My Cute Little Notebook tutorial

I recently took up sewing, and since then, my dining room has been turned into a mountain of crafty goodies, which I hope to sell at local fairs and summer events in my area. So, today, I have been mostly making little covered notebooks, and on the last one, I thought I may as well photograph as I went along and create my first tutorial. Here goes!!!

You need: a plain notebook, cardboard, fabric for the cover (no point giving any measurements, notepads come in various sizes!), scraps of fabric/ribbon/lace, whatever embellishments take your fancy, scissors, PVA glue, hot glue gun.

First, I measured out a piece of cardboard to fit around a simple plain notebook (I picked up 6 for a pound at a nearby market). After cutting it out, make two folds in the middle to accommodate the spine of the notepad.

The next step is to cut out your material, in this case I used denim. Make it roughly twice the width of the cardboard, and add an inch at each end (it should probably be a little bigger than in the picture)

Next, use your scraps of fabric or ribbon to decorate the front of the cover. I stitched on a bit of pink and white ribbon, and a couple of pink scrappy ruffles, and a pink ribbon running lengthways.

Don't worry too much about tatty edges or bits of thread sticking out, they don't matter at this stage. Next step is to flip the fabric over so it's wrong side up, and place the cardboard on top. Use the PVA glue to coat the cardboard and stick the fabric down firmly, making sure it's straight, and there are no air bubbles or creases in the right side of the cover.

Next, snip the corners off and glue the edges down, again using the PVA. If the fabric won't immediately stick flat, then secure it with a couple of pegs and leave it to dry, while you put your feet up and have a coffee...

Ok, nearly finished now. When the glue has set, line up the notepad spine in the folds you made right at the start and use the hot glue gun to stick down the front half of the cover, then repeat for the back half and press together to set firmly. Don't glue the spine, or it will pull in the wrong place when you open the notebook.

You will see now that all the tatty edges and bits of thread are hidden and secured out of view. Lastly, add any other embellishments, buttons, sparkles, flowers or anything else that takes your fancy, using either the hot glue gun or the PVA glue. I chose to add a crochet flower I made ages ago, and a little pearl in the centre. 

All that's left to do is sit back and admire the finished article, then go crazy making a lot of others!