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!