Fabric Covered Notebook

Recently I have started covering little notebooks with fabric.  They make great personalized gifts and are really easy to make.  Our Fiber Artist group spent a meeting time doing some and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

You just need a piece of colored fabric for the outside, muslin or a coordinating fabric for the lining (it can be but doesn’t have to be a print fabric), some batting (although this can be optional) and, of course, a notebook (I got these at a local dollar store).

Mini notebook

I used mini bound notebooks for the group meeting because they were easier to sew in our meeting time but any size would do.   The mini notebooks measure 3 ½” wide and 4 ½” long.  When the book is opened up,  it measures 4 ½” long and about 6 ½” wide. 

measurement of book open flat

To cut the fabric and batting to fit the book, I added 1” to the length.  This gives me 1/4” seam allowance on the top and bottom and a little to extend beyond the book when I make the flap.  You will want to turn the edges of the cover over to the inside of the notebook so the cover of the notebook can slip in it and be held by the cover.  I added 1 ½” to each side. plus  ½” for seam allowances.  So I cut the fabric and batting for these notebooks to 5 ½” by 10”.  You might want to add a little to the length to make bigger flaps.  You will lose some of that 10” in length when you wrap the flap around the edge of the notebook cover. 

fabric and batting layered

This is a project that you can sew by machine or hand depending on the size of the notebook and your hand sewing or machine sewing abilities.  You want to lay the batting down first, then the outside fabric facing up, and then the muslin or lining fabric next (If you are using a printed fabric for the lining you want to have the wrong side of the fabric facing up.).  Think of how you would place the fabric to sew a pillow.  You want the good side of the fabric facing inside and when you finish sewing it, you will turn it right side out. The picture just gives you an idea of how to lay the fabric out as described above, when you go to sew it you want all of the edges lined up (as shown below). And since I wanted to sew this by hand, I marked the ¼” seam allowance on the muslin.

cover ready to sew

Now you can start sewing.  Leave an opening on one end so you can turn the whole cover right side out.  I try to do it at what will be the bottom of the cover so if your stitching isn’t the greatest when you sew the opening closed, it doesn’t show as much.

cover sewn

closeup of opening to turn

Once you have sewing everything, turn the cover right side out and sew the opening closed.  You might need to poke the corners out a bit to get them the lay flat (and using an iron to press the cover flat wouldn’t hurt.) Just make sure whatever you use to poke the corners out, doesn’t go right through your stitching (if that happens just turn it wrong side out again and stitch that opening closed again.).

What I do here is fold the cover in half and put a pin here to mark the center.  Then I place the book binding where that pin is and wrap the cover around to the inside of the book itself.  I mark that with a pin as well.  This is the size of your fabric cover flaps.

Flaps pinned in place

Keep those pins in place and stitch along the edge, top and bottom of the book cover.  Do both sides.  Once your cover is done, you can place the bound book in the cover and you are finished.  Make sure the stitching you did along the flaps holds..  You might have to re-stitch to make it more secure.

If you want you can sew or glue some embellishment on the front of the cover (Just be careful not to stitch through the flap or you might stitch those shut.)   

Finished Notebook



©2019 Cheryl Fillion