Kitty felt notebook cover

When I have to make a quick decision on a homemade present for a girl, the felt notebook covers are always a good choice. They come together pretty quickly, and are cheap and easy to make.

So this week I took advantage of the fact that I'm not working full time yet and decided to prepare myself for a birthday party we have on the 14th for one of my son's school friends which is turning seven. I made a kitty notebook cover.

I basically followed the themed notebook covers tutorial I posted a while ago so I did not take a lot of pictures this time. The only difference is the closure, so I'm adding some details on that.

The materials you need are simple: felt, a notebook of your choice, pens (I had on hand some Hello Kitty colouring pens so I used those to match), thread, one large button (again, a Kitty one I had in my stash) and some elastic.

(you'll notice that I included red thread in the picture an then ended up using beige instead. The beige  thread was already in my sewing machine and I'm lazy like that, though probably the red would have actually looked better...)

Follow the instructions on the tutorial to get the inside of the notebook cover done (which includes cutting a slit to insert the notebook and then other slits to pass elastic through and create the pen casings).

Everything should be clear in the tutorial but let me know if you have any questions.

Then pin both felt pieces right sides together and sew around the sides. This is where the kitty cover is different from the tutorial, since I did not included ribbon to tie a bow and close the notebook. I'm using elastic and a button instead this time.

To do this, measure and cut a piece of elastic that, folded in half, is enough to around the side of the notebook cover, as shown in the picture:

Then sew both ends of the elastic to the front of the notebook cover:

And sew your button on top of the elastic endings, thus effectively covering them. You should get something like this:

You are done! The elastic goes around the back of the notebook cover and it is then secured to the button in the front again.

And inside you have your cute notebook and pens that hopefully will keep the recipient occupied for a while.

Enjoy!

New felt book cover

Ok, so I'm back from our (too short) vacation and while I'm still taking some downtime to prepare the new school year and plan the development of a series of new ideas, I'm taking the opportunity to share some pre-vacation projects.

One of those projects was a new book cover.

The one I made back in January was already in a poor condition since I throw it in my bag everyday when I go to work and take advantage of every minute available to read a couple of lines, so I decided I needed a new one to take to the hotel for my pool side quiet moments (not many, unfortunately).

This was the old book cover (when it was new):

And this is the new one:

I didn't take a lot of pictures because I basically followed the "5 minute book cover tutorial" I posted a while ago (if you missed it, you can find it here), just embellished it with beads instead of ribbon and buttons.

The "5 minute book cover" is the easiest and fastest way to make a custom book cover the exact size you want (this one is paperback sized) and you only need a piece of felt slightly larger than the book and whatever you come up with for embellishment.

  
The tutorial is fairly easy to follow, but let me know if you have any questions.

Have fun!

Themed note book covers: hedgehogs

Can you guess? I'm still in notebook-covers mode. And this week I was also into hedgehogs.

I came across some cute hedgehog pictures will browsing around on Pinterest and remembered  that I own a hedgehog shaped Sizzix die-cut. That was the perfect setting for more notebooks and notebook covers. And because they come together so fast, I made two:

One purple with a brown hedgehog:

And one aqua blue (or is it green?) with a yellow hedgehog:

They are seriously easy to make. if you missed the tutorial, you can find it here. And they are really, really cute.

Enjoy,
Teresa

Crochet book cover

Sometimes things don't work out as planned and the idea you have in your mind when you start a project is not reflected in the finished product. This was one of those cases.

It is a crochet book cover that I started almost three months ago. When I shared it in this post it still looked like this:

Yesterday I finally finished the crochet and then realized I had two problems: (1) the crochet by itself was too soft to hold its shape and (2) it was not large enough to have enough of a flap to actually hold the book inside, so my initial measurements were off. Since I was not going to undo the crochet (it took me three months!), I decided to line the whole thing with felt.

Now I have a working book case. But does it look perfect? It does not. With the felt it became too thick. And can you see the little waves in the bottom? Maybe I should have hand sewn it instead of using the sewing machine, but the truth is that the crochet is not 100% adjusted to the felt below.

