flaps on the patchwork piece:

I wanted to add heart appliques on the cover front:

 Now stitchsides of the lining to hide flaps' stitches- sandwich the flaps and stitch:

Turn it inside out, sandwich the wadding and stitch all the way around.

Almost ready!^_^  Stitch 2 zig zag lines down the center.

Stitch on the ribbons right in the center, cut them all a bit longer than your notebook length. I cut mine in various lengths:

Now we are going to hide these horrible raw edges by adding bias binding:

I wanted to add small hearts on to the ribbons...
For that you need to cut 3 pairs of hearts in different colours and 3 wadding to go inside of each- if you want them to be a bit puffed. Stitch with a zig zag in a contrasting thread.

And... It's done!! Congratulations!

And with the notebook:

Let me know if you try to make your own cover and if you do I hope you have as much fun as I did! Oh and please share, I would love to see what you come up with.

Gosia

xx