JAZZ UP YOUR NOTEBOOKS !

JAZZ UP YOUR NOTEBOOKS ! ( PART I : DIY BOOK COVER )

Notebooks are one of the many things I find myself to be hoarding much too often - particularly Muji notebooks. More often than not, I simply can’t tell my notebooks apart! Now that school is starting soon, I’m probably going to stock up on that stuff ( and so will everyone else ), so here’s a little DIY series that you can use to jazz up your notebooks ! ( I find this DIY particularly useful for  customising Literature books since everyone literally owns the same book )

Materials you'll need:

1. Some fabric
2. Needle and thread
3. A pair of scissors
4. Your notebook or book
5. A marker !

Lets get started !

I didn't have a big enough piece of fabric lying around for this DIY, but if you'd like to have different patterns on the front and back of your book cover, simply substitute one of the fabric pieces for a different patterned fabric and follow these steps !

First, you want to lay your fabric pieces “RIGHT” SIDES TOGETHER. The “right” side of the fabric is the side with the pattern ( if your fabric is patterned) or the side with more vibrant colour ! Next, backstitch in a straight line down to join the two pieces together. Once you've done that, flip it over and you can iron down the seam if you want a more crisp finish !

Positioning your book

Lay your book down on the wrong side of the fabric, and adjust it such that the seam is lying on edge of the front cover, along the spine of the book.

Now, take a marker and mark out the corners of the book on the wrong side of the fabric. This will help us decide where to fold in the fabric to create the “sleeve” to slot in the book covers.

Stitching up the sleeve

Here’s where things start to get a tad tricky. To create the sleeve, we have to fold in the borders of the fabric and stitch it down using an invisible stitch.

First, fold up the border of the fabric following the markings that you’ve marked out previously as seen in the pictures above.

Once you've done that, its time to do the invisible stitch ! First, insert the needle through the inner flap of the fabric, so your knot doesn’t show, giving this a cleaner finish ! Next you want to start stitching in a zig zag motion. It’s similar to lacing up your shoelaces, except instead of having prepunched eyelets to thread your laces through, you pierce through with your needle. Once you've stitched through this side, stitch up the remaining 3 sides !

Quick tip : This step can be quite a bit of a hassle, so you can opt to just use fabric glue ! It wouldn't hold as well, but it’s a great option if this step is confusing.

Assembling your book cover

Now that you're done stitching, simply just slot in your book as seen in the pictures above, and you're done !