It's not a total loss, and I did use leftover yarn for the experience (from this project). I still like the colors and the details of the buttons and I'm going to use it anyway, but it definitely did not turn out like I expected.

Maybe one day I'll try to make another one, either with a thicker yarn or lined with fabric instead of felt. But taking into account the time it took me to get this one finished, I'm not sure I will want to tackle it again in the near future. The idea is still good, though, so if you're a crochet savvy, try it and I'm sure you will to better than me (or let me know if you have any improvement suggestions).

See you around,
Teresa

Themed notebook covers - a tutorial

I'm always looking for cute handmade presents, and themed notebook covers are my latest experience.

I have some more on the way, but this was this was the fist one I made (after a lot of mental planning), so bear with me through all the pictures.

Why am I calling it a themed notebook cover? Because the cover is supposed to match the print in the notebook. Confused? Let me talk you through it.

First, start with a notebook. You can buy one, or you can make one, like I did (with a picture downloaded from the net and some PowerPoint work). The main idea is for the notebook to have an image that you can replicate in the cover, in fabric, felt of any other way. I used felt because it doesn't fray and because, honestly, I love to work with felt.

Here is my notebook, with a colorful banner printed on it (please excuse the slightly wrinkled front page):

Cut a piece of felt bit enough to make the cover and still accommodate a pen:

Overall you will need two similar pieces of felt for the cover (same colors or different color, whatever you prefer), felt in the colors needed to replicate the picture in the notebook, a small piece of elastic and two pieces of ribbon.

Decide how you want your cover to look. I started by placing all felt pieces (in the same order as in the notebook) in the shape of a banner and then sewed them with black thread, to replicate the picture. You can use fabric glue to help keep the small pieces in place, but be careful not to place the glue where you are going to sew afterwards (learned by experience: glue and sewing machine needles usually don't go well together).

If your notebook is homemade like mine, you can give it a better finishing by covering the staples with fabric or matching felt:

(I forgot to add previously, but if you print your notebook pages yourself, you should add cardboard or thicker paper in the back and then staple it all together).

Now focus on the second piece of felt (which will be the lining of your cover). Check and mark the position of your notebook in the felt and cut an horizontal slit through which you can pass the back of the notebook.

Once you are done, you should have something like this:

Now mark the place where you want your pen to be and now cut two small vertical slits, just big enough to pass your elastic through:

Pull the ends of the elastic and sew them in the back of the felt, making sure the stitches don't show though the front.

Back: 

Front (lining):

Now pin both pieces of felt (outside and lining) wrong sides together, with one piece of ribbon on each side and top stitch:

 

And you are done!

This it cute either to keep in your purse or to give as a gift, with the advantage that you can adjust sizes as you see fit. I'll be making more  and coming back here to share. Let me know if you make one too and if you have any questions leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible.


Enjoy,
Teresa

Linking up to Way Back Wednesday @ Creating my Happiness

Easy homemade gifts - matching bag and notebook

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth. But I was nearly there. Things have not been great at work, then the kids brought home a nasty stomach virus and finally we had a series of birthday party invitations which occupied almost all our free time.

Since this year I'm trying to give handmade presents as much as possible, birthday parties also mean I'm busy with a lot of projects at the same time. So I have selected two of the most recent ones (that I remembered to take pictures of) to share here.

The first one is a set of bag, notebook and hair clips I made for six year old girl.

This is the bag:

The original bag pattern can be found here, but I think it is too big for a little girl so I made it a smaller size. The bag is lined with a different fabric and has a pocket sewn on the inside. This is the second bag I made using the pattern and this time I also modified the strap: I used a coordinating ribbon instead of sewing a strap with the bag fabrics.

The notebook cover is made of the same fabric as the outside of the bag and lined with pink felt (I made a previous version lined with fabric but found it was too soft and lost shape, so I discarded it).

Inside there is a small notebook and I added a set of coloring pencils.

The hair clips are made with yo-yos and buttons covered with the bag lining fabric.

Everything goes into the bag...

And here it is, wrapped up and ready to go to its new owner.

I hope you enjoy it. Tomorrow I'll try to find the time to share the other birthday project.

See you around,