Cobrina There’s something special about a well-loved sketchbook. It holds half-formed ideas, grocery lists, brilliant thoughts, questionable drawings, and all those little things you swear you’ll remember later. Why not give it a cover that feels just as creative as what’s inside?
This fabric book cover is a fun way to turn an ordinary sketchbook into something completely your own. Made with a mix of your favorite quilting fabrics and a little ribbon, the cover adds personality while giving you plenty of handy pockets for pens, notes, scraps of inspiration, and other creative essentials.
A Great Project for Your Fabric Stash
One of my favorite things about this project is that it is wonderful opportunity to mix prints and colors that might not otherwise find their way into the same project. You’ll want to choose three or more fabrics and three felt sheets.
I highly recommend sticking to quilting cottons and thin fabrics without a lot of bulk or stretch. I attempted to use up some linen and canvas fabrics in my stash and couldn’t poke out a crisp bottom front corner – it’s 11 layers of fabric in that spot!
Try combining a bold print with a small-scale pattern and a solid, or play with unexpected color combinations. And don’t worry about making everything perfectly coordinated. Sometimes the most interesting combinations are the ones that feel a little unexpected. I chose a different fabric for each pocket and two colors of felt!
Personalize the Details
Choose ribbon that picks up a color from your fabrics, add embroidered details, or experiment with appliquéing fabrics that have sentimental meaning. A couple of Creativebug classes come to mind: add an exquisite corpse embroidery or appliquéd circles to the front cover before assembling. A favorite vintage textile, a scrap from an old garment, or that small square of fabric you’ve been saving forever can all become part of the design.
My Best Practice Tips for the Pattern
- Choose quilting cottons and thin fabrics without a lot of bulk or stretch.
- The diagrams in the pattern are extremely useful! Refer to them frequently, along with the video (see below), to make sure you are sewing the correct seams at the right time.
- In Step 1 of the pattern, I found the suggested interfacing on the outer cover added unnecessary bulk – skip if your fabrics are stable enough or consider a spray starch instead. Again, there are 7 to 11 layers of fabric on the bottom corners!
- In Step 3 of the pattern, cut your fusible web strip to 10-¼”, and when fusing the ribbon to the felt binding, leave the top ¾” of the ribbon unfused. This will keep it out of the seam allowance and prevent it from accidentally getting sewn over.
- Being able to bend back the covers of your sketchbook will make it easier to insert the covers into the sleeves. The 7”x10” Canson Mixed Media pad I used had a spiral binding but other journal covers I tried had to bend back quite a lot to slot in.
- This pattern is designed for a 7”x10” sketchbook. I recommend getting familiar with the design before attempting to cover other book sizes.
Ready to Sew?
This project is a great introduction to combining multiple fabrics into one functional object, and the finished cover is something you’ll actually use. Follow the downloadable Make a Fabric Book Cover pattern for the measurements and construction instructions, then let your fabric choices do the creative work.
And if you’d like to see the technique in action before getting started, check out Sew it All, Season 3, Episode 2, where you can learn more about making this colorful, pocket-filled sketchbook cover from the designer, Josephine Kimberling.
So pull out some fun fabrics and give your next notebook a little handmade personality. After all, the outside of your sketchbook can be just as inspiring as the ideas waiting inside